Looking to buy a used car? Here are 6 reasons not to!

What’s your most anxiety-inducing experience…public speaking? Visits to the dentist? How about walking into a car dealership? Would someone please tell me why auto selling still has to follow the mysterious model of trying to fool the customer into spending way more money than the car is worth, not to mention offering peanuts for your trade in?

Let me state first that I do not intend to offend smart, honest automobile salespersons, but, after three visits to three different dealers, I just feel dirty. One was a bit better than the others, but I still felt like they thought we were idiots, as if trying to buy a car for the first time in our 60 plus years, insulting our intelligence. Now I know CarMax follows a different model with no haggling, no dealer fees and you can return the car and get your money back. We have bought cars from them in the past, but they are a bit higher priced than the norm and this time we’re trying to save some money.

We hate giving up our Prius – second one we’ve owned and drove the last one up to 160k miles – but it’s not a good car to take up to the mountain house in the winter. So, we’re looking to make a lateral move into a used Subaru, not afraid of high miles, but don’t want to dish out major $$$, after our trade, for something that’s not on a par with what we have now. Am I living in an alternate universe to expect better?

Here are some issues we’ve faced when driving into a dealership…

1. Please don’t walk up to me, patronizingly pouring on the sweet and sappy comments, hoping we’re feeling wonderful on this absolutely beautiful day. A “Hi, I’m so and so, could I help you?” will do. And, maybe give us a minute to actually get out of the car before you jump out of the shadows.
2. Listen to our list of wants before showing us a car that, obviously, is not what we’re looking for…a nice sedate Outback, not a monster truck

   Photo Courtesy Orlando Sentinel

3. If you are selling used cars, please do not offer some listed as “Certified” and others not. We are expecting any used car on a lot to be checked over, making sure it’s eligible and worthy of being on your lot. No fancy names necessary.
4. Biggest peeve is the “Dealer Fee” – sometimes knows as Doc Fee. This can run anywhere from $300 to $900 and lies in the fine print of the dealer ads. This is just a rip off and no way can it be justified. You’re already making a profit from the advertised price of the car. And we know how to figure out sales tax, thank you, not to mention the fees for transferring tag and title. These are standards costs that do not need to be manipulated.
5. Then there’s the old sales model of handing us your first offer, when we refuse you take it back to your “Manager” and return with another offer. When we refuse that one and want to leave, your manager appears doing more sweet-talking. For all that is holy, just let us out of here!!
6. So you’ve managed to make it home, but for the next month there will be a barrage of phone calls and emails with pleas…how can we help? What if we give you $500 more for your trade in? Blah, blah, blah. Thanks, but, no thanks!

It’s an ugly experience and you’d think, by now, dealers would get wise to the fact that car buyers actually have a brain, even if they look like addled old people. So, now we’re trying to sell the Prius ourselves and it’s looking like January is not the best month to do that. Probably won’t be making a trip to the mountains this winter!