My very first car, was a used 1977 Rabbit that my mother
bought for me. It was a turquoise color
and it had black tinted windows. This was
1994, and I absolutely loved this car. I
also had a 1992 Jetta, and a 1998 Beetle which I lost in 2001. I loved every single one of those cars. I always felt that they fit my personality
better, that I connected with the car and the brand, and I felt safe within
them.
I didn’t need a car until 2011, and I went for a Honda Fit because
Honda had a leasing special for zero down, zero payment for a month, zero
interest, etc. It was such a painless
positive experience that I returned again for a 2nd Honda Fit in
2016. Again, the experience with the dealer
was direct, honest, painless and with no stress. I assumed that the culture of car dealerships
had changed during the decade that I hadn’t had a car, given the ample
competition in the market and access to car sales online.
As part of an assignment for a class, I had to read an essay
on Volkswagen and the introduction of the New Beetle back in 1998. It brought back a lot of memories about being
a proud owner of a VW. Although I had no
need for a new car (my 2016 Honda Fit I had gotten brand new and after two
years of ownership, I had only 8000 miles on it), but I had been wanting a VW
for a while, and finally I decided that I would treat myself to one.
A couple of miles from my house in Concord, there is a VW dealership
in Walnut Creek. I texted them via their
website to see if there was a way for me to trade my Honda Fit, and possibly get into a VW lease without
being out of pocket. I didn’t want to be
out of pocket because in reality, I didn’t need a new car, but I wanted to see what it would
take to get me back into the VW family.
VW Walnut Creek did not reply; I assumed that my ask was not feasible. I
probably should have gone in person instead.
I then contacted VW of Fairfield via their website and I got
a response. I made my asks very
clear: I want to trade in my 2016 Honda
Fit EX with 8000 miles and a balance of $15,200 (there was some equity for
sure), I don’t have a down payment, and I want a stick shift – this was very
important to me. I got a reply from the dealership
and they asked me to come in, and they texted me a link to a Golf GTI as a
possible car I could get into. I looked
up the model and it was $32,000 or something, way out of my league so I texted
the salesperson back and told her that I had done the math and that the car was
way out of my league and that I would
not be pursuing the purchase. She
responded with “we will work with you, but I need you to be here in person”. I apologized to her for wasting her
time. The following day (6/9) I got a
text in the morning from her asking if I wanted to come in, and I told her that
this didn’t seem like a possible deal, she again stated that the dealership would
be willing to work with me, but I needed to be there. Later that day I got curious, I started to
wonder what this “we will work with you” was all about. I had had such amazing car buying experiences
with Honda, and I loved VW so much that I got excited and decided to drive the
20 miles to Fairfield and see what they had to offer.
Upon arriving to the dealership, Briana welcomed me and
showed me this amazing red manual Golf GTI.
We took it for a test drive.
Briana was very patient with me as I attempted to drive the manual (It
had been nearly 17 years since I had driven one). I loved the car, although I didn’t really see
how I would be able to get into such an amazing car, but then I thought maybe a
lease would do. Briana asked me if I was
interested and I said that I was, and she took my key for my Honda. She disappeared for a few minutes and then
came back with a piece of paper; the negotiation tools, and wrote down the
value of the car and told me that in
order get me into the car, that she would need a little help and asked that I
put down $11,000!! I was very clear with
my expectations when I initially reached out to the dealership: No money down. Just my trade in with low miles. I wanted a stick. That’s all.
I didn’t mind the color. I didn’t
mind the VW model. A lease would be
okay.
This is where things got really shitty. Briana takes off and then returns with a
different car to show me. It was a used
2017 Golf TSI with 14500 miles that someone apparently had owned for 7
months before me, according to the Car
Fax. It wasn’t really clear that Briana
was showing me this car as a possible purchase, she just mentioned that she
just needed to get gas in it, so she drove it to the gas station and I got to
drive it on the way back. It was not a
stick, it was an automatic. But I liked
it. I could make it work. It wasn’t 100% what I was after, but I thought
the numbers could work.
The sales manager then came in to negotiate. I do not recall his name. These are some of the things that happened
that totally ruined the experience for me:
1) the manager told me that the price for the car was $22,000 but that he was willing to make me a deal and
drop it to $20,000. 2) They collected my
information for my payoff on the Honda, but they didn’t tell me how much they
had valued my car at and that they had calculated a negative $3000 equity on
it, which they would roll into my new load – this was not discussed at ALL. 3) They asked me for a down payment, I then thought
that I could squeeze out $500 out of my budget without restraining any other
bills or responsibilities, and the manager mentioned that I most likely would
not have to make a payment on the car for two or three months and to see how
much I could come up with, so I agreed to put down $500 now, and in a month or
so another $1000, 4) even though they had seen that I had perfect credit,
during discussion I asked the manager what my loan rate would be and he said “I
don’t know. That’s a finance question”. 5) I told him that I had a pre-approval loan
from my credit union, and the sales manager said “oh, I don’t know. That’s a finance thing.” 6) When I asked him about getting into the
lease and my credit, he said that I did have the credit to get into a lease,
but why would I, that I should let someone else deal with the depreciation from
buying a new car and just buy the used one, which brand-new he said was worth
$30,000. (I did some research, and I
think the Golf Wolfsburg went for about $23,000 or so new last year.) I
agreed to buy the car anyway.
I waited for maybe half an hour in the waiting area while
the paperwork was being put together. I
was by then pretty excited about having a VW again. Even though I wasn’t feeling good about my
deal with the manager; I wasn’t going to let that ruin my excitement for the
car and to help me fall in love with it I decided to look it up on the VW
of Fairfield dealership website and look
at pictures. I found the car posted
online for $18,500, not $22,000. So,
when I went in to talk to the finance person, I asked him for the VIN numbers
and I compared the it against that on my mobile and they were the same, so I
confronted him about the real price of the car and the fake “deal” I had been
offered by the sales manager from $22k down to $20k. The financing manager informed me that on his
database, he had the car indeed noted at $18,500 and he brought in the sales
manager to clarify, I confronted him and
he apologized for the “confusion”, there was no confusion – it was clearly
deception. I also then found out that on
top of the $1,500 down payment they wanted, that my loan was being upped by the
$3000 negative equity that my Honda supposedly had. It was then that I told the gentlemen that I
would not move forward with the deal, that I was angry that I had been lied
about two very important pieces of the deal, that I could not go forward with it
because I didn’t need a new car and they
were totally under-valuing my Honda. I
asked to please cancel the sale and that I wanted to leave. I clearly told them that they had damaged the
trust.
The Finance manager (Richard?), then apologized and offered
to “make it better”. He upped my Honda trade-in
value so that only $600 would roll into my new loan. He offered me five years of maintenance for
free, of which because of the low mileage that I drive annually, he reduced the
frequency of service to once a year. He
then offered me some “packages” at employee price – insurance for bumper to
bumper and 2nd I don’t even recall what it was for, but on my loan
it totaled $4000 worth of added cost. The
finance manager was able to process my loan thru my credit union, and he even
stated “If I had known earlier… “, I was thinking “I did tell your sale
manager. He wasn’t listening to me. Dismissed this important piece of information.”
I walked out of the dealership with a $25,000 load and a used
automatic car. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the Golf. It’s a beautiful machine. I love the way it drives. I’ve always loved the way my VWs drove. They
make me one with the road. Totallly
awesome. The following day, I decided to
take a look at my loan documents to understand how the car purchase got to be $25k,
that’s when I saw the $4000 worth of extended warranties (on a car that still had
some factory warranty to go, these extended warranties expire within six years
or 60k miles, whichever comes first – the mileage I put on a car <which
makes a lease perfect for me> is about 5000 a year and it would take a while
before the factory warranty expired, so the extended overprized warranties
were not needed.) I went back to the dealership the next day, drove the 20
miles again and signed a form for the extended warranties to be cancelled and
the $4000 refunded to my loan/bank.
I still can’t get over the several attempts to deceit me. We live in an age where technology gives us so
much information and so many purchasing options – I don’t know why the dealer thought that
I would not research the car. And
furthermore, why even risk the negative feedback over a couple thousand dollars? There are so many online platforms for anyone
to get on social media and rant and review about a negative
experience. The dealer had the
opportunity to wow me and send me off happy and would have earned a client for life, because that’s
what I wanted – I wanted to be back with
VW, be a proud owner of one and look forward to many years of happy driving. Unfortunately, every time that I get into my
car and I drive the automatic Golf, I think of the stressful situation
at the dealership that day and really wish I had not gone there. Although I have five years of free service on
the Golf, I might just forgo those because I really don’t want to go back and
deal with those people, dishonest people. Once the trust is gone, it’s
extremely hard to re-establish.
Lastly, buying a car is a milestone in one’s life and a
dealership has the opportunity to create a life lasting bond. Why not capitalize on that?
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my experience with you.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my experience with you.
Jose
