Chip Shortages Affect Cars, Too

And now... for the dramatic follow up to the first post.

I'm not super stoked to write out this story because I'm still a little upset about the whole thing, but I need this for future reference.

You know I'm the research queen. When I considered replacing my Sonic, I started reading up on all the ways that dealerships can scam you out of your money. What things to watch out for, and what they will attempt to tell you or the excuses they will give to charge you things.

I came in with a folder. I thought I was ready. I had gotten an approval for a car loan from BECU. I had my credit numbers printed out. I had the average price of the car, what the MSRP was, and an entire print out of all the bogus fees dealerships might try to tack on. And of course I had Patrick with me in order to keep me in check.

When we first walked in, they tried to charge over $35k for a $27,775 MRSP car. They said they were tacking on a markup for the shortage situation. Look, I get it - it's a tough market, but you also have to realize that the longer a car sits on the lot unsold, the more it costs the dealership because they're basically charged a fee for every day it sits. So in the case of selling a car before it even hits the lot? Come on.

When we questioned this, she relented and said that was supposed to have been $31,775 and got it changed. Rule number one that I read is "Dealers don't make mistakes". She'd been doing this job for 3 years, and that would have been a very obvious error. It's not a mistake, they just get caught in a lie.

Then we also got the GAP insurance coverage removed, the oil maitenence package removed, and a reduction in the "PERMAPLATE" stuff that apparently "gets installed at the factory" and helps protect the car from dings and scratches. This is another thing dealerships try to tell you - they will "blame" the factory and say that they're charging it because they have to, as they didn't add it on, but all you have to say is "I didn't request _____, so I want the charge removed." You can do that for other things too, like VIN Etching.

They also do something I read about called "filling buckets" - it's just a visual aid to describe that they shuffle money around from one spot to another to make it look like you're saving more. They did that with my trade in. They first offered $10,500, but then reduced it to $10k after me asking for other stuff to be removed or something, I can't remember exactly. I was looking at the total at the end, and instead of charging $1200 for the PERMAPLATE, they were charging $999, and I figured if I could get that taken off entirely, it would work out. She basically asked me, "If we remove this charge completely, then you will sign?" Due to the $4k markup, the monthly for the vehicle was going to be much higher than I had anticipated. Although I had read that taxes for a vehicle in WA state would only be 6.8%, that doesn't include county tax, so it was more. And also the vehicle licencing charges were almost $800, which seemed outrageous and I was not expecting that either. On the plus side, they didn't try to tack on any "Dealer Prep Fees" or any other bogus charges, so it was just the straight taxes and licensing. 

It was way more than I had originally mathed out. But then the manager said "what if you went from 72 months to 84?" I said I had gotten approved from BECU, and I'm not sure if this was intentional or if there was miscommunication, but he asked "for 84 months?" and I said yes, because I figured if I was approved for 72, why not 84? But we had agreed on a price that worked for me, which I think was $240 a month after down at 84 months. So as long as they took off the PERMAPLATE charge, I would sign.

It's when we got to Finance that things changed and I probably should have backed out. She told us that you can't finance anything less than 20k at 84 months, which is true for a lot of banks, and because we couldn't put as much down as we were anticipating (as it would bring the total cost below 20k), then the monthy would go up to $255. They had tacked on the extended warranty and couldn't remove it or it would drop the loan amount to below 20k. I mean, after raising my concerns, she did take $500 off the extended to bring it down to $2500, and somehow reduced the cost of the licensing fees to somehwere around $450 and it still kept the loan above $20k. Plus, she told us that if we wanted to remove the extended warranty all we had to do was call them, and a check would be cut directly to the bank and it would take $2500 off the total, but it obviously wouldn't reduce our monthly.

[Side note: The reason I focus on the monthly payment is not make it low enough to afford, I know that is a mistake. I want it the lowest I can possibly make it so that I have the ability to overpay every month. I had paid off my Sonic loan in 3 years. I knew I wasn't going to still be paying off this car in 7 years, and not even in 6.]

My mistake was signing anyway. It was after 9pm, we were all tired. She told me "lets just secure this paperwork and get you home" (including putting down a $500 deposit to secure the new car).

That night, after I got home, I was phisically ill. I couldn't sleep. I kept telling Patrick how much I regretted this, and he was saying that everything was fine, everything would be fine, we could afford it. But I didn't like it. I felt like we were taken advantage of, that it was a type of bait and switch, that we had agreed on one price but then Finance told us different, and the whole thing didn't sit well with me and I wanted to back out. He said that was fine, that we didn't "sign anything" and I could still back out. 

The car would be arriving that Saturday. I texted the rep that I wanted to back out. She had originally told me that the $500 deposit was contingent on me liking the car, since it wasn't available for me to test drive. And I figured that if she refused to return the deposit then I could issue a chargeback on my credit card since I had no intention of picking up the car.

She said that I had signed over the Sonic and it was now their car. I said I still had the title...? She sent me a picture of the affidavit I signed the other night in Finance. That basically meant that I had no recourse to back out of this. You see, even though I held the original title to my Sonic, they had me sign a Affidavit to Release Interest in the Sonic. It was now their car, and if I didn't give it to them, they could repo it. I was stuck. Although I had gotten advice saying that it wasn't legal and they couldn't do anything if I didn't drive the car off the lot, it didn't make sense to me that they never needed MY title of the Sonic. That affidavit had to be a legally binding document. 

I spoke to the manager, and he got me another $250 off the price, which lowered my monthy to $251 (oh joy), but that was all he could do. I mean, I was more upset with myself than them. I did sign all the documents. The only part I can't prove was whether or not they had intentionally made it seem like I could do 84 months at a lower payment then was actually possible. 

I told Patrick that we were going to go pick up the car. He was upset that I was upset, and to him it seemed like I was folding under pressure. But I just had to chalk it up to experience, and an expensive mistake, and it's not like I still didn't want the car. It was just right now was bad timing. We were planning on moving out in May, and I had to take some money out of the Savings for moving in order to meet the down payment. And due to Patrick owing taxes and such, it just meant that we were going to have to sign another lease at our current place for another 6 months. But that might work out for the best in the end, since the new apartment was going to be a bit more expensive than this one anyway.

I can't say I got a bad deal. The only thing they ended up getting away with was the $4k markup. And they weren't the only dealership charging $31,775 for the car. But I can't wait to take the Honda of Burien plates off my car, that's for sure.