I came to the dealership to buy a Subaru Forester. I was well equipped with the information from Edmunds and Consumer Reports, and we soon agreed on a price good for both of us. However, when we started to discuss options, the prices appeared clearly puffed up (can a 2500 lb class hitch cost $698 when a 4000 lb class one at U-Haul sells for $333 installed with wiring?). So I left.
Next day I received an email from them suggesting me come to discuss just the car, without options. I asked if the price still stood, and they said it did. Okay, I went there. We agreed once again that I would pay $19,436. When asked how I was going to pay, I replied "Cash for Clunker", at which point the guy across the desk stood up and went somewhere. A couple of minutes later he was back and declared that with that mode of payment the price would be $20,244, i.E. Extra $808.
Since I had bought quite a few cars in my life and had never seen or heard about changes of the price depending on the mode of payment (especially after the price was agreed upon) I was rather perplexed and called my son-in-law requesting him to try to find out what all that was about with the Department of Transportation, who are in-charge of the program. (I spoke to the boy in my native language, so the salesman did not understand a thing, although I noticed? Reflexion of uneasiness in his eyes.)
Then, I asked the guy to explain the reason for the price hike. He started talking buncombe about some huge expenses to be born by the dealer in connection with the utilization of my Rodeo. As I had done my homework well at the CARS site as well, I said that the only expense stipulated for the dealer by the program implied $50 of administrative costs for sending the trade-in to the junk yard. Besides, I reminded him that he had failed to inform me on an estimate of the scrap value of my trade-in which, however minimal, must be in addition to the rebate, and not in place of the rebate. All what the guy had to tell me to that was that such was the company's policy. Period.
At that point, my phone rang, and my son-in-law told me that he had called the hot line of the Department of Transportation, and they over there had become rather curious about what was going around me at the dealer's office. I thanked the boy and asked the salesman to give me the offer in writing with the explanation of the price change. When asked what for, I replied that I'd like to send a copy to the Department of Transportation for their review and opinion.
What followed was a circus. (I have to note here that I was holding in my hand the very sheet of paper on which in handwriting of the salesman and his boss were fixed both the initial price and the final one.) The salesman rushed somewhere, and the next moment he reappeared with the manager who started demanding that I return the paper as that was an invoice and, therefore, a property of the company. As I refused to comply with that ridiculous demand, the guy was clearly about to attack me. I suggested him call the police, and, while there was a confusion, I expediently left the bloody place.
The matter was reported by me to the Department of Transportation, and is now under consideration.
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