What is so difficult about saying “no”. ??

“Bitkahuna, would you like an extended warranty?”

NO

”would you like a bug deflector?”

NO

”do you want to finance?”

NO

”do you want to lease?”

YES

”would you like to pay MSRP?”

YES


I don’t see the big deal

 

Nothing stops them, and that happens all the time.

The issue is they sneak those things in on many consumers who don't understand how all of this works.

 

Not my issue. They should inform themselves. I enjoy not paying full MSRP

 

I think as a society we have a duty to help protect consumers from being taken advantage of to an certain degree. There needs to be regulation here like there is in the real estate industry, with mandated forms and disclosures to make sure that consumers understand what they are agreeing to.

I enjoy paying less than MSRP too but thats not possible right now for the vast majority of people. If I'm going to pay MSRP, I'd rather just buy from the manufacturer. No car I would be interested in buying right now is buyable at less than MSRP.

 

Saturn and Scion once had the answer to that.....official company policy. You either sell at MSRP (which you agreed to when you got your franchise)...or you lose your franchise. No arguments.

True, both divisions folded, but that was NOT because of their no-dicker sales policies. It was because their products were mismanaged by corporate superiors.

 

You said you like the Buick Enclave...except for some of the styling. If you we're seriously interested in one, the guy who sold me my Buicks would probably give you at least something off of MSRP.....he has treated other people I have referred to him well.

 

I’m not buying anything for at least a year, hopefully things improve before then.

 

that's not how it goes though... many dealers today have already installed their 'package' on the car, and let's say it's $2K claimed value and you said you're expecting msrp, they say "sure, that'll be msrp+$2K for our wonderful package", take it or leave it. the package being things like ceramic coating, nitrogen in the tires (pure bs), upholstery protection, a pinstripe, maybe a service plan, etc.

car dealers are a very powerful lobby and they all LIKE those tricks. in real estate, i guess some realtors realized that allowing back practices or non disclosure was bad for the industry, so they supported regulation, which in florida at least, is not state regs i believe, it's FAR (florida association of realtors) who have the standard contracts which are very thorough and good and it seems everyone uses them.

i agree with you though that dealers could do themselves a lot of good in terms of image if they were more transparent with consistent forms. i have NEVER had a 'quote' from a dealer that was in any way intelligible from a math standpoint, i have to do my own calcs and compare the bottom line. when i've asked for clarification on quotes, i get the runaround. last 2 deals i did after lots of runaround ended up with them saying "what number do you want?" i told them and that ended it. obviously if they accepted my number i may have left money on the table, but my numbers were certainly a lot lower than theirs and i could live with them.

i don't know how they did that, because price fixing is illegal. i can only assume they had vigorous 'incentives' for towing the line.

 

Last new car (truck) I bought had running boards on it, I got them $17.5k under msrp and said "oh yeah, I'll just be pulling those off really quick since I never said I wanted them" and started walking toward the truck with a ratchet.

They gave them to me for free to avoid having to pay a tech to pull them off. In reality I wanted them and would have bought them anyway....I also got 3 keys instead of 2 and all weather mats. All handed to me after papers were signed so no price changes

 

That was a different world lol

 

when was this?

 

Stealerships for sure - i had a pretty awful experience with a dealer bait and switching on me last week with a lower tiered package but saying it was the one i wanted. I caught it thankfully. When i asked for proof that it was a mistake, they couldn't provide any. Such BS. I walked from that mess.

Ended up buying the one we wanted from another dealer 3 days later who had inventory and was only charging msrp.

 

Apples and oranges, bit. That was not price-fixing....at least not the accepted and legal definition of it. Neither Saturn nor Scion ever tried to get together with representatives from other automakers and try to set a common pricing-policy. Saturn, even over and above the MSRP-only policy, was also trying out a number of other new things that had never been done in the industry before, and Scion managers liked the idea of the MSRP-only policy so much that they adopted it for their own new division. Part of that was done because, unlike Saturn dealerships (called "retailers"), which did not share any other franchises, Scion vehicles were to be sold under the same roof as the Toyota dealerships, and Toyota dealerships were still doing some price-gouging left over from the 80s and 90s when Toyota and Honda ruled the industry. Scion gave customers the option of buying small, reliable, Toyota-engineered/built vehicles with a MUCH easier and more customer-friendly dealer-experience.

 

2018 early year

 

Once upon a time, if you were serious enough about leaving, they'd take all or most of that nonsense off to make the sale. Right now, they know there's likely another buyer standing in the showroom at that very moment who will happily pay for the extras just to get the car they want, so they'll generally let you walk out the door.

Price fixing is when competitors collude to set a (typically higher-than-market) price. These prices were mandated by the manufacturer, which is different.

Look at the price of an iPhone at 10 different retailers. They will all be exactly the same. This isn't price fixing either, it's just part of the retail contract that Apple has with all of its 3rd parties.