Dane Suen

Review of Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram 24

FIRST TIME BUYER ALERT!!!

FIRST TIME BUYER ALERT!!!

I m bumping this up to a two star because their sales rep made the experience less negative. Part of this was my fault as I was not alert enough. No articles I read before mentioned there would be two rounds of negotiation - sales rep and finance rep. The price you negotiated with sales is NOT the price the finance rep will present to you, and be sure to double check the contract before signing as if you don t, the finance rep will only show and ask you to choose a down + monthly payment option, and conveniently neglect mentioning packages added are optional. They will NEVER ask "do you want to add package A", instead they will ask "do you want package A or B" or not ask at all. I was naive to think the price finance had me sign was the price I negotiated with sales plus anything mandatory. The barebone price you need to pay is ONLY the price you agreed on with sales + tax + document/processing fees. No additional packages are required! All optional!

---original---

I'd say my experience will apply whichever dealership you go to. Even after reading tons of articles online before going into the dealer, I still fell for those traps. Experienced buyers would probably laugh at my "mistakes".

Rule of thumb - unless you are 1000% sure what you're doing, don't go alone! Even if you have all those "be careful with hidden fees and extra packages" in mind, when it comes to signing and they start throwing numbers and papers at your face, you will lose it.

#1 mistake - they'll throw terms of packages at you without explicitly telling you what they are, and if they're optional or not. There was one "Lojack" thing that they never asked if I want to add it. Overwhelmed by all the terms and numbers, I thought it was something mandatory. Later on, I find it's just a device the police use to track your car if it's stolen. If you finance your car, you'll have to buy full insurance coverage, which will cover it if your car is stolen, so basically you don't need "Lojack". Another thing is called "Protect All" which they claim is a coating over the car, and coverage for repairs for small dings and dents. I asked to cancel these items after purchasing, but they said these were already installed on the car and could not be cancelled. These added roughly $2000 more to my bill.

#2 mistake - extended warranty!!! During the signing this was never brought up. Stupidly I thought if they didn't have my consent, they should not add that to my car. So, be extra careful and make sure that is not added. They will cancel after purchasing if you contact them, but save some trouble for yourself and do that before signing. It takes more than a month for that money to be sent to your financing bank, not to you.

#3 mistake - Before signing, while talking to finance, they asked me if I was first time buyer and I said yes. Then they said here's the "new buyer package" and presented me three options. There were additional packages in these options (like Protect All) which they conveniently added in "by default". I was never told at that time there were other options. I said I was already pre-approved for a car loan elsewhere which was 1.5% lower in interest than the one they gave me, but they told me I needed to finance through the dealer to get everything done that day, and I could always refinance. And naive, stupid me, I thought I had to pick one from those three. Now I lost that low rate car loan, and I could never get the same rate if applying for refinance, and my credit score was already hurt multiple times for buying the car. This adds another thousand or some thousands depending on how soon can I pay it off.

To be honest, I would say this could happen whichever dealer I ended up going to. So I would say this place is just another dealership, not better, not worse. I wouldn't advise people to not come here, just be EXTRA CAREFUL. For me, it's lessons learnt, and (big) price paid, and I would most likely looking somewhere else for my next car.