At the beginning of the year, my wife and I were shopping for a 2004 Chevy Colorado Crew Cab Pickup. Since they were new, many of the dealerships did not have a large selection. I was working with a dealership in Austin, TX to find the truck that we wanted at another dealership and trade for it.
My salesman found the truck at Ancira-Winton Chevrolet in San Antonio, TX. He got in touch with them and attempted to trade a vehicle on his lot for the truck we wanted.
Unfortunately, Ancira refused to trade because they had recently come in second in a competition behind the dealership I was working with. I had a March deadline to get the truck and my salesman was unable to promise me a vehicle by then so he suggested I go to San Antonio and purchase the truck directly from Ancira.
On Friday afternoon I called to confirm the truck was on the lot and spoke to Nathan. He checked and told me the truck was there and asked when I would be in. I told him that my wife and I would be in the next day. Saturday morning we got up and drove the 100 miles to San Antonio.
We arrived at the dealership and met Nathan. When my wife and I met Nathan, he greeted me and shook my hand, but ignored my wife and refused to shake her hand. Nathan took us out on the lot to the truck and then went back in to get the keys. While he was inside, my wife and I decided that we wanted to purchase the truck. Our plan was to test drive it and make the deal.
Nathan came back with the keys and we got in to the truck to take it for a drive. Nathan had to drive it off the lot, and as soon as we got on the street, he floored the pedal and slammed the brakes to turn two blocks later. I did not appreciate his abusive treatment of the truck since we were planning on buying it.
After the test drive we returned to the dealership and went into Nathan's office to work up a deal. He handed us the credit application and while we were filling it out, he began completing the other paperwork without any explanation to us.
While my wife completed the credit paperwork, I watched Nathan complete the sales paperwork. He brought the file for the truck, which showed the original price $1200 more than MSRP. I looked at the price and said he must have brought the wrong file because that price did not match the truck we had looked at.
After retrieving my paperwork from my car, we compared the VIN's and it was the same. I asked him why the Ancira price was $1200 more than MSRP and Nathan explained to me that the dealership had added an interior/exterior protection package.
At this point, he proceeded to write the Ancira price on the sales paperwork with no discounts. When I asked him what he was writing, he said, This is the price of the vehicle." To which I responded, We are not paying $1200 over MSRP for this truck."
I informed Nathan that my salesman in Austin had guaranteed any vehicle for $200 over invoice. He said that my salesman was lying to me because this truck was not a $200 over invoice truck.
Instead of walking out at that point, I continued to haggle with Nathan over the price. We finally got him down to within $1500 of our goal, but he would not go lower.
Nathan offered us lower finance rates, which were still higher than the rate I was approved for at my credit union, and free oil changes in a desperate attempt to make the sale.
At various points during the process, my wife would ask a question or make a statement. When Nathan didn't blatantly ignore her, he referred to her as Miss and treated her with disrespect.
After 45 minutes of haggling and Nathan going back to "check with his manager" several times, we had finally had enough. We informed him that we were leaving and no longer wanted to do business with him.
Nathan again accused my Austin salesman of lying and refused to shake our hands as we left.
On our way back to Austin, we decided to go to our dealership and order the truck that we wanted. After relating our experience to our salesman, he recalled some other horror stories he had heard about Ancira, including salesmen locking customers in the showroom and throwing the keys to their trade-ins on the roof of the building after a deal fell through.
Any dealership that is disrespectful and resorts to insulting other dealers in order to apply pressure for the sale is not worth dealing with. Please take your money somewhere else. We walked out of the dealership without any regrets.
M
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.
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