WVU86USC88

Review of Lindsay Ford

AVOID THIS DEALERSHIP! Deceitful, underhanded ev...

AVOID THIS DEALERSHIP! Deceitful, underhanded everything you hate about used car dealers in one place. Long review because it s necessary to fully explain every deceitful thing they tried to do.
Used car is advertised on line for $15,300 in late August 2019. We go to check it out, take a test drive and decide to talk a deal. In my head, I m thinking I can get this car out the door (OTD) for about $16,500 or less considering taxes, tags and dealer processing fee. The first deal presented has the OTD price of $20,500 or so. We re $4000 apart!! So, let s unpack how Lindsay Ford got there. First, they used an asking price of $16,300. They added a Blue Oval inspection thing for over $1800, they assured me they used Virginia sales tax (lower than Maryland) but it was clearly too high at over $1200 and then they had about $1000 for tags and processing fee. I tell the salesman to try again. I go line by line and tell him to reduce the price to the online statement of $15,300. I tell him to charge Virginia sales tax (roughly $400 savings) and I tell him to stuff the Blue Oval thing. He says it is required to be on there and he can t take it off. If it s required, why did you list the price online as $15,300? He goes away and comes back with another deal. They ve dropped the price to $15,300 and change to VA sales tax and reduced the Blue Oval to their cost about $1600. They ve already shown me what this Blue Oval things is: Basically, they inspected the car and changed a wiper blade and replaced a tire and it gives me 2 oil changes should I choose to drive the 40 miles to this dealership to get them. I tell them that any dealer putting this car for sale would have had to do what they did for the Blue Oval thing (BTW, the true Blue Oval thing appears to be a Ford Certified Pre Owned program. The thing they were offering me WAS NOT THE CPO program. I would not have received an extended warranty and everything else you get with a CPO). I say, I want this for $16,500 out the door. (Notice, I NEVER talk monthly payment ) Salesman goes back again About 10 minutes later, a woman walks up with a very dour attitude and asks, Are you going to finance with us? I say yes and then she says, Fine, $16,500. And walks away. The salesman writes up the final deal and puts a payment on there of around $275/month for 60 months since we said we d put $2000 down. So, I think I ve won but wait!!! They weren t done trying to screw me yet. We go in to talk to finance and he starts with, We got your payment around what you wanted. Its $285/month for 72 months. I say what the heck? It should be around 275 for 60 months. He asks me, Where are you getting that number from? I tell him I just ran the numbers on an internet car payment calculator and without saying anything else, he draws up new paperwork that shows the payment and price like we agreed. Just like MAGIC!! Now, what I figure is that he added that whole Blue Oval thing back in and tried to start talking monthly payment so I would be confused as to the actual sales price and overall deal. One of the oldest tricks in the book. We finally got out of there with a really good deal but it took hours of our time and we had to fight at every single step of the process. I have purchased 2 other cars this year, 1 new and 1 other pre-owned and the other 2 experiences were MUCH better than this (Fitzgerald in Frederick and Joyce Koons in Manassas).
I think anyone on here giving it 3 stars or more probably just doesn t even realize how much they got screwed. The only good thing that came out of my buying experience at this dealership was the teachable moments for my 24 year old son buying his first car. He received a master s level class in scheisterness from the good people at Lindsay Ford in Wheaton.