Story Time - Grab your popcorn!

[nycsimone]

@911i3

Lesson I’ve learned from past experiences:
Don’t ever mention you have a trade in.
Go to the dealership and ask for the used car manager directly to give you an appraisal.

After you’ve sold your car then head over to new car sales.

If you tell those new car sales that you have a trade in they’ll low ball you for sure.

That’s literally why you get an instant cash offer online. So you have a solid number for your trade.

[nycsimone]

@SteveB25

@wam22

It is truecar/KBB writing the check and the dealer is acting as a middleman

If this is the case why would the dealer care about the selling price? Isn’t it the dealer writing the check and paying for leads or a service to truecar?

He has no idea what he’s talking about that’s why.

Section 18 -

https://www.truecar.com/terms/

[legendsauto]

@nycsimone

How they operate. If they list a “cash offer” option on their website and then give you an actual offer with TrueCar…then that is AN OFFER.

So what’s being exposed is how dishonest a dealership is, and now how a certain broker on this forum defends such dishonest dealerships which says a lot more about such broker than me.

Yea just like you did in the texts you’re immediately running to being defensive for no reason. I understand you got a truecar offer. Where in the texts did the guy say “I am not giving you 69k, I will give you $XX,XXX”?

If you went to the dealership, had it inspected, and they said you know what we’ll give you 59k instead of 69k for no reason then screw them, but they haven’t even put a number on the car yet.

[nycsimone]

He tells me he uses CarMax for their offers. CarMax is at $63,000. The offer on their website (Thru TrueCar) is $69,900. He then says “it doesn’t work like that”.

Does that suffice? Or no?

[Muwa]

True car does not have a gun to the dealership’s head. They can buy whatever they please at whatever price they please. Is the salesman uninformed as to what the value of a Yukon might be? Maybe. Is it worth your time to shove your car down his throat? Probably not. Certainly there are other true car dealers in your area and one of them is sure to bite. All you have to do, if you feel so strongly, is write a review about how they don’t honor true car pricing and call it a day.

[paranoidgarliclover]

@nycsimone

Why should customers just suck it up and move on every time?

Well, b/c

@z0lt3c

this seems like a lost cause to begin with

You’re not going to get whatever it is you’re looking for.

I assume you could just report them (w/o all the back and forth) while finding a dealership that is willing to work w/ you. You “win” and you also save time.

Trying to figure out whether they’re incompetent or purposely sleazy isn’t going to save you time or money, and I doubt a sleazy dealership is going to actually say, “Yes, we’re trying to rip you off.”

[nycsimone]

I totally get that and you’re right. That’s why I said that at this point it’s about principles and proving a point. I knew nothing good was going to come out of this after the first 2-3 screenshots of exchanges.

Why continue?

1. So I could contact TrueCar and get them involved. Which I did.

2. So that if anyone on this board is planning to use the TrueCar service that they can see the potential challenges.

3. So that if anyone is thinking of buying from this dealership can see how they operate.

Sometimes making a point and standing your ground is worth it even if you don’t profit monetarily from the outcome.

[Svsfan]

OP just want someone to tell him he’s right. Doesn’t really matter just move on…nothing to see here.

[nycsimone]

I’d rather someone prove to me that i’m wrong. But instead of saying that i’m wrong…actually show me that I am and show me that the dealer is the right party in not honoring the TrueCar instant cash offer.

I know there’s plenty of dealership cheerleaders that love to defend the poor dealerships that charge over sticker price, add on $3k protection packages, mark up interest rates, and refuse to honor offers they make but…

[legendsauto]

@nycsimone

He tells me he uses CarMax for their offers. CarMax is at $63,000. The offer on their website (Thru TrueCar) is $69,900. He then says “it doesn’t work like that”.

So then say that’s your problem, Carmax had already lowballed you on the car and you weren’t happy with the offer. If that’s the case then yes, screw that dealership for using a platform that offers more and doesn’t honor it, but sometimes Carmax offers more than what truecar will give as well. Realistically they still never actually made you an offer. If you had gone in with the offer in hand and shown them the car that’d be different.

Ironically, the truecar dealers are the ones that add those $3,000 protection packages to make up for the low selling prices they show.

[Pinhigh27]

Holy crap OP you are a jerk

[nycsimone]

Ok…could you elaborate? Serious question.

[Svsfan]

This is a bad movie I want my money back

[ElectricEliminator]

Reading the entirety of this text exchange and this thread, I’ll say this: There’s a big difference between internally mentally preparing yourself, girding your loins for a war with a car dealer vs externally broadcasting such preparations to said dealer. There’s a lot that was said here that immediately put the dealer on the back foot and soured this transaction before it even really started. To be fair, I understand why some shoppers that view themselves as more informed might have this mindset. In many cases dealers have earned that. From the other side of the transaction though, it just makes the dealer think that you’re going to be a difficult customer who is going to try to control this entire exchange. I’m very much in favor of being in control of as much of the transaction as possible but I prefer to do it in a manner where the dealer feels like they are leading the way. Just my opinion.

[paranoidgarliclover]

All of which are totally valid points. But (and I say this as someone who can be long-winded myself), I do feel like the TL;DR version could’ve been

1. Posters, be aware that if the dealership works w/ TrueCar, dealership is contractually obligated to meet TrueCar quote for your trade-in.

2. Dealer X refused to do so, even though I asked them multiple times about this. I’ve reported them to TrueCar.

3. Avoid Dealer X.

[Pinhigh27]

Dude reread the texts. Blatantly inappropriate, consistently rude.

[nycsimone]

Can you please be specific? You’re being very generic here.

[Thecarguy]

@ElectricEliminator

In many cases dealers have earned that.

Understatement of the century

[nycsimone]

@ElectricEliminator

Reading the entirety of this text exchange and this thread, I’ll say this: There’s a big difference between internally mentally preparing yourself, girding your loins for a war with a car dealer vs externally broadcasting such preparations to said dealer. There’s a lot that was said here that immediately put the dealer on the back foot and soured this transaction before it even really started. To be fair, I understand why some shoppers that view themselves as more informed might have this mindset. In many cases dealers have earned that. From the other side of the transaction though, it just makes the dealer think that you’re going to be a difficult customer who is going to try to control this entire exchange. I’m very much in favor of being in control of as much of the transaction as possible but I prefer to do it in a manner where the dealer feels like they are leading the way. Just my opinion.

I agree with the point you’re making and things do get quite heated at times while discussing purchase price of a vehicle. All the negotiating and back/forth but we didn’t even get to that point.

All this was over the simple fact that they were refusing to honor an offer they made on their website with the TrueCar instant cash offer. An offer is quite different from an “estimate”.

[nycsimone]

@Thecarguy

@ElectricEliminator

In many cases dealers have earned that.

Understatement of the century

To be fair, not all dealerships are this way. The last 3 vehicles i’ve purchased (from 2 different dealerships) have been an absolutely amazing experience.