The Internet is full of requests: at which car dealership can you buy a car and not become a victim of the situation? There are a lot of such requests on automotive websites and forums. Nowadays, many “black” dealers and “black” car dealerships deceive their customers by selling a car at more than its real value. Also, the car may even be illiquid. Great difficulties arise for those who buy a car on credit or in installments.
Not what you think
The first thing you should understand before visiting a car dealership is that deception does not mean that they want to sell you a broken car or a car that has been in an accident. Although there were such cases, they were very rare and they ended in failure for the car dealership.
Therefore, many car dealers do not want to risk their reputation and offer you truly new cars. But “many” does not mean all, so we will still discuss this villainous deception below.
In most cases, fraud in car dealerships manifests itself in the form of:
- Incorrect information about the car provided to the client. This applies to its configuration, maintenance features, car warranty and insurance;
- Availability of an installment plan or an interest-free loan, in the end the buyer still pays interest;
- The difference between real data about a car and the information provided in advertisements. This is especially true for its cost;
- The presence of imaginary discounts on cars, ongoing promotions and offered gifts in case of purchasing only a certain car model right here and now;
- Using the buyer's pre-euphoric state;
- Availability of price lists for cars only in dollars or euros;
- Please make an advance payment for the purchase of a low-cost car;
- Selling a used car.
Next, we will look at each case separately and in more detail, but if you change your mind about buying a new car, then read here how to buy a used car correctly.
What tricks do dishonest car dealerships use?
Such dealers do not spare anyone and use a lot of tricks to lure potential customers. They are exchanged at car dealerships quite often. But the fact is that it is very difficult to distinguish such sellers from honest ones, because in essence the transaction takes place according to the rules of the law and no fraud is involved. Before you deceive someone, you need to earn trust. This is exactly what dealers do.
Most visitors do not want to overpay and this is what most scammers are guided by. They use simple tricks to deceive, which are not immediately noticeable. They usually operate according to the following schemes:
- “Necessary” equipment at high prices. The seller offers the product at a reduced price, but in the end the car dealership obliges you to buy a bunch of additional items that increase the final amount paid. If the client does not want to purchase additional parts, dealers threaten him with the fact that the car will completely lose its warranty. This does not comply with legal regulations, so in this case you should contact the consumer protection departments.
- Pre-sale preparation for payment. Of all the methods of deception, this is considered pure fraud. The salon must pay for all work on preparation for sale itself. If, when purchasing a car, you see that washing and other necessary treatments are included in the total price, do not sign this document.
- Car delivery scam. Such car dealerships often use the services of a marketer. Advertising everywhere says: you can order the desired car in any configuration to your home! For delivery, the client must pay a deposit and sign a contract (which many people usually don’t even read). Next, the person waits for his car to arrive. But the arrived car does not meet your requirements, and may not even be what you ordered. Usually they bring expensive cars. But the client has already paid a deposit and cannot refuse the delivered goods, because he will lose the deposited amount. As a result, he has to buy a more expensive car.
Important! If you find yourself in this situation, you will not be able to sue. This transaction is completely legal. Typically, clients in such a situation do not want to terminate the contract for a higher cost, because the deposit has already been paid, and the time has been spent waiting. Thus, showrooms earn more than they could and put into circulation expensive cars that are not in great demand.
Credit
If you are buying a car on credit, then this is a separate topic for study, since there can be a lot of pitfalls here and over time their number does not decrease, they just constantly change into other formations.
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The only thing that can be recommended here is to carefully study the contract for obtaining a loan and buying a car. If you don’t understand all these subtleties, contact a lawyer you know, and in most cases that’s what people do, because a car loan is serious.
Especially in the contract, pay attention to the equipment of the car and the final cost of the car.
Unfavorable trade-in
Often car dealerships offer to pick up an old car from the owner and in this case they offer a good discount on a new car. It is worth remembering that no company will operate at a loss, so the discount provided to you will definitely be included in the redemption price of your car. Thus, they will take your car at a price much lower than the market price.
Of course, there is one main advantage to this method of buying and selling a car. You buy and sell a car at the moment you need, without having to find a buyer. All documents for the transaction will be prepared by the salon for you, and all you have to do is sign. But you often have to pay a high price for this comfort.
Installment and interest-free loan
There is another scheme, but it can be called a tricky scam. This is payment in installments or an interest-free loan.
But not all car dealerships can afford such a scheme, since everything here is tied to the official dealer and manufacturer.
A car dealer, with the permission of the official manufacturer, makes a discount on the car and announces a promotion - an interest-free loan. In fact, the loan is an ordinary one with interest from the bank, but all this interest and markups are simply compensated to the buyer by an announced discount, and the total amount of the discount is compensated directly to the car dealership by the manufacturer by prior agreement.
As a result, the buyer does not seem to lose anything, but does not win anything, but the dealer makes money.
Lies from a private seller
Unlike car dealerships and resellers, private sellers know the history of the car and it becomes much more difficult to lie. True, they, being ordinary people, are often unable to assess the condition of the car themselves and as a result give “false testimony.” And if they cheat, they usually do it ineptly, for example, they hesitate when answering a direct question about suspicious knocking noises in the engine or about the actual mileage if it is twisted.
One common method of deception is to remove the faulty system warning light from the dashboard. Sometimes the circuit of one lamp is connected to the next one, so as not to arouse suspicion and not provoke the buyer to conduct computer diagnostics.
If all the warning lights go out when starting, this does not mean that there are no electrical problems.
Below are a few phrases that many car sellers use to deceive:
“The air conditioner needs to be charged and it will work” - if it doesn’t work, you will have to change the compressor or fix the leak, or both.
“I didn’t change the mileage” - few people adjust the odometer on their own; there are special people for this.
“The service center told me that I just need to adjust the valves or (think for yourself)” - means that they are now putting spaghetti on your hearing organs, and you won’t be able to do without serious repairs after the purchase.
“My second cousin’s car, she asked me to sell it, I have a photocopy of my passport,” any other relative or friend can say. In general, this is a steal.
“The ban due to an unpaid fine will be lifted soon” - no comment.
“Painted, there were scratches” - after a serious accident.
“I didn’t paint anything” - I bought a broken one.
Providing information to the client
It should be understood that, at the same level as the task of selling a car, car dealerships have another, no less important task - to attract the buyer to their dealership at any cost.
To achieve this, car dealerships are ready to do anything, because one-on-one communication between the buyer and a well-trained manager provides a greater guarantee of making a purchase.
Therefore, advertising information that is displayed on billboards, newspapers, the Internet, etc. As a rule, it is partially untrue and has only one goal - to attract a buyer.
Words such as: exclusive offer, huge discounts, low price, only now, limited offer, gift with purchase, interest-free loan and installment plan, etc. (they may not take into account the maximum permissible limit of 18% in the cost of the car), already at the first stage of acquaintance with a car dealership, you should not have concerns, but at least doubts about the reliability of the information and when going to this car dealership you already need to be on your guard.
It’s better to ignore such information altogether, realizing that it’s just a marketing ploy.
What to do.
Even if you call the manager, you are unlikely to receive complete and reliable information about the car from him.
The manager will try by any means to get you into the car dealership. Therefore, before going to inspect a car, go to the Internet, look at similar offers on the car market in one or another car configuration, write down the prices, and then compare them with those offered. Don't lose your composure, but read on about it.
Using the buyer's pre-euphoric state
We partially touched on the psychological state of the buyer at the beginning of the article. And this is really a problem, since many people are driven by emotions, not reason, which is what car salesmen take advantage of.
An experienced manager, after a few seconds of communication with the buyer, can determine for what purpose he came to them, simply get acquainted with the offers, or is already ready to buy a car, i.e. hot client.
It is very easy to deceive a hot client, since he is already aiming to leave the car dealership in his car.
It is at this moment that “miracles in a sieve” begin. You point to the car model you like, and the equipment is suitable, and the price is acceptable, but what a shame, it suddenly turns out that a deposit has just been made for this model, but only for you, and now there is another model, but for a higher price, since there is a different configuration.
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Here you need to be careful, since the difference in configuration may not correspond to the difference in cost; as a rule, the cost is much too high.
Or a situation happens when the buyer is offered another car with additional equipment that he would not want to have in his car, or planned to install it in a different place and at a different price.
The car dealership does not want to lose profit, the equipment is installed and it will no longer be possible to refuse it; in the future, the car service center will earn money from servicing it. In general, everyone who is not too lazy makes money from the buyer, if, of course, he allows it.
What to do in this situation.
Calm down, you lived without a car before, you can live for a couple more days. Is there a deposit for the car? Well, God bless him, turn 180 degrees and leave. Pretend that you are the boss here, and not the managers of the car dealership.
Make it clear that you came with cash and are ready to spend it with them. A couple of minutes will pass and the buyer who made the deposit suddenly abandoned this model. Or the manufacturer allows you to remove additional equipment, and the cost of the car will become even lower.
You need to understand that you must force the car dealership to play only by your rules, then you are guaranteed to be able to purchase the right model of car.
Deception at car dealerships
To be honest, I feel sorry for those people who perceive the phrase “official dealer” as a sacred amulet that can protect against deception and subsequent problems with the car. It is absolutely logical to think that if you can trust someone, then only a large company with qualified personnel, where they will not only tell you everything honestly about the car, but also provide top-class service with coffee and cookies. But, unfortunately, such gullibility often ends with a painful removal of the knife from the back, or rather, the fleeting sale of the purchased junk car with a twisted mileage for next to nothing.
The car dealership employees themselves openly admit: “We sell what they supplied us!” Often the burden of acceptance is placed on ordinary managers, whose art is to sell, rather than evaluate and verify. So it happens that cunning private sellers sometimes manage to sell a car with legal problems or a front-wheel drive car under the guise of a 4x4 to a car dealership, like, for example, this Suzuki SX4, which the girl accepted.
In principle, everything is clear with managers, but how the service department technicians, trained in the latest technology, manage to miss cars with a “dead” engine without oil in the crankcase is not entirely clear. Although, there is an assumption that the final word is given to the dealer scanner. Perhaps the absence of digital deviations and errors in the blocks for them means complete serviceability, which is absolutely at odds with the ideology of full car diagnostics.
There is almost no lubricant left in the engine, and it can no longer be called oil. How this car was received at the car dealership is a mystery.
That is, in most cases, car dealership managers themselves do not know what they are selling, but they convince them that the car has been checked and there is nothing to worry about. Can this be considered cheating? Rather yes than no. A person lies most frankly when he does not know the truth.
Dollar price list
By indicating the price only in dollars, the car dealership hopes that many buyers do not recalculate the price from USD. at the official rate to the ruble and recalculation occurs at its own rate. For example, the official rate is 1 to 30, and the price in rubles you will see is 1 to 34. And many people pay.
What to do.
When you first communicate with the manager, immediately clarify the cost of the car in rubles, and during further communications, as if by chance, mention this figure in order to finally “stake out” it. Naturally, before visiting a car dealership, you need to know the official exchange rate.
Prepayment
This usually happens when buying a low-cost car. You are required to make an advance payment. The car arrives in a month, and its cost is already 1.5 times more expensive. You swear, they don’t return the money, they demand you pay a penalty 7%
(it turns out it is spelled out in the contract), they suggest going to court, but this is a lost cause, since everything is spelled out in the contract against the buyer, who simply did not read it.
What to do.
Read the contract carefully and consult a lawyer if necessary. Emphasize to managers that the car will not be purchased at a high price, although this is unlikely to save the contract, first of all.
