Darn car salespeople.....

[PILOON]

I love the way the first half of the sales pitch is all about what a rugged, reliable, trouble free vehicle this is. Then once you agree to buy, it is a piece of crap that will bankrupt you if you don't buy an extended warranty. :laughing:

LOL, not always!
I once had an off lease AUDI that at the time had 100% bumper to bumper 3 yr warranty that included wipers, tires and fluids. During the year and half of warranty ownership I became a good friend of the service manager as we both owned MGB's.
They did install 4 new tires B4 warranty ended.

His strongly urged me to purchase the extended warranty which I did.
During that year the turbo blew up, transmission quit, alternator burnt out taking out the battery as well. Then the front rt wheel fell off with costly results.
While they repaired the wheel and suspension they poked a hole thru the rad.
The policy cost about $600. and at the time the repairs ran them $6000. or so.

That AUDI was also the model that suffered from sudden acceleration, like a rocket!
That got me a ticket at 3:00 AM on a deserted road that I contested and won, but after another long tale, LOL.

 

[Pixguy]

.........
That AUDI was also the model that suffered from sudden acceleration, like a rocket!
That got me a ticket at 3:00 AM on a deserted road that I contested and won, but after another long tale, LOL.

You still sticking with that story? :laughing:

 

[300UGUY]

Extended Warranties have been a life saver to several of my friends... only if they are backed by the manufacture.

The retired folks across the street got a new 4100 engine from Cadillac and my brother had a very expensive Honda Transmission replaced.

A couple of things to remember... you can shop for an extended warranty after the sale... my brother picked one up from a Honda Dealer at exactly half the cost his Dealer was going to charge... he got an outstanding Deal on the car.

At closing he had a cashier's check and subtracted the inflated warranty from the total... Dealer was not to happy about it.

I don't think the other warranties Dealers try to sell are worth the paper it's written on... many times during an arbitration case the customer would say and I even paid for the extended warranty only to find out it was not from the Manufacture.

A HT4100 engine was last made in 86? Or 87? Been awhile, I worked on that project, that engine was one of the 1st aluminum block engines made in the US. It was replaced with the 4.5, then a 4.9. In 91, the Northstar was introduced.

 

[ultrarunner]

A HT4100 engine was last made in 86? Or 87? Been awhile, I worked on that project, that engine was one of the 1st aluminum block engines made in the US. It was replaced with the 4.5, then a 4.9. In 91, the Northstar was introduced.

Yes... that's the engine.

I remember at the time they were looking to buy a new car... the wife told me her Husband always said he was going to buy a new Cadillac when he retired... I did a lot of GM arbitration at the time under the lemon law and suggested they buy the GM extended warranty.

They thanked me many time for this advice... actually, no one ever said it was a mistake taking my advice.

Even without the engine, the warranty more than paid for itself with other items...

 

[JDgreen227]

I want to clarify a post here...it was not me who made the comment about the first half of the sales pitch about a vehicle being reliable, but Travelover...and he said it very well that they encourage a customer to buy the extra warranty because your new vehicle won't be reliable...

My parents had one of the Cadillac 4-6-8 engine Devilles in the early 80's, it was a great car but the engine was very poorly designed.

 

[RollingsFarms]

I want to clarify a post here...it was not me who made the comment about the first half of the sales pitch about a vehicle being reliable, but Travelover...and he said it very well that they encourage a customer to buy the extra warranty because your new vehicle won't be reliable... My parents had one of the Cadillac 4-6-8 engine Devilles in the early 80's, it was a great car but the engine was very poorly designed.

They tried that "you need to by the extended warranty because your engine can blow up at 5001 miles and it won't be covered!" when I was buying my mom her car. I looked him right to his face and said "well I guess I better get up from here and go check out the competition since you seem adamant your engine won't make it past 50k miles" and started to get up to leave. The look on his face of "oh crap this backfired in my face!" was priceless.

 

[rkeith]

Where I live (Montgomery, AL) we have a car dealer who only goes to auto auctions and purchases vehicles for his customers... no car lot! I bought my last car from him and got an AWESOME deal! He doesn't sell crap! Just tells you straight up how the process works and all the costs up front.

 

[k0ua]

Where I live (Montgomery, AL) we have a car dealer who only goes to auto auctions and purchases vehicles for his customers... no car lot! I bought my last car from him and got an AWESOME deal! He doesn't sell crap! Just tells you straight up how the process works and all the costs up front.

That is an interesting idea!

 

[dave1949]

Where I live (Montgomery, AL) we have a car dealer who only goes to auto auctions and purchases vehicles for his customers... no car lot! I bought my last car from him and got an AWESOME deal! He doesn't sell crap! Just tells you straight up how the process works and all the costs up front.

Yes, that is an interesting business model.

One of my sons started working for a used car dealership a couple months back. These salesmen comments are interesting. He says it is sort of boring waiting around for a customer.

Anyways, this dealership specializes in selling cars around the $10K price to people who have poor credit, no running vehicle, but are going to get fired if they can't get to work. I don't know the details like interest rates, how predatory is it, etc. I asked him if any repo work is involved--he said no. :laughing: The salesmen are on salary plus $100 per car sale. The dealership doesn't do the financing as I understand it.

There is a market for all things. Build a good reputation in a niche and you can probably do well.

 

[ultrarunner]

In 75 years in the auto business we have never bought a car from an auto auction... it's where many dealers get rid of stock they can't move.

Our used cars were trades on new cars or lease returns...