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My new Focus came in on Friday. I was out of the area, so we decided we would pick it up tonight (Monday).
We arrived at the dealer at about 5:30. Our sales guy immediately showed us the car and let us take a test drive in it, while he was finishing with another customer. When I came back, it was about 45 minutes before the manager finished drawing up the "proposal" (keep in mind, all negotiating had been done already, and they knew we were coming in, this could have been done ahead of time).
By 7:00ish we were still waiting for the paperwork to be completed. Finally around 8:00pm the finance guy comes Around 8:00pm the finance guy comes up and grabs paperwork to see if they can beat our credit union's 1.99% rate. This takes another half hour.
When we finally went into his office around 8:30, we discovered that the price we agreed to is not what they were charging. We originally agreed to a price that only included the student discount, since that is valid through January, and the promotion at the time of the order was not going to still be valid.
The price they were charging had factored in the $500 retail cash already (which put us at $500 above what we were expecting) and they were also $500 less then the trade-in price of my car they had agreed to through email.
We proceeded to discuss this with the manager for another hour or so. When he did not budge we went back to talk to our sales guy. He was not able to change the manager's mind. We decided to go outside and talk it over. When we came back in, we had decided we would buy the car anyway, as the price was still good. This is when we discovered that the $389 doc fee we were told is now $448 (despite the fact the sales guy confirmed it as $389 today!). Again, the manager would not budge over the $60. I understand that in certain states you can not adjust the doc fee, but he could have dropped the car.
By the time all of this is done, its almost 9pm, their closing time (we came at 5:30). This is when we discover that the finance guy decided to transfer my registration before I even signed the paperwork! To top it off, the finance guy went home and none of the staff could find my old registration. The manager very tersely told us to leave without our registration and they would send us it tomorrow (no registration=illegal). He tried this several more times, including threatening us with calling the cops for trespassing. Finally, at around 9:45 I got so fed up, I called the cops myself. I informed them that the dealer had my registration, was refusing to give it back, and trying to make me drive home without it.
When the cops came, they ended up having to give me a business card with their names on it, so that if we got pulled over we could explain the situation.
This is NOT the way a car buying experience should be. A dealer should NEVER hold a registration hostage, lose it, or transfer it before the car has even been bought! I'm now forced to drive to work tomorrow without proof of registration in a car that the dealer registered to themselves before completing the sale.
We arrived at the dealer at about 5:30. Our sales guy immediately showed us the car and let us take a test drive in it, while he was finishing with another customer. When I came back, it was about 45 minutes before the manager finished drawing up the "proposal" (keep in mind, all negotiating had been done already, and they knew we were coming in, this could have been done ahead of time).
By 7:00ish we were still waiting for the paperwork to be completed. Finally around 8:00pm the finance guy comes Around 8:00pm the finance guy comes up and grabs paperwork to see if they can beat our credit union's 1.99% rate. This takes another half hour.
When we finally went into his office around 8:30, we discovered that the price we agreed to is not what they were charging. We originally agreed to a price that only included the student discount, since that is valid through January, and the promotion at the time of the order was not going to still be valid.
The price they were charging had factored in the $500 retail cash already (which put us at $500 above what we were expecting) and they were also $500 less then the trade-in price of my car they had agreed to through email.
We proceeded to discuss this with the manager for another hour or so. When he did not budge we went back to talk to our sales guy. He was not able to change the manager's mind. We decided to go outside and talk it over. When we came back in, we had decided we would buy the car anyway, as the price was still good. This is when we discovered that the $389 doc fee we were told is now $448 (despite the fact the sales guy confirmed it as $389 today!). Again, the manager would not budge over the $60. I understand that in certain states you can not adjust the doc fee, but he could have dropped the car.
By the time all of this is done, its almost 9pm, their closing time (we came at 5:30). This is when we discover that the finance guy decided to transfer my registration before I even signed the paperwork! To top it off, the finance guy went home and none of the staff could find my old registration. The manager very tersely told us to leave without our registration and they would send us it tomorrow (no registration=illegal). He tried this several more times, including threatening us with calling the cops for trespassing. Finally, at around 9:45 I got so fed up, I called the cops myself. I informed them that the dealer had my registration, was refusing to give it back, and trying to make me drive home without it.
When the cops came, they ended up having to give me a business card with their names on it, so that if we got pulled over we could explain the situation.
This is NOT the way a car buying experience should be. A dealer should NEVER hold a registration hostage, lose it, or transfer it before the car has even been bought! I'm now forced to drive to work tomorrow without proof of registration in a car that the dealer registered to themselves before completing the sale.
