Car shopping adventures

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coyo said:
But is the US warranty honoured on this side of the border?
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Yes and no. You have to pay out of pocket, but you mail the invoice for the warranty work to Subaru USA and they send you a cheque for the work. Subaru USA actually sends out letters to this effect to Canadian purchasers. Subaru Canada is apparently not happy about this.. :-)
 
SunnY S said:
Good on you for having the dealer remove stupid add ons. Thats the first thing I look at when making a deal.

Never ever surrender your credit card, cash, or any other form of payment. They will use this as a tactic to make sure you are serious about the deal.

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It was really pissing us off 'cause he kept adding it back in. We gave them our offer and they counter with something that wasn't cheaper then full price 'cause they included that stupid fee again. I'm not exactly sure why my aunt gave them the credit card, but she probably never will again. We ended up getting the car for that price 'cause they wanted it out for the end of the month, so we had to pick it up 2 days later. Hopefully in 10 years+ when I go buy my next car, it's not a stressful.
 
Glad to see its not just me (sort of)

For most of us, next to buying a house, a new car is our second most expensive outlay. Were else do you regularly part with 20-50k, every 4-6yrs?
 
RicoChet said:
Sorry to hear about your terrible experience with that dealer! That behavior is inexcusable. In layman terms? Lol!!

Im not sure if you or your daughter would consider looking at any gm options you can look at the new cruze or an upgrade sonics. They are pretty decent cars I think. I work at a gm dealership so feel free to message me privately if your interested in more quotes. It may be a drive but no harm in making a good deal if you can get it.
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Did you even read the thread before your sales pitch??
 
OpenGambit said:
Thats not surprising. I walked into Brampton Power Sports with enough money in my pocket to buy a bike and a CC that could buy 5 bikes and they didn't take me seriously ( in winter no less).

Best part is they get mad at me when I told them they are wasting my time.
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I walked into a BMW motorcycle dealership here in the same situation. Cash in pocket, found a bike I wanted to test drive and the sales people completely ignored me. Even when I went up to one to inquire about one bike, the guy looked at me like I had asked him to have sex on the floor. So I walked.
 
^ A similar thing happened to a co-worker. He left one dealership FRUSTRATED and went to another with cash-in-hand ready to buy. Nobody at the second dealership acknowledged him.... long story short, the owner got wind of this and the general manager of the dealership got fired.

crankcall said:
Sadly enough we didn't, my daughter was doing the research and they had the vehicle she wanted. We should have gone to Burlington or Oakville. It's really my fault for getting treated like a boob, I've been doing this long enough had it not for my kids involvement I'd have left.
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Yeah, kids change the situation. When they've emotionally invested in a vehicle, they make it much harder to walk away.

Make sure when you call and complain to Honda, that they're aware that you AND your daughter (who has MANY vehicle-purchasing years left) will remember this experience when it comes time to purchase a vehicle again.
 
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went to go look at a new camaro, was fairly interested in it. I wanted a test drive as this is how i look at cars, i dont care what it says in the brocure, i only go to a dealer when ive done all my research on the car.

the saleman gives me the hour long dialogue which you always have to put up with so i sit there and turn on autopilot, i say great, im interested but i need a test drive, says i cant until i buy the car first, i say not going to happen, im not buying a car ive never driven.
says okay lets choose the car you want with colour and all, you give me your credit card, you put down a deposit and if you dont like it its refundable.. i say no thats basically me buying it, then he pulls in his mamager and i get the guilt trip about how ive wasted the salesmans time for an hour by the guys manager. I head straight for the door.
 
Isn't the vehicle a demo then? Worth less after being joy ridden? I know I can't go to GP bikes and pick a new 1198 to go for a test ride. I think that's why you can sign up for test rides/drives online.......so they can let you take out a dedicated demo vehicle.
 
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It shouldn't make it a demo, as long as the kms are left low. I test drive every car, no exception. So far I've never been asked for a deposit, only driver's license.
 
Re: test drives

The difference between how high end and lower end dealerships treat their customers with respect to test drives is pretty interesting. My best friend went to a mazda dealership when shopping for a winter beater and went through the same BS that many of your have described just to take a $20k mazda 3 out for a spin.

Meanwhile, when he went shopping for a used 997TT, which sold for $185K new just a couple of years go, it was just a matter of calling downtown porsche, talking to the sales guy for a bit before coming down. Shows up, they gave him the keys and away he went with no hassles.
 
mma01 said:
Re: test drives

The difference between how high end and lower end dealerships treat their customers with respect to test drives is pretty interesting. My best friend went to a mazda dealership when shopping for a winter beater and went through the same BS that many of your have described just to take a $20k mazda 3 out for a spin.

Meanwhile, when he went shopping for a used 997TT, which sold for $185K new just a couple of years go, it was just a matter of calling downtown porsche, talking to the sales guy for a bit before coming down. Shows up, they gave him the keys and away he went with no hassles.
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I agree in general but some dealerships are just better than others. I walk in with 100 bucks to GP bikes and they treat me like I am buying a new bike. (I eventually did buy a bike from them because of that exact reason) and I dont' think the reason is just because they have triumphs and ducatis, but rather because they are not muppets.

But then again, I make no secret of the fact that I hate Brampton Powersports. One of these days I'll get someone to write me a strongly worded letter... haha!\

In general though. I find MB dealerships to be the most civilized.
 
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murf said:
Isn't the vehicle a demo then? Worth less after being joy ridden? I know I can't go to GP bikes and pick a new 1198 to go for a test ride. I think that's why you can sign up for test rides/drives online.......so they can let you take out a dedicated demo vehicle.
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Thats the dealership's choice. if they decide they want to tell me that I gotta wait for a demo bike. that means they aren't getting my money that day and if another dealership is willing to give me that ride first... done deal.
 
You can't exactly go to a Ducati dealership and expect to get the keys for an 1198 that's "out in the lot".

They will either have bikes in crates, or bikes on the showroom floor that don't have batteries installed and likely don't have any fuel in them, and may or may not have been through a PDI at that point. Apples and oranges.
 
caboose483 said:
You can't exactly go to a Ducati dealership and expect to get the keys for an 1198 that's "out in the lot".

They will either have bikes in crates, or bikes on the showroom floor that don't have batteries installed and likely don't have any fuel in them, and may or may not have been through a PDI at that point. Apples and oranges.
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Agreed, but I was referring to being told to wait 9 months for a demo day by the manufacturer. At that level of accomodation I feel very justified walking into a different dealership.

I have gotten a decent amount of test drives before and I am aware that appointments often need to be made.
 
OpenGambit said:
Agreed, but I was referring to being told to wait 9 months for a demo day by the manufacturer. At that level of accomodation I feel very justified walking into a different dealership.

I have gotten a decent amount of test drives before and I am aware that appointments often need to be made.
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It's a level of service thing provided by the dealer. It's just one more service they're willing to provide. If they don't want to let someone test drive a vehicle, another dealer may and maybe that's the dealer that gets the sale. Their choice..
 
Try riding your bicycles to the dealerships, we got some very interesting reactions.
 
EngineerJoe said:
It shouldn't make it a demo, as long as the kms are left low. I test drive every car, no exception. So far I've never been asked for a deposit, only driver's license.
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you would but a car or bike that someone used for a test drive? I sure wouldn't!
 
caboose483 said:
You can't exactly go to a Ducati dealership and expect to get the keys for an 1198 that's "out in the lot".

They will either have bikes in crates, or bikes on the showroom floor that don't have batteries installed and likely don't have any fuel in them, and may or may not have been through a PDI at that point. Apples and oranges.
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that raises a good point.....don't cars need to go through a pdi?
 
OpenGambit said:
Thats the dealership's choice. if they decide they want to tell me that I gotta wait for a demo bike. that means they aren't getting my money that day and if another dealership is willing to give me that ride first... done deal.
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Yup, maybe they didn't feel it was worth the risk to be stuck with a car that was test driven/a demo model.
 
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