As many of you are already aware, a couple of years ago we moved away from my beloved lake in Georgia and are now living in central Texas. Very recently we began shopping for a new vehicle. After much research we decided the Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy. This is a top-of-the-line SUV. And so, the adventure begins.
We now live near Fort Hood in Texas and the closest Hyundai dealership to us is in Killeen Texas We went there several times looking at the vehicles. There was a nice young lady assisting us who shall remain nameless since this is about the dealership and not the person. We, naturally, wanted to know the ‘out the door’ price of the Palisade that we had chosen. The sticker price was listed, and we knew that much. As we were walking back into the dealership to get final pricing, the young lady informed us that there was an automatic $5000.00 up-charge because the vehicle is hard to find right now. WHAT? Oh, but it doesn’t stop there.
We pay cash for our vehicles because we do not believe in carrying any debt. That means we do not finance our cars. While you might think a dealer would appreciate this, the exact opposite is true. Financing is pure gravy to the dealer as they make money off of your interest, so they don’t like it when you don’t finance. When we told the young lady this and she ‘went to her manager’ for the final pricing on the vehicle, it came back with an ADDITIONAL $10,000.00 of already applied add-ons. We are now talking $15,000.00 over the sticker price. We walked out. I won’t play that kind of game, no item is worth it. I could be wrong, but to my eye this looks like a classic bait-and-switch. You list a price on the car and then suddenly it is $15,000.00 more, even if you don’t want their ‘extras’ Ah, but the best is yet to come.
There are other dealerships within about a 50-mile radius of us. After several web searches, phone calls and texts, we found that at least FOUR other dealerships did not play these games for the EXACT SAME VEHICLE. We decided to go to one of these, Southpoint Hyundai in Austin Texas. The price was precisely what we expected, no ridiculous add-ons, no mysterious up-charges. The people there worked hard to secure our business and make sure that we, as customers, were happy. I’m sure you can guess where we decided to buy the car.
You are the customer, you have choices, and you have a voice. Do NOT believe that simply because one dealership decides to add ‘extra charges’ that are NOT on the sticker of the car that you have to accept it. There is no reason to be so desperate that you have to settle for less than being treated fairly. The difference between the Hyundai dealer in Killeen and Southpoint Hyundai is night and day, honesty versus whatever you want to call what the Hyundai dealer in Killeen is doing.
Stay safe, be wise.
KM
No comments:
Post a Comment