So I went in to one of my local dealerships after making an appointment so we could talk numbers on a lease. When I walked in, a salesperson (we’ll call him Jeff) walks up to me and asks if I have a VIP appointment. I say yes and he brings me over to his desk. He gets the usual info from me and asks what I’m looking for. I give him the details and explain I’m looking for a CR-V EX AWD. He then takes a minute to go speak with one of his sales managers and then here comes this big, sweaty, mafia-type looking guy (we’ll call him Vinny). He asks me the same usual questions and explains that they’re at the last day of the month and trying to reach some major sales goals so he wants to “do me a favor” and get me the best possible deal right off the bat. “No BS”. I say great! He then tells Jeff to go grab one of the models I’m looking for and have me take it for a spin while he talks numbers with the “boss”.
So, we head out and find the CR-V but as I’m walking up, I notice that this doesn’t look like an EX. Jeff gets in and exclaims, “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Just what you were looking for?” I respond, “It’s nice, but it’s not an EX. It’s a Touring” to which he responds, “Oh… actually this is an EX-L” while I’m staring at the sticker on the window that says “TOURING”. I’m just like, whatever… I’ve already test driven these and I know I’m happy with them. I tell the Jeff a longer test drive won’t be necessary and we pull up to the entrance of the dealership.
As we walk in, Vinny looks surprised we’re back so soon, and walks up saying, “Hey! Looks like you loved it so much you’re ready to sign!” I told him it was an Touring when I specifically asked for an EX. I figured at this point, we’d all be on the same page and they’d realize they’d simply grabbed the wrong keys, but then Vinny says, “That’s an EX-L… I figured you might like to get a peak since I could probably get you into one for the same price today…” I laughed on the inside and explained again that I was looking for an EX. His response? “Well, we can definitely do that. We’re here make sure you get what YOU want.” I laughed a little harder on the inside.
At this point I’m a little incredulous of the whole experience, but figure I’ll hear him out on the lease numbers. We all walk over to his desk and he gives this whole shpeel about how badly they want my business today and that they’ll bend over backwards to get the deal done right away… blah blah blah.
Now, let’s get one thing out of the way… the advertised special on the EX lease was $269/mo with $2899 due at signing.
Soooo… I’d already explained to him that I wanted a $0 DAS lease deal before he went to run his numbers. He then pulls out the dreaded four square sheet and writes down some numbers. I watched him write them, seemingly in slow-mo, because something didn’t seem right. As soon as he was done, he plopped his pen on the table like he was dropping a mic and turned the sheet around so I could read it. His words, almost verbatim, were “I think you’ll be very happy with this deal”.
$5,000 DOWN… $533/MO…
I told you I laughed in his face… and oh boy did he look confused… The first words that came out of my mouth were, “Do you take me for an idiot?” and his reply was, “Oh, no… not at all, I mean, are we close to a number you’d be happy with?” I replied, “We’re hysterically off… like, you’ve pretty much doubled the total cost of the total lease according to the advertised price.”
I’ll spare you the next 20 minutes as he then gets the General Sales Manager to come and “shoot from the hip” with me and try to have a “man to man” so we can get a deal done. I told him straight up they were dreaming and that I’m just going home to which I was warned I was rolling the dice cause he didn’t know what the next month’s incentives would be. Before I got up, I grabbed my phone and showed him that the end date for their current incentives run through Sep 3. He looked at it like he’d never seen that before and that was my queue to get the hell out of there.
Granted, the GSM did call me later that night with far more agreeable number, but I didn’t bother calling back. the whole experience was insulting and quite frankly makes me want to warn everyone I know not to ever step foot in that place. I have since done all of my negotiating over e-mail and have a fantastic offer pretty much right off the bat. Hopefully all goes well, but boy oh boy was that doozy of an experience…
