Dealer advertisements are completely misleading. That’s the first lie and pretty much results in all further issues with the potential transaction.
I understand the marketing theory, get people in the door. But when you start a relationship on a “lie” then the trust is immediately lost and results in the auto culture we have today.
Great documentary on propaganda aka marketing
I’ve never seen a dealer advertisement that was a lie (not to say that there aren’t some out there that are). I’ve see a lot of people ignorant to the fact that they need to read the actual details on the deal though.
Ads which are purposefully designed to be misleading, with difficult to understand legalese fine print, are a form of lying.
I think what @Jrouleau426 is getting at is that it creates the perception that the customer was lied to. It doesn’t really matter if they technically weren’t. Nikola technically didn’t lie to anyone when they rolled their truck prototype down an incline and said that it was “moving”, but the perception they created is a huge problem that has obliterated any trust in whatever they might actually be cooking up.
There’s different forms of lying, and what Nikola did is ‘lying by omission.’
Absolutely. While dealers definitely don’t omit anything in their printed “specials”, they definitely are laid out in a way that is designed to be misleading and get someone in the door. If Nikola put a tiny disclaimer saying “this truck is rolling down a hill” somewhere that was hard to read, or made it difficult to understand what they were saying, they would probably still be in just as much hot water.
I could have, yes, but I was trying to knock off dealer add ons. I made the drive prior to getting the contract as a sign of good faith and willingness to close the deal. Quite frankly, I would have still signed it if they refused to remove the dealer add on.
I learned a thing or two this time around 
Dealer add ons are one such instance of this. They’ll discount the car steeply and advertise it. However, when you get there, they tell you that the car has $5K in dealer addons and that they cannot be removed, effectively cancelling out the advertised discount. I don’t understand why this continues to be a tolerated practice in the eyes of the law or manufacturers.
I never said that it should be their main objective. A salesperson should, however, be willing to try to sell the car to those who may not be as savvy or interested as you, to those who don’t spend hours on the internet or reading magazines to learn about the ins and outs of a particular car. And that means, they have to engage in some form of education of the consumer in order to reach their end goal. Apathy rarely works.
Unlimited High-Fives $795.
I mean, who DOESN’T want the pinstripes and pro-pack too?
Listen if you don’t want the Ultimate Tire Package that’s fine however most customers do want to drive off with all four tires.
And when they are pumped to the gills with Nitrogen, it’s like they’re not even touching the road!
Customer: “I am getting $6,000 off an Accord already so what can you do for me?”
Me: “That sounds like a great deal! Unfortunately I will have to pass and you should check it out. If they try anything sneaky give me a ring and I will be happy to assist you.”
Customer: “WHAT!?!? YOU DON’T WANT TO EVEN TRY!?!? I WILL TAKE MY BUSINESS ELSEWHERE!!!”
****Goes to dealership, bait-and-switch, puts in new TrueCar lead a week later
Customer: “I already told you I have an $6,000 discount and you have to beat it!”
Me: “Sir is this your Yelp review of them not honoring your price?”
Customer: “Look if you can’t give me $6,500 off I am going to keep shopping around”
Me ***re-assigns customer to Todd Pickinsworth-Quackenbush, the salesperson in the CRM I made up where idiot leads go to die
The Doctor’s Fee helps support your local medical community during this challenging time.
Your Documentary Fee helps supports independent film producers speaking truth to power.
And the Doc Rivers fee? We’ll that’s just obvious.
The doc rivers fee is to make up for closing a deal and having it fall through at the last minute, multiple times?
Technically they can’t be a lie bc they have a disclaimer that they’re not responsible for misprints 
I loved the story a couple months ago when the guy called the dealer out on not having 1 car in stock at the advertised price. I think it was a Guilia quad
Well, ok, but I meant more of the times when it says “$300 a month, $1000 down. Taxes and fees extra” and someone walks out going “WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S $325 A MONTH AND $2000 DAS, YOUR AD SAYS $300! LIAR! LIAR!”
100% agree. That’s why I put lies in parenthesis. I was talking about the foundation of the relationship starts from deception and breeds the current culture we have. Half the time, in newspaper ads at least, the fine print is too blurry to even read.
Saying “A typical payment for PA resident will be $365/mo tax tags fees included” would save a lot of grief on both ends. They want to leave the fees open ended so they can bend over the weak. I’m sure their marketing gurus know that the advertising juice is worth the consumer squeeze. After all propaganda is a science.
What would be really helpful is if consumers went into some of the largest purchase transactions in their life with the tiniest amount of preparation. It amazes me how many are willing to sign up for 5 figure commitments but absolutely refuse to take a little bit of time to prepare themselves to do so.