re: Your Most Insulting Car Salesman Story?

I hope you told him to GFY before you left.

Salesman admitted he typically sold used cars and didn’t know much about the new car I wanted. Said he would go ask the sales manager. Show room was empty except the sales manager and some salesman joking around. Told the guy to tell me “he can get any answers he needs off the internet.” I wanted the car and the actual salesman was nice so went back the next day. They tried to say I “only could be approved” for 6.9% but they “would try again if you initial next to this offer first.” Walked out and was driving home in a car from a different dealership 2 hours later.

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He said, "nobody wants a used SUV with an untested towing package."

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I would have asked him if he was fricking retard. You have insult people like that or they never learn.

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1981, negotiating with the salesman on a new Olds. Wife blurts out, it matches the color of my purse. Salesman stopped negotiating. We bought the car.

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similar but opposite outcome: I was looking at a car many years ago and the dealers prices were reasonable but they didn't have the color I wanted and asked about how long it would take to get that color. salespuke, says "why not just take this one today ... it matches your shirt"

I literally could not believe he said that shite with a straight face.

Several years back my mom was wanting to buy a new 4-runner so I went with her to a large, reputable dealer. We found the one she wanted and sat down with the salesman to talk about pricing. After a few minutes he asked if mom was married and she said yes, and he said, “well, maybe you should get your husband down here to talk about the money, I’m sure he doesn’t want you spending any more of his money than you have to.”

It’s the only time I’ve ever had any kind of issue with a car salesman. I expect general scumbaggery from them so I take most things in stride. It’s also the only time I’ve ever had to be restrained from trying to get across someones desk in a business setting

My mom was a doctor for nearly 40 years. She had a stack of cash in her purse ready to buy that suv. And she did buy the same suv at another dealership about 2 hours later.

Some of you may be old enough to remember Dave Barry, the humor columnist from years ago. I read this back in the day and found it again, LMAO:

STALKING THE WILD CAR PRICE

By DAVE BARRY
February 7, 1988

We are attempting to purchase a new car, and I have just one teensy little question: WHY WON'T THEY TELL YOU HOW MUCH IT COSTS?

I mean, let's say you're in the market for a rutabaga. You go to the supermarket and there, plain as day, is a sign stating the price of the rutabaga, allowing you to decide instantly whether it is in your price range. If it is, you simply pay the amount and take your rutabaga home, and you hurl it into your garbage disposal. At least that's what I would do, because I hate rutabagas.

But when you walk into a car dealership, you are entering Consumer Hell. There is no easy way to find out what the actual true price of any given car is. Oh, sure, there is a "sticker price," but only a very naive, fungal creature just arrived from a distant galaxy would dream of paying this. In fact, federal law now requires that the following statement appear directly under the sticker price:

"WARNING TO STUPID PEOPLE: DO NOT PAY THIS AMOUNT."

The only way to find out the REAL price is to undergo a fraternity-style initiation. First you squint at the sticker, which lists the car's 163 special features, none of which you could ever locate on the actual car because they all sound like rocket parts, as in "tranverse-mounted induced-torque modality propounders." Then a salesperson comes sidling toward you in an extremely casual fashion (do not attempt to escape, however; an experienced car salesperson can sidle great distances at upwards of 45 mph) and chatters on at length about the many extreme advantages of whatever car you are looking at ("it has your obverse-shafted genuine calfskin bivalve exuders"). But if you ask him the true price, he will make some vague, Confucius-type statement like: "Dave, we are definitely willing to go the extra mile to put a smile on your face."

"But how much does it COST?" you say.

"Dave," he says, lowering his voice to indicate that you and he have become close personal friends. "Frankly, Dave, {name of whatever month it is} has been a slow month, and I think, Dave, that if we sit down and cut bait, we can come up with a number that we can play ball with."

"WHAT number?" you say. "TELL ME THE NUMBER."

"Dave," he says, "I think if we both pull on our oars here, we can put the icing on the cake while the iron is still hot."

The easiest solution, of course, is to simply pull out a loaded revolver and say, "Tell me how much this car costs or I will kill you," but unfortunately it is still a misdemeanor in some states to shoot a car salesperson. So eventually you have to start GUESSING at the price ("Is it more than $9,500?"). It is very similar to the childhood game 20 Questions, only it takes much longer, because instead of saying "yes" or "no," the salesperson always answers: "Let me talk to my manager."

The manager is comparable to the Wizard of Oz, an omnipotent being who stays behind the curtain and pulls the levers and decides whether or not the Cowardly Lion will get a free sunroof. I have never heard a conversation between a manager and a salesperson, but I assume it goes like this:

SALESPERSON: He wants to know if it's more than $9,500. Can I tell him?

MANAGER: How many times have you called him "Dave"?

SALESPERSON: 1,672 times.

MANAGER: Not yet.

So it can take hours to determine the true price, and this is just for ONE car. If you want to find out the price of another brand of car, you have to go through the entire fraternity initiation all over again. And there are hundreds of brands of cars out there. THOUSANDS of them. Back when I was a child and Abraham Lincoln was the president, there were only about four kinds of cars, all of them manufactured by General Motors, but now you see new dealerships springing up on a daily basis, selling cars you never heard of, cars whose names sound like the noise that karate experts make just before they break slabs of concrete with their foreheads ("Hyundai!!").

So far, the cars we have looked at include: the Mimosa Uhuru 2000-LXJ, the Mikado Sabrina Mark XVIXMLCM and the Ford Peligroso, which is actually the same as the Chevrolet Sombrero, the Jeep Violent Savage and the Chrysler Towne Centre Coupe de Grace, and which is manufactured partly in Asia (engine, transmission, body) and partly in the United States (ashtray). They are all fine cars, but at the present time, based on our discussions with the various salespersons, we find ourselves leaning toward the rutabaga.

That probably is typical. But not in our case.

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That's kind of insulting. I've bought so many cars by myself. Once I walked in and bought a brand new Subaru outback on a Friday night because I needed an AWD for a rescue mission the next day. In 2021 I bought 2 vehicles by myself, one brand new. That one I ended up taking a 4 hour bus ride to the only dealer in CA that wasn't gouging prices over msrp. (Easy sale, I'm sure they knew I was going home with a car that day, since I showed up without one.) The other local dealer that I used for a test drive kept calling me for a few weeks before I finally told them that I took the bus north to save $5800. They had the audacity to sound offended. I have a horror story about the other car that I bought that year but it's still hard for me to dwell on enough to write about. But long story short, some women do buy cars alone and make snap decisions that they might later regret just like everyone else.

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Had a general manager tell me…”maybe this car is just too much for you”.

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I had a salesman tell me the same 20 years ago. Asked for the lowest price he can get me to and he took off like $400. I told him I need more than that off and his reply was, “maybe this is too much car for you”.

Immediately stood up and walked out, went down the road and found the same car and they instantly took off a couple grand and bought the car.