My wife and I went to the Kia dealership in Lewisville, TX on 11/26/07. The salesman we dealt with was William Shropshire. From the start he was extremely pushy. We told him what we were looking for, a base model 2007 Spectra EX, and were told it wouldn't be a problem. After talking for awhile he got a car pulled up for us to test drive.
When we went out to the car he told us about all the "standard features." These included MP3 connection, CD player, heated exterior mirrors, and several other options. There wasn't an actual sticker on the car and he didn't tell us the MSRP until I specifically asked him.
The MSRP on the car we test drove and were trying to be sold into was $16520. We told him again that we had just checked their inventory and were then told they were completely out of the models we were seeing online. I just checked and they still have several in their inventory listing at $15895.
After the test drive we went back into his office where we started to haggle over the price. We told him what we wanted to pay and he kept asking for initials on the paper to show that we were "committed" to our offer. I refused. After a couple more hours of playing these games we were still unhappy with what our notes would be.
At this time another salesman came in, Junior Lopez. He sat down and told my wife and I that they could get our notes to $250 a month, which is what we were looking for. He then left and the sales manager came in. I can't recall his name. He came in with the original figures Will had shown us and when we told him what Junior had said he called my wife and I liars. I was taken aback. I've never been so disrespected before in what should have been a professional situation. He also said we were "crazy" for wanting lower notes and that we were getting a great deal. He was just as pushy as Will and more aggressive.
The sales manager left and came back in. He apologized and said that Junior had misspoke and that they would let us have the car at $250 if we put $1000 down in cash and with our trade in. We thought we were happy with this. At this point we proceeded with the paperwork. Due to our naivety we wrote them a down payment check for $1000, but were told that the deal wasn't final until we met with the finance people and signed our contract. As my wife and I sat there waiting I did the math in my head and even without interest taken into consideration we would have still been paying more than $2000 over list.
We finally came to our senses and decided to not go any further. When the finance people came to get us I told him we'd changed our minds and wanted our check back. We were told that our check was "already in the safe." Supposedly this safe can't be opened at all. I also asked for a print out of the numbers and found that not only were we not getting one cent for our trade in, but that they had tacked on an undisclosed $1440 bumper to bumper warranty. We were never told about this.
The next day Will called my wife and left her a voice mail stating that we could either come back in to talk about it or come by to pick up our check. I called Will at 2:50PM on Tuesday and told him we didn't want to move forward at that time and asked if we could come by to pick up our check. He said sure. I asked where I needed to go and he told me he had our check in his office. We arrived at the dealership at 4:10PM and when I asked about my check I was told that their "corporate lady" had already come by, picked up all the checks, and took them to the bank. I told him that seemed unlikely considering I just spoke with him just over an hour ago and was told that she had just come in. Junior Lopez was there as well and he backed up everything Will was telling me. It seemed just a bit too much of a coincidence for my comfort.
I wish I had had been a bit more consumer savvy, but that is still no excuse whatsoever for the amount of underhanded business practices, lies, and disrespect we had to deal with.
Gabriel
Lewisville, Texas
U.S.A.
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