Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you want to do with the information? Their sales model is built on your coming into the dealership. Why would they quote you so you can take that information and price shop? And yes, it sucks.

There is no need for me to go in. I've already driven the car and know the trim I want and the colors that I deem acceptable. I'm going to buy it from the dealership with the best price. If they don't want to play ball on pricing (totally their choice) no need to waste either of our time. I just think they were responding to my emails instaneously until I said I wouldn't come in without pricing first. Then, crickets.

Call them and make an offer.

Is it a popular car? If it's a popular car it almost always benefits you to just walk onto the lot and buy it.

Anonymous wrote:I bought my current car out of state for this reason - called or emailed all the local dealers and they either didn’t respond or wanted to sell me a higher priced model that had been sitting. So I just expanded my search to anywhere I could get to by plane, bus or train, found what I wanted, did the paperwork online, sent my payment, and flew to pick it up and drove home. Even with the plane ticket and day of travel it was worth it to get what I wanted, which was about $5k less than what the DMV area dealers were trying to sell me.

and you have to do all the tag/title work yourself now and if you got a loan for the car you have to pay the excise tax out of pocket. would that happen to equal your 5k in "savings"?

I bought my current car out of state for this reason - called or emailed all the local dealers and they either didn’t respond or wanted to sell me a higher priced model that had been sitting. So I just expanded my search to anywhere I could get to by plane, bus or train, found what I wanted, did the paperwork online, sent my payment, and flew to pick it up and drove home. Even with the plane ticket and day of travel it was worth it to get what I wanted, which was about $5k less than what the DMV area dealers were trying to sell me.

Put them on your mental sh!tlist and move on. Lots of salespeople got really lazy during COVID and the resulting supply chain bottlenecks. Inventory was so scarce that salespeople didn't have to hustle and cars sold themselves.

Now that the pendulum is swinging back in the other direction, they're in for a painful wakeup call. In the meantime, look elsewhere for a dealership that actually wants to earn your business.

I've bought 3 cars without setting foot on the lot except to pick up, and the third car they even delivered to me so I've still never been to the dealership.

Definitely move on.

They’re sleazy but I don’t see how being mad about it hurts anyone but you.

I would get as many quotes by email and phone as you can in the radius you’re willing to travel (I think phone will work better for you than email), then take the lowest one to the dealer closest to you and see how close they are willing to get.

You’ll probably do better presenting them with a competing quote than asking them to be in a blind auction by email.

I hate shopping for cars so much, solidarity op.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. He finally wrote back stating the car I want has already been sold. Funny how he didn't mention that part when he was pressuing me to come in to the dealership. Hmm. Definitely not interested in them anymore. Thanks all.

You didn't make it sound like you were talking about a specific car if you're talking about "acceptable colors" and the trim you wanted. Was the car you wanted at the dealer?

Yes. They had the car in the year/trim/color I would take. I hit the "request an e-price on this car" button on the page of the exact car and input my information. He knew exactly which car I was asking about and neglected to mention it was sold until I refused to come in. Sleezy. Do people actually fall for these tactics?

But you don't know if the car was presently in the lot at the dealer ready to drive away?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. He finally wrote back stating the car I want has already been sold. Funny how he didn't mention that part when he was pressuing me to come in to the dealership. Hmm. Definitely not interested in them anymore. Thanks all.

You didn't make it sound like you were talking about a specific car if you're talking about "acceptable colors" and the trim you wanted. Was the car you wanted at the dealer?

Yes. They had the car in the year/trim/color I would take. I hit the "request an e-price on this car" button on the page of the exact car and input my information. He knew exactly which car I was asking about and neglected to mention it was sold until I refused to come in. Sleezy. Do people actually fall for these tactics?

I always call to verify availability. Especially in this seller’s market I expect the car to be sold/pre-sold when it’s online if it’s a popular model. We ended up putting a deposit on one that is in transit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. He finally wrote back stating the car I want has already been sold. Funny how he didn't mention that part when he was pressuing me to come in to the dealership. Hmm. Definitely not interested in them anymore. Thanks all.

You didn't make it sound like you were talking about a specific car if you're talking about "acceptable colors" and the trim you wanted. Was the car you wanted at the dealer?

Yes. They had the car in the year/trim/color I would take. I hit the "request an e-price on this car" button on the page of the exact car and input my information. He knew exactly which car I was asking about and neglected to mention it was sold until I refused to come in. Sleezy. Do people actually fall for these tactics?

When you find "a car," every dealership can have that exact same car "available" and they all intend to have it shipped from wherever it actually sits. They are all trying to sell you the same car sitting on a lot in Cincinnati or the like.

Even if you get the price quote, when you go to pick it up, they will put you through "meetings" with 5 different people all of whom try to up sell you on things to add to the car. Even when you say no to every single one, it can take hours to get out of there. They simply will not accept your check and give you the keys. We were paying a baby sitter $25 per hour, so this costs you time and money. The last time we did this, I held the check up, the price they has already agreed to, and said give me the keys or we walk. They said, let me get someone else for you to talk to. I walked. The chased us into the parking lot with the keys.

F'ing hate car sales.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. He finally wrote back stating the car I want has already been sold. Funny how he didn't mention that part when he was pressuing me to come in to the dealership. Hmm. Definitely not interested in them anymore. Thanks all.

You didn't make it sound like you were talking about a specific car if you're talking about "acceptable colors" and the trim you wanted. Was the car you wanted at the dealer?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you want to do with the information? Their sales model is built on your coming into the dealership. Why would they quote you so you can take that information and price shop? And yes, it sucks.

There is no need for me to go in. I've already driven the car and know the trim I want and the colors that I deem acceptable. I'm going to buy it from the dealership with the best price. If they don't want to play ball on pricing (totally their choice) no need to waste either of our time. I just think they were responding to my emails instaneously until I said I wouldn't come in without pricing first. Then, crickets.

Do they have the exact car you want in the lot or does it have to be ordered? If it's going to be ordered you're not going to get a good deal on it. Find one already in the lot and start negotiating.

OP here. He finally wrote back stating the car I want has already been sold. Funny how he didn't mention that part when he was pressuing me to come in to the dealership. Hmm. Definitely not interested in them anymore. Thanks all.

Yes you move on but keep in mind, the game you are trying to play doesn't work as well when it's seller's market. We are still in seller's market. Seller will just move on to the next email in their inbasket.