Car (or tractor) Dealer Horror Stories

[reb]

About 10 years ago the wife and I bought a truck from one of the Phoenix Toyota dealers. Part of the deal was that they would throw in a shop manual. Because it was Sunday, the parts department was closed, so we were to pick it up during the week. When it came time to get the book, all we got was excuses. After being passed around to several people, we were asked why we wanted a shop manual, anyway. We did not get any results until we wrote a letter to Toyota. The book was available in two days. Strange, but the friendly atmosphere at the dealership that we observed when buying had dissolved when we went to get the manual.

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

I had a salesman searching under the hood for a distributor on an engine I knew to be distributorless. But the best one is the guy that tried to tell me the car had a six cylinder engine. "Then why" I asked, "does it have four spark plugs on this side?"

Later, while test driving, I mentioned that the car had the type of steering that I'd always associated with Buicks. The salesman quickly corrected me that the car was an Olds. "Then why," I asked "Does the dash say 'Buick' over there in front of your nose?"

Steve

As Judge Judy said, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining."

 

[Ozarker]

I bought a used Pontiac Grand Pr ix a few years ago from a local dealer. I really liked the car and wanted it but it clearly had bad rotors on the rear. You could feel it when stopping while I was test driving the car. The salesman told me the pulse I was feeling was the new anti-lock brakes. I told him that this car didn't have anti-lock brakes.

We made a deal on the car and his shop was supposed to repair the rear brakes before I picked it up the next day.

I picked it up the next afternoon and happily drove away with all the paperwork to go get the tags....including a fresh state safety inspection sticker. When I went to stop at a light about a block away from the dealer, the brakes chattered. I pulled over to look and the rear rotors were just as chewed up as they had been the day before.

I went back to the salesman to complain and he said that they had inspected the brakes and the chatter I was feeling was the anti-lock brakes.

At that point I pretty much went "NCO" on him. I told him, again, that the car didn't have anti-lock brakes and that his shop had clearly put a safety inspection sticker on a car without actually inspection anything. Then I told him that if I drove back off of his lot without new rear brake pads and turned or replaced rotors, my next stop would be the Highway Patrol office up the road to show the state inspector how they inspected vehicles.

About an hour later I had new pads on all four and new rotors on the rear. Amazing what a shop can do when all available mechanics are working on one car.

 

[RobertN]

I had a RoadRunner some years back; go it used from a Chevy dealer.

They figured out easy enough it was a Dodge, no, wait, maybe thats a Plymouth /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif That there engine, that's a 454... no, 350 /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Had to explain to them it is a smallblock Mopar, not a Chevy...

Got a decent deal on it though; they really didn't know what they had /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Chuck52]

The variation I got to the lost or hidden key routine was at the Buick dealer in Norman, Oklahoma. They gave me my key easily enough after I told them I didn't need a license to shop...that was apparently my sin for wanting their price so I could compare with other dealers. Yep, they gave me my keys, but my old car was nowhere to be seen. My wife and I stood there in the middle of the showroom for quite a while, being ignored by the salesman when I asked where my car was. The other clients in the showroom pretty much matched the old sterotype of Buick owners...lots of blue-white hair, like mune is now. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif Anyway, after I'd had enough, I did as Bird, but I must confess I added some spice to the delivery by suggesting that the salesman, his manager and the owner were probably experimenting with strange and no doubt physically impossible relations among themselves and that I was about to report them to the police for that as well as car theft. One of the little old ladies darn near fainted....must have been the volume at which I presented that performance. My car was quickly found behind several rows of cars way off from anywhere it needed to be.

Chuck

 

[buckle97]

My "best" experience was with a dealer that apparently didn't even want to sell me a truck.
I was trying to buy a hard to find Toyota Tacoma in the summer of '99 from Atlanta Toyota. They had one on their lot and I test drove it and loved it. I told them that I was ready to deal. I got them to come down $3,500 off of the sticker and I accepted it. My dad was co-signing with me (I was only 19 at the time) and so they sent him the paperwork overnight fed-ex. They got the paperwork back two days later and called me to come pick up the truck. When I arrived at the dealership the truck was nowhere to be found. When I tracked the finance guy down, he said that another salesman had sold that truck that morning. I said "I already bought that truck. I want to see the manager." When I got to see the general manager, Jackie, he told me that a sale is not complete until I drive the vehicle off the lot. He told me to find another truck and I told him they didn't have anymore just like I wanted. I was furious. I went home, found out the owners name and left him a voice mail detailing the event. The owner called me back the next day and told me to come by the dealership that afternoon and "Jackie" would be happy to assist me with anything I needed. I arrived at the dealership and Jackie informed me that they had located an identical truck and it was on its way to this dealership. He asked if there was there anything else he could help me with. I told him I wanted a bedliner for my trouble. He reluctantly gave me a free bedliner!

 

[Tractors4u]

I get a kick out of the dealerships when you go back for warranty work.
1989 Mustang bought new. After a year it didn't want to go into first gear. They worked on it for a few days and said they had it fixed. One week later it started doing it again. They didn't know what the problem was so they said it was a design defect and that all the Mustangs on the lot did that. Oh yeah? I said. Let's go get some keys and drive them, I want to see that all the Mustangs do that. The service manager finally said let us have another look. They ended up puting in a new transmission.

 

[Taylortractornut]

My younger brother is a car fanatic he goes and test drives cars to pic his future car out when he gets out of nursing school and alot of the dealers really like him. I road in a few test drives with him and they like to hear his input on the handling. Well a female friend of mine was in the market for a new car so we went to the Ford dealership and tried a Mustang. We werent happy with the price and the options and went the sales man wanted to ride with us that time in another car. He kept trying to intimidate her so I asked him to be quiet then he started in again so I told him to shut the *&*( up she was trying to drive .
She wanted me to drive so I did and the sales man told us we had to drive it more before she could get her keys back. I decided to make hime a little nervous and I wanted to see what it could do so I dropped it in the low hole at 50 miles an hour. I went throught the old part of town over the railroad tracks by the town hall that was fun. Before it was over I had Jenifers keys in hand and he wanted to go back to the lot. I ended up gettin her a 1 year old Mustang with 10,000 miles on it for alot less money and more options.

 

[AndyM]

It always amazes me how ignorant MOST car salesmen are of the products they are selling. Granted, I like to learn as much about the product I am interested in ahead of time and I go into the dealer educated about the car I am looking at, but these guys are selling these things on a daily basis and don't really take the time to learn about them. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

The salesman was going around the Taurus we were looking and and naming off the safety features, one by one...
Then he got to anti-lock brakes...
He said, "Anti-lock brakes...", and then glanced at the window sticker, and finished, "Anti-lock brakes. This car doesn't have them-- they're nothing but trouble and you don't want them anyway."

I wonder what he would have said if the car DID have them! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[yonahforge]

One of my favorites, not a car dealer, but a repair shop....

I had a 74 Nova in high school that needed a new muffler when I bought it. Went to a national chain and had one installed. Less than 2 weeks later on the way home from school the exhaust system falls out from under the car! I got home, saw the horribly poor job they had done, wired the pieces up to keep them from dragging, and went to the repair shop. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

I drove up, saw an empty bay and proceeded to pull in. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I then revved up the motor a few times (there was less than 18" of exhaust left on a 400 small block). All of the repair guys were holding their ears looking rather aggravated.

I then walked into the waiting room/counter (crowded with people who heard my car & were looking) and told the manager (loudly) that the exhaust system they installed had fallen out /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.

I went home with a new exhaust system from front to back for $0.

I miss that car.