Yesterday, I found a full page ad in the auto section of the Sunday paper taken out by Midway Chevrolet. The ad stated that they were "battling to be the #1 dealer in the world" and that their promotion is a follows: $8,000 payoff reduction; everyone qualifies; If you owe $12,000 now it's only $2,000". I looked everywhere to make sure that there was no fine print. THERE WAS NO FINE PRINT that stated anything except that the payoff reduction would be in lieu of any manufacturer's rebate or dealership's discount (which they explained to me was THEIR profit on the "deal").
I called and spoke with a man by the name Wade who, in response to my "what's the catch? Question replied that there was no catch. They were trying to sell as many cars as possible to beat a dealership they are currently neck-in-neck with in Texas. He went on to tell me that they were looking for volume and not profit in order to outsell the other dealership so they are not looking to make a profit at all. I asked him if I HAD TO purchase a 2004 and he said that that was the only catch - I would have to look at only new Cherolets. Although the ad didn't state that, I didn't have a problem with it since I was only interested in the new 2004 Malibu. He told me to come on down and ask for him.
I went to Midway Chevrolet, excited to get out of my up-side-down situation and in to a nice, new car. Wade came down and passed me off to a man by the name of Mark. Wade told me that he only works the phones, but that Mark would "treat me well". I found a 2004 Chevrolet Malibu in silver that I completely fell in love with. Mark and I went in to the building to start the paperwork. I knew, just as anyone who has ever dealt with a car dealership knows, that the next step would be the negotiating process. This involves the typical running back and forth between me and the "sales tower" for the salesman. After a couple of minutes of waiting, Mark came out and stated that they could not honor the $8,000 payoff reduction that I saw in the ad because that only was good for the purchase of a Tahoe or a Suburban. The ad didn't state this ANYWHERE! I want that car so bad - more than I want anything else in my life right now, but I can't believe that they would resort to false advertising to beat the other dealership. This is wrong and judging by the fact that I am not the only one complaining about this dealership, they need to be confronted.
Needless to say, I did a lot of argueing with them and finally left after they said that they would try to contact "some of the banks to try to do the deal". Wade told me that I would be contacted between 8 and 12 noon today and no one has called. Obviously they were caught and didn't know how to get out of the lie, so they sent Wade out to tell me to go home and wait for their call.
When I got home, my husband called and talked to Wade who told my husband that he felt so bad for me while I was there, because they were trained and specifically told agree with anything (the specials change by the minute apparently) to get the person to come in and he knew that they were screwing me around. He told my husband that they change the story about the $8,000 payoff reduction whenever it suits them.
This has to be stopped!
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