So here's my dealer experience- whats your opinion?

So Jennifer found the Challenger for me. It was almost exactly the car I was looking for- purple, stick, Scat Pack. Most of the ones I was building on the site were coming in around $45k ish but no one nearby had the exact one.

So this car was in stock at Waldorf Dodge in Maryland. It had a few extras on it that I probably might not of ordered but I definitely appreciate now. Anyway, this car was advertised on the dealer's website at $48,725 MSRP and in red was the special "internet price" of $45,725. Called the dealer and made sure the car was real. Sales manager said it was on the showroom floor. Perfect! And the price? $45,725. And then we carefully worded "that's with all available rebates and discounts". Uh....ok. So I told him I would be there the next day with a cashiers check and asked if he would kindly hold it till I get there. No problem. I have to get him props for not asking for a deposit and having the car out front as promised, detailed with my name on it.

Now here's where it gets screwed up- I fill out the Chrysler credit app and get approved no problem. I have an excellent credit rating . So they come back with the work sheet and the price is now $2000 more. Hey, wait a minute, what happened to the $45,725 price? "Oh, you didn't qualify for some rebates. What pray tell didn't I qualify for? One was the crappy credit rebate. Evidentially, if you have bad credit, Chrysler will reward you with a discount. So because I pay my bills and Im not over extended, I get squat.

So basically what the dealer does is advertise the car with this phony "internet price". The way they come up with this price is that they add up every possible rebate and discount that you might qualify for and advertise that price. They're adding in military discount, crappy credit discount, off lease discount, etc. So misleading at best and deceptive at worst. I was kinda pissed off about it and I made it abundantly clear to the sales manager. Every car company these days talks about the modern buying experience but in the end, its the same old bait and switch, shell game tactics that have been going on forever.

The sales manager was apologetic and gave me some BS about how no one would click on their ads (he actually said that! lol) . And that many customers feel the same way (so why do it?) . So naturally when I received the Chrysler Corp survey I dinged the dealership in a couple questions for their underhanded practice.

I got an email from the dealership questioning why I gave them a failing grade. They didn't seem too happy with me. I explained it to him like this-


Dan, Thanks for the email.

As you can see, I gave you 10's in all but just a few areas. And in those areas, I gave you 8's I believe. Is that considered failing? If it was a test, you would of gotten a 90%. I love the car, the salesman Donnie was a little green but he really had his heart in it. Very personable guy. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another car from him. I wanted to make that very clear in the survey. If my comments and answers in the survey reflected badly on Donnie specifically, please extend him my apologies. That was not my intention. You were also very nice. didn't ask for a deposit and kept your promise to have the car parked out front with my name on it. I sincerely appreciated that. The only issue I had, which I made clear to you, was, in my opinion, the deceptive nature of the "internet price" scheme. When I took the 5 1/2 hour drive down there, I was fully expecting, maybe naively, to get the car for what it was advertised for- 45,725. You really should make it perfectly clear over the phone that its essentially a phony price to lure in unsuspecting customers and that virtually no one can really qualify for. If you told me that up front, you would of saved me a lot of time and energy. I didn't appreciate that. So after all the smoke and subterfuge cleared, instead of the advertised price of 45,725, I wound up buying the car for 48,055. $2330 more than it was advertised for.

If I had known that the internet price wasn't real, I honestly wouldn't of made the trip and just ordered the car from my local dealer. I would of gotten the same deal or lack thereof, I mean, in the end, there was really no real advantage to going down there and buying the car from Waldorf Dodge right? But it worked. And you got the sale. But I probably wouldn't buy another car from you again just because of that. If you play pricing games, you have to be prepared and fully expect the blowback from it right? You shouldn't expect customers to just accept it and give you glowing reviews right? .

I understand your position that you explained to me in Mike's office, that no one would click on the ad if they didn't advertise the "click bait" price but your argument is very short sighted in my opinion. Sure, it lures "captive audiences" like me to come into your dealership from out of state, but in the long run, you just lose repeat customers and recommendations.

Im sorry if my less than 10's in all areas constituted a failing grade, And not sure how it takes over 5 hours to purchase a car, but I told the truth about how I felt. If its any consolation, everything else about my experience was absolutely great.


Regards,
Jason Cook



So he emailed me back and was even more contrite. He asked me if I would consider redoing the survey and give him 10's across the board and reiterate my comments in the survey

I replied by asking him why I would consider doing that when there has been no remediation on his part? In other words- what are you going to do for me?

He actually emailed me back again. Ha! I finally told him that if he cut me a check for $2330 (the difference between the two prices) I would be more than happy to give him all 10's and give him a glowing report. He offered me tow years of free oil changes- for me that's going to be like 2 or 3 oil changes at best.

Was I being too hard on the guy? I don't think so

 

The fact is that its not exactly a mini van that they have 75 identical ones of on the lot. No one beating their doors down for an appliance you can find at any dealer. On a car like that, Im sure I would of had better leverage. They have no problem selling these things. I was actually prepared to buy the car for MSRP locally less whatever Chrysler discount I qualified for. The only real advantage to this whole thing was getting the car right away and not having to wait 2 or 3 months, And then hoping the dealer ordered it correctly. Sadly, there are really no deals on these things. As far as Challengers go, its pretty unique being a stick and purple. I love the wheels which I probably would not of ordered.

Yeah, I could of walked and told them to GF themselves. Believe me, I almost did a couple times and told the F&I guy as much. Maybe the local dealer would of been more up front, but in the end, the price would of been essentially the same IMO. Some of the Dodge dealers around here don't have the best reps either.

 

I have been a little quiet here. Unfortunately, its been a little hectic here this past week. Jen went on a business trip and I had my hands full babysitting horses, picking up the slack and trying to go to work also. Those horses are a full time job. Things should be back to normal next week.

I do love the car. No remorse at all. Its killing me its basically been sitting all week (I did sneak it out a couple times). All I want to do is drive it.

And what's even weirder that me driving a Mopar is that now there are Challenger parts showing up at my door. Its bizzaro world!!!