I Hate Car Shopping - The Good, Bad, and Fugly

This vehicle was for sale under $6,000 and the was well below the NADA trade in price, so we were very excited to find the vehicle was still on the lot on Friday (4/17/09). We test drove it and were satisfied that it was in good condition and agreed to purchase it. The salesman wasn't too pushy. In fact, he actually seemed somewhat disinterested. We offered the $5,500 and he balked and said we were way too off on price and it would go for $10k. My wife had printed off the ad and produced it and we were told that they could do the $5,988 since it was in the ad.
 

They then bring out their finance guy and pulled our credit. We told them we would pay $500 down and were willing to pay up to $200 per month for the vehicle. They said they wanted $1,000 down and $340 per month. We asked what interest rate that was and they said that we'd have to discuss that with the finance dept and couldn't tell us anything about cost or terms. They then tried to tell us they couldn't get us financed on any car unless it was more expensive. We had spent over 3 hours there at this point, so I told them we'd get our own financing through the bank and would be back the next day. He confirmed the price would still be good the next day.
 

Our bank, City National, was wonderful. We only spent less than an hour going over the paperwork and we got it set up for $200/month for 3 years. They went through all of our information and explained to us how all the numbers were obtained and even let us keep a copy of the credit reports. The kids had soccer games in the morning, so we called the salesman at 11 a.m. to confirm that we did get the financing and would be back after the kids were finished with the soccer and should be there at 1:00 p.m. We got there about 1:20 p.m. and gave them the bank information and they said they were going to get the paperwork ready and disappeared. We ended up waiting for 45 minutes and were then told that one of the salesmen had allowed another couple to test drive the Xterra and were waiting for it to come back so they could get the mileage for their paperwork. We were assured that we still had a deal and they were looking for a newer Nitro and were driving the Xterra to determine if the wife liked an SUV-style vehicle while they waited for the Nitro's to become available as they were both out on test drives.
 

The test drive lasted 45 minutes, which was hell with 2 young children getting bored and frustrated. We saw them come back and about 15 minutes after that the sales manager comes in and tells us he's sorry but the Xterra was sold already. I was furious. We had wasted all this time waiting for them to sell the vehicle out from under us to someone that test drove it while we were waiting on them to process our financing. Obviously, this couple had paid more for the car. He said he'd make it up to us and offered a 2001 Rodeo. It had more miles and was $2k more than the Xterra and was 3 years older. We made sure we chewed him out loudly so that all the other customers could see what kind of people they were dealing with. I can't say it enough. They are crooks and attempted to bait and switch us after selling a car that we had already asked to purchase.
 

On the other hand, after we left there, we went to Automax in Midwest City, since it was on the way. We tried out a 2007 Kia Rondo. My wife liked it, but they wouldn't drop the price below NADA retail, so we knew we wouldn't be able to get 100% financing and left. Great car, though, and the engine layout was very nice. The salesman, Wayne, was also great, but the sales manager wouldn't budge on the price.
 

By this time we knew our bank was closed and pretty much had given up, and we decided to hit Bob Howard in Edmond as it was close to our home. I'm very glad we did. We did get an 06 Ford Focus Wagon for 85% of NADA Retail and it had only 13K miles on it. Wonderful car and it was a complete 180 from dealing with David Stanley Dodge. We now have a nice car sitting in our driveway and we got the terms and financing we needed through our bank.

In short:

City National Bank and Bob Howard Edmond are great. A+

David Stanley Dodge are scammers and won't sell you a car for the price in their own ads. F-