I bought a used car from Oak Ridge Chrysler in May. After we (me and my wife) negotiated with the salesman about the price, the salesman went to his manager. The manager came to our desk with a piece of paper. He wrote using a thick dark pen on the paper, "* (price) tax and fees" and circled what he just wrote. Then he said, "this is all you need to pay." We asked, "what are the fees?" They explained those are title and registration-related fees. After the manager signed his name, he requested us to sign and let us complete the paper work in the financial office.
After he worked on his computer for a few minutes, the financial person showed us a number of total payment on his screen that was almost $1000 more than the agreed price. I found he listed an insurance charge (theft protection; close to $300) without consulting us and a service charge ($280), in addition to the car price, state tax and title (registration) fees. I told him to take out the insurance and service fee. The financial person took out the insurance, but said he could not take out the service fee because we agreed. We were surprised because we never agreed on such a service fee.
He took out the paper that was signed by me and the manager and pointed to a typed number in a very small font (compared to what the manager wrote) in the far corner of circle. At this point we realized that we have been trapped by the manager. He used a thick dark pen to write in big font so that we were distracted from seeing the service fee typed in very small font.
Just hope car shopper become aware of the dirty tricks played by the dealers and won't be trapped by the car dealers like Oak Ridge Chrysler.
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