Ask the dealers for a quote. Just found there are charges for sealant and starguard not included in the msrp. Are they installed by the dealer?
Stargard is LoJack.
Not literally, but it’s the same variety of dealer-installed PEACE OF MIND.
You want to protect your investment don’t you?
I will bet that the F&I guy or the sales manager just had a customer who was saved by this miracle technology, so now they recommend it to all of their savviest customers.
After you pay for them they are…are they there right now? Most likely not.
BTW regarding the LoJack, you know most new cars have a built in GPS app right?
The problem is dealers letting their vendors install this shit before it ever hits the lot.
I have been talking to a dealer who installs a 3rd party alarm on every single car they sell, but will sell it without activation or any fee.
But I don’t want anyone’s janky electronics spliced-in / bypassed, free or not. If I wanted a new car with suspect wiring, I would have kept my Lemon scented GTI. I’d rather pay half the cost of the alarm to never have the bypassed alarm installed.
Peace of mind isn’t something that can break down the road, becoming a fight with the dealer and their vendor (who may not be one by then). Lots of Internet horror stories about these things breaking a few years after purchase.
I wonder if they even install these devices. When taking delivery of my ordered 4xe, they added $995 for a “Theft Protection Device” onto my deal initially. I call BS that the cars even get this.
At least you don’t see $695 for pinstriping much anymore.
Yah now you see $995 Clear Coat guard now.
You spelled “garbage” wrong. Twice.
Are you going to help OP make the payments after the car gets stolen and is never recovered?
I had an F+I manager go through this spiel once of how valuable the tire and wheel protection was and that I can just turn the car in with bald tires when the lease was done, and there would be no problem. After I called him out on the fact that no matter how much I rotate, balance, align tires, I cannot get 3 years out of them before they need replacement, just from a safety inspection alone, and it would be of no use to me and I’d decline. He then said that in 20+ years of doing his job, I was the only person ever to decline that coverage. He was pretty pissy at that point knowing I wasn’t going to help pay for his boat that month.
He really laid it on thick, or I’m just a bad ass rebel.
While on the subject of my BMW lease that I’d just bought out, a sales guy for a different brand mentioned that he leases a new BMW 3 Series every three years and always gets the wheel and tire coverage.
Later in the same conversation he suggested that he couldn’t afford any of the new cars he sells because he has so much student loan debt.
My instinct was to have a rational conversation about choices and consequences, but wrong place / wrong time.
I knew the comments section here wouldn’t disappoint.
Don’t forget the USB cable package for $300 and the LED door handle projectors for $700.
If they don’t bend you over with the straight markup they’ll make sure to pad their margins with $2 worth of USB cables. Probably the best profit margins this side of bottled water.
USB: Ultra Serious Blessings
I mean tire and wheel at cost is actually really good.
I do not believe this is universally true, and further I would wager that encountering any of the garbage sold at the F&I desk at actual cost is rare when you look across every arm’s-length retail transaction.
All of this trash is guilty until proven innocent.
I mean when cost of tire and wheel is the same as the replacement cost of 1 single tire. And you live in NY…
And if my uncle had pedals and handlebars he might be a bicycle.
The sales man first told me it was installed cannot be removed. I said I would not buy the car unless you remove it. Then his manager said they can sell to me with employee price (~$500). I declined and provided two options, either remove it or waive the charge. Then they saied they will remove it.
Now they agree to sell the c300 for MSRP.
I do tire/wheel, dent/ding, and windshield on all my leases. Has paid for itself many times over on my S5 and M4 in Chicago between nails in tires, bent rims, and door dings. It is a no brainer at dealer cost IMO if you have low profile tires.