BUYING A CAR

part II

     Buying a car is one of the most DREADED experiences.  It ranks right up there with going to the dentist.  In the past, it was a reputation that used car dealers brought on themselves. They used many questionable business practices as well as outright deceit to sell their products,  I have heard many horror stories from car dealers abusing their clients.  So beware even today there are bad dealers as well as good ones.

     One of my personal experiences involved a young man that came in to the lot to buy a Toyota Camry.  He was a "first time buyer".  This young man drove up in a newer Camry and went straight to a similar Camry we had for sale on the lot.  We test drove the car and he L O V E D it.  We sat down and did all the paperwork and found that he was a near perfect fit for a "first time buyer" program from one of our lenders.  He would not need a co signer, just a reasonable down payment.  This young man was very very happy and thanked me over and over.  He drove off in the Camry.  Another happy client right????  If that was the end of the story it would be great......there was more.  A few days after the sale, He came back to the dealership very upset and asked if we would take the car back per our policy.  In asking him if there was a problem with the car, we uncovered the REAL reason.  A week before he came to us, he had gone to a local Toyota dealer and TRIED to purchase a Camry.  This dealer had asked him for quite a bit more money down and had his mom co sign for him.  They had "spot delivered" the car to him and the called him back in several times to sign NEW paperwork at higher and higher interest rates and to put more cash down.  After the third or fourth time he had enough and came to us.  When the other dealer found out about that they threatened to put HIM in jail for not signing the latest offer.  We told him that if he really wanted to return the car we would take it back, but it sounded to us like the dealer was bluffing and he should be very sure he wanted that car before signing any other paperwork with that dealer.  As it turned out, he kept the Camry we sold him and challenged the other dealer to put him in jail.  Of course it was just a bluff and our young buyer really got a good deal and was very happy with us.  

     As a footnote to this story, this young man sent several customers to me,  He eventually came to work at the dealership in sales and did very well for himself,