Long post sorry , just wanted to share our experience
So we just bought our telluride yesterday.
we live in Lexington KY, so we had to drive an hour and a half up to Cincinnati OH , we checked online and they had a color, model and trim that we really liked. so we reached out via their website Monday, someone called and left a message said the car was out being test driven by a friend of the GM and theyll let us know when its back, we called back, they never responded. so we figured someone bought it
in the meantime a local dealer finally got some Tellurides in, they had one on their site that fit our description so we called they said it was there and to come in, we went later that afternoon, and whattya know, it was "sold a few minutes ago,....but heres what we can do", the ol bait and switch. So we listened, talked numbers, they were too high so we said ill bring my EX Optima we want to trade and see what you can offer,
on the way home we called the Cincy dealer just to check and its like they had no record of our web inquiry or phone call from before, they said yes the car is here its MSRP is $40275.00. I said we want to come see it Thursday she said great and we schedule to be there at 5pm
the next day my wife brought the car in to the local dealer, they offered us $3800 for it ( not bad about what i expected, the interior is great and it runs great, just a few dings and scratches though) They were couldnt get down to the price we we wanted so my wife walked and off to cincy we were going, till the dealer call us and said yeah the car wont be ready Thursday , they had to do some prep work to it ( whatever that meant) so we said oh ok, well let us know. later that day they texted us saying we could come in Friday at 5. we were like yup well be there. But the said they close at 6 instead of 8pm( maybe corona mandated i dont know)
So off we went, we got there at 5 sharp, we asked for the lady that had been in touch with us and the young man that greeted us said oh ok let me go get her. he comes back 10 min later and was like yeah Pennie is our internet liason and she said i could assist you. we were like ummm ok. No granted i dont like judging a book by its cover but it happens. this kid is prolly in his mid 20s tops and he just didnt have a sales person mentality about him, he wasnt un-friendly but he wasnt like pushy or over the top friendy . he was just kinda there ya know
so we test drive the car, and we really enjoy it , i asked about the "work being done" and he was clueless and spouted off some random " well when the cars come off the truck we have to inspect them etc". i said well this car has been on the log for awhile according to your website, he was like uhhh well i can check on it for you" Not a big deal
So we get back and hes like ok well you guys have seat and her brings over 2 luke warm cups of water over and was like well do you have any questions and it was just awkward like we had to initiate every step of the process , we asked about our trade and he was like oh yeah well ill have someone go look at it, comes back and my wife was asking about finance rate specials and again he wasnt knowledgeable. its like every question we asked he had to "go check with someone"
So we finally start negotiating price , of course here comes the Dealer add ons, pinstriping, and some kinda Valugard, interior /exterior and undercoating snake oil. so the car we wanted now jumped up from $40275.00 to $42675.00 sell price and hers the kicker. The say my car is only worth $750.00 for trade needless to say it was a slap in the face. i questioned him on the $24900 markup for the "protectant and pinstriping" and he kinda didnt have much to say other than well its already on the car and it adds a great value to protect your investment blah blah blah. so he leaves comes back and says well i can take off $499, but we cant budge on your trade in. so at this point were ready to leave, the dealership is closed, the only people that are there were my wife and my son, the young sales rep, another rep and the finance guy ( all prolly sticking around just in case we buy)
So the Senior sales guy comes over finally , i mention my displeasure with the trade in ( now i know its had some dings but the inside was cherry and the car still runs great) i know its worth more than $750 and i also mention in the $2490 addendum to the MSRP. he was like well we cant come down off that, its value added and its already been done to the car, im like well im not paying $2500 for some scotchguard and pinstriping. We tell him that another dealer back in KY offered us $3800 for my car and he was like oh well you should prolly take it to them and have them buy it because wed have to put that much in to make your care re-sellable at auction. i also mention in the $2490 addendum to the MSRP. he was like well we cant come down off that, its value added and its already been done to the car, im like well im not paying $2500 for some scotchguard and pinstriping. I said if you guys can take off that markup we can talk and that we needed to his Out the Door price with tax tag, title, fees etc
He comes back with an out the door price of $44750. my wife and i looked at eachother and were like lets get out of here. we said we have a number and thats not close. we wanted Out the doorno more that 41500 (cuz we were putting $2500 down) and he was like " nope we they cant do it, he kept talking about the "valugard package and how that was a "fair add on" i declined to respond after i had already told him how i felt about overcharging us for some pinstriping and fabric/undercarriage protector. So we said no thanks and headed for the door,
They took their sweet time giving us our car keys back and when the did they stopped us and said ok we can do 42750 we said no thank you, they stopped us again at the door and said ok we will do it for $ 41800 again we were like no, our number is $41500. they said ok we cant help you and let us walk out, all the while my wife and i were like if they were wiling to go to $41800 why not just go to 41500 like we were asking. we were loading up our 4 year old in his car seat, the young sales rep came running out and said ok, we'll do it for your price of $41500.
I think we did ok, there were some things we left on the table, in that price they got us for $299 etching fee, my wife was doing the financing while i attended to my son, she did the right thing and declined all the extra warranty non-sense, but didnt think to question the bogs etching fee... its still not as great of a deal as we wanted, i wanted to pay about $1000 less, but my wife said this was the color/trim we wanted without the accessories we didnt want i.e. tow package,
cross bars etc.
The experience was just so weird and awkwardoverall Im glad they came down to what we asked, i dont know if it was because the time of the sale, coronavirus stuff going on, the sales team there just seem like they were angry at us for talking them down on the price. i dont know it was just weird. at no point did i ever hear them same thank you for your business or try to cater to us in any way? im not asking for them to be sucking up to me. but we just drop 40k with you, the least you could do is be somewhat more gracious/excited.
The young sales guy, was a nice kid dont get me wrong, but i really feel like he didnt do a whole lot and like this was his first sale, but he had reviews on some dealer review site so hes done this before. By far this is my worst experience ever it wasnt horrible but it just felt awkward by the whole team involved, just wasnt a great experience for us . we love the car and thats what matters but just really wasnt an enjoyable time there
We actually had to drive back up there this morning as we forgot the title to my old car and they promised to wash our new one. so the young kid was there we made some small talk he took our new car to get it cleaned while we signed over the title etc. The "senior sales guy" that approved our deal saw us in the sitting area and it was like seeing a 1 night stand the next day at a party. He was like "welcome back" under his breath as he passed by .
like i said we got the car we wanted at a decent price, but im not sure if i would buy another car from this dealer. especially not from the team that helped us yesterday