Buying a used car means you're getting a vehicle that someone else has owned before. It's important to check its history and condition before making a purchase.
Allegiant Airlines is a budget airline in the U.S. that offers cheap flights, mainly to vacation spots. They might charge extra for things like checked bags or seat selection.
Add-ons are extra features or services that you can choose to buy when you get a car. They can make the car more expensive but are not always necessary.
MSRP is the price that car makers suggest dealers sell their cars for. But dealerships can add extra costs, making the final price higher than what you see at first.
Dealer fees are extra charges that car dealerships add on top of the car's price. These can include things like paperwork fees and other costs that you might not expect.
Gap insurance helps pay off your car loan if your car is stolen or totaled and is worth less than what you still owe. It fills the 'gap' between the loan amount and the car's value.
A service contract is like an insurance policy for your car that helps pay for repairs after the original warranty runs out. It can save you money if something goes wrong with your vehicle later on.
Dealer prep is what the dealership does to get a car ready for you to buy, like cleaning it and checking it for problems. Sometimes they charge a fee for this service, which can add to the cost of the car.
The Alpine A110 is a small sports car that is really fun to drive and looks stylish. It’s known for being light and nimble, making it great for people who love driving on winding roads. People talk about it because it’s a special car that stands out from the usual choices.
The out-the-door price is how much you actually pay for a car after everything is added up, including taxes and fees. It's the total cost you need to pay to drive the car home.
The Hyundai Veloster is a small car that has a cool design with one door on one side and two doors on the other. It’s fun to drive and is popular among younger people because it looks sporty and is easy to park. People mention it because it’s a good mix of style and practicality.
A buyer's order is a contract that shows what you are paying for a car and any extra costs. It makes sure both you and the dealership agree on the sale details.
A sales contract is a written agreement that says what you and the dealership have agreed on for buying a car, including the price and any special conditions.
A dog fee is an extra charge that some car dealerships might add to the price of a car. It's good to ask what this fee is for so you understand why you're paying it.
A sales manager is the person at a car dealership who helps run the sales team and makes sure everything goes smoothly when selling cars. They can also sign important documents for the sale.
A general manager is the person in charge of running the whole car dealership. They make important decisions and help manage the staff to keep everything working well.
Refundable means you can get your money back if certain things happen. For example, if you pay a deposit on a car and decide not to buy it, you might get that money back if the dealership allows it.
A dent doctor is someone who fixes small dents in cars without needing to repaint them. They have special tools to make the dents go away, which saves time and money.
Paint matching means making sure that the new paint used to fix a car looks the same as the original paint. This is important so the car looks good after it's been repaired.
A payoff is how much money you need to pay to completely own your car if you borrowed money to buy it. If you trade it in, that amount needs to be paid off first.
A bill of sale is a paper that shows you bought a car. It has important information like how much you paid and details about the car.
LIVE
It's me. It's me. It's Ernest T. You know what that's from, don't you? That's right. Andy
Griffith. Ernest T. Bass. He was that crazy little guy from the hills and he would come
in and just wreak havoc on Mayberry. But no, this isn't Ernest T. Bass. This is Lenny
Lawson, the car guru. Thanks for joining me this morning. I have a case study for you
and it's from a Facebook post from a gentleman from Florida and he was trying to buy a used
Hyundai and he booked a flight on Allegiant Airlines and thought he had the deal all worked out,
thought he knew what he could buy the car for because he trusted what he saw online and he
trusted the person that he was talking to on the phone. That was mistake number one and
mistake number two. If he had just listened to this podcast or had a copy of the my car guru
guidebook, which is a totally free compilation of my most valuable concepts when it comes to
buying, selling, trading, servicing and just about anything you do with your car and your car
life. But he didn't have access to that. He does now because I responded to his Facebook post
when I told him where to find the information. Too late now though. So here's his post that he had
on Facebook. Flew in to purchase a used car from Blankety Blank Hyundai. He didn't say Blankety
Bang. He actually named the place. I was willing to pay the listed price on a 2020 used vehicle.
Immediately this became a giant money grab. Thousands in added fees and unnecessary add-ons
were shoved at me. It became a heated discussion about why I couldn't simply pay the quoted price
and I was told that this is the way it's done. I'm going to pause right there because that is
the way it's done. That's why you can't trust a price quoted to you online. I wish you could.
You can at certain dealerships. It's kind of unfair for me to say that you can't because the
dealerships that send you a written quote that signed by a manager and it has all of the detail
broken out. If they have a processing fee or a documentary fee, there it is. If there's any
other charges, they're all listed there and that is the quote that you get online. What did this
guy do? He didn't get a quote. He didn't get anything that broke out all the other expenses.
All the dealership knew is here's this guy. I wanted to buy this particular vehicle
and he's flying in here and this is our opportunity to get him for everything we can
because we'll never see him again. That's the attitude of a lot of car dealerships.
What percentage lineage? I really don't know, but a lot of them. I'd say half. I hate to say that
and it's really not brand specific. All Hyundai dealers aren't crooks and neither are Chevrolet
or Nissan or Ford or any other brands. It's just individual dealers. I don't know. Do you check
their Google ratings? Like I said, if before you buy a dealership, go check their Google ratings.
Don't look at the four stars and the five stars. Scroll down until you get to the two stars,
the one stars and find out what they're saying because that's who they are.
Now, yeah, you're going to have some nut jobs out there that are going to just rip everybody
because they're sour people to begin with and they don't think anybody deserves more than two
stars, no matter how good it was because they're capitalists or some other reason.
But you've got to look at those Google ratings and you've got to get everything in writing.
Maybe that dealer has something very specific that you can't find anywhere else
and they're going to hold you to MSRP or even higher. I mean,
if you want to pay over MSRP for something, that's up to you. Just because you want it,
that's fine. Pay it. But just make sure that when you go to the dealership, when you buy an airline
ticket and you fly and you end up in a particular town and they come pick you up, that there are
not going to be any surprises at the dealership. Yeah, you might get into the finance office and
they try to upsell you a service contract or gap insurance or something like that,
if you're financing the vehicle. But there shouldn't be any add-ons that you weren't aware of. Oh,
by the way, we were mistaken. We actually put rush-proofing on this and that's going to be
another $1,500 and I would just say, folks, that's on you. That's not on me. I've got a quote right
here printed out, signed by a manager. I expect to be able to buy this vehicle for that. But that's
not what this gentleman did. So I continue on his post. Even on the paperwork, it says dealer prep
and document processing is simply dealer profit. The auto butler, I guess that's some type of a
package, is a $110 glossy shine that they tried to charge me $999 for. That was removed after I
said I wasn't paying it. I fell for the $2,000 in dealer prep and document processing fees,
but I'll never visit another blankety blank. That's the name of the dealership dealer ever again.
I immediately removed any evidence on the car of where it came from. I'm sure that really hurt
their feelings. I've had a headache and felt nauseous since leaving this town in Florida.
After this experience, and I just want to forget I ever went through this song and dance so disgusted,
I just wanted to buy a car for the listed price and never dreamed my out the door price would go
up so much due to the dealer made up garbage fees and overpriced add-ons. I should have known better
than to expect a simple fair transaction. To this post, this gentleman received a 690 likes.
If you're not familiar with Facebook, that's when somebody likes your post. They can click a like
button. Okay. And then he had 897 comments. That's a lot of comments and 29 forwards. That's when you
send it to somebody else because you want them to avoid the same problem. So I was reading through
these comments and a lot of people were saying, well, you shouldn't have done it. Why didn't you
just leave and all this kind of stuff? And of course he was making comments. He said, well,
I had a one-way ticket and I just really wanted the car. And I guess those are two good reasons.
Could have avoided it totally though if they had just followed the rules in the MyCarGuru
guidebook. You don't get an airplane ticket and you don't fly to Florida
until you have all the documentation that you need. You have a signed buyer's order
and you call and verify it. I'm not going to double check it. I'm going to triple check it.
I'm going to make sure that when I get there, there's not going to be any surprises.
And if you dot your I's and cross your T's, I know that's a common saying, but if you do that
and you follow the process that I teach, then this will never happen to you. I can promise it
unless the dealership doesn't exist. Of course, you never send any money.
You never pay a deposit. Nope, not paying a deposit. But they won't hold it. Well,
maybe they won't. If they won't hold it, if they won't put something in writing,
we will hold this vehicle for you at this price. I've had customers go to dealers
and they paid a $500 deposit. They went down to pick it up and the deal changed and they said,
well, I'm not going to take it. Well, you pay to deposit. Yeah, but I'm not taking the vehicle.
It was non refundable. I mean, I don't know how people sleep when they do that kind of stuff
to others. Do you? Okay, I'll be back in just one minute. Okay, I am back. All kinds of different
ways to rip people off and all kinds of people that will do it. Even the nicest people you've
ever run into in your life, you know, you're talking to them and you just, this person's wonderful.
And then the next thing you know, you get home and you look at the paperwork and maybe they
weren't so wonderful. I was looking at one of the comments that one of the responders made.
This was obviously a young lady. She said, I bought my first car on my own from there several
years ago. She was, the guy had disclosed what the name of the dealership was and people were
responding to that. She continues, spoke to them one day about the listed price on the Veloster,
I think is how you pronounce that car, that I wanted and said I'd come in the following day to
probably buy it. And when I did, they coincidentally raised it another couple of grand and then she
put some laughing faces, emojis. Little did they know that I was bringing my dad with me to make
sure that no one pulled a fast one on me and it worked. LOL. Now in the car business on this
side of the fence, since I'm a new car dealer with a twist, we call that extra person that you
bring along with you a quarterback and it's wise to bring a quarterback with you if the quarterback
knows what they're doing. Now if your quarterback, the person that you bring along with you,
has no more experience buying cars than you do, then you might as well have brought your poodle
with you because they're not going to do you any good. You need to bring somebody who has
some experience, some negotiating experience, who has maybe been involved in the research with you,
has seen the quotes, has scrolled all the way down to the disclaimer on the car dealer's website.
You know, anytime you see a vehicle that you like, you see a price. That price means nothing
until you scroll down to the bottom of that page and read the disclaimer because with the large
print giveth the fine print taketh away and that was either Marcus Aurelius or it could have been
Confucius. It could be a proverb, I'm not sure, but I don't know if they had fine print and large
print and fine print in biblical times. But anyway, you got to read that disclaimer,
but that is still not 100% protection. So let's say that you're trying to buy a car online.
And so what do you do? So you're going to be calling the dealership eventually,
or you're going to be texting back and forth, or you're going to be exchanging emails.
And that person that you're exchanging emails with, if it's a mid-sized dealership or bigger,
it's going to be somebody that works in something called the Business Development Center or BDC.
And that acute acronym. And so you're going to be interacting with this person. Let's say that
you find a vehicle on their used car lot that you really like and you say, okay, I am okay with
the price that you have quoted. I want to buy it and here's what I need. I'm out of state and I
would like for you to provide me with a buyer's order or a sales contract, not some little email,
but a copy of a signed contract that has the price, that has the breakdown of any additional
fees. By the way, what are the additional fees? Well, you have to pay a dog fee. Okay. Well,
how much is that? 4.99. Okay. Anything else? No. So then you get a copy of this signed contract.
Who needs to sign that thing? Not the salesperson. It needs to be a sales manager or hire.
Hire would be like a general sales manager or a general manager or the dealer himself.
And so they are committing, they are actually an agent of the dealership when they sign that.
And so you see all your prices and then you say, okay, that's acceptable. You sign it,
you send it back. They have a copy. You have a copy. You book a legion at that point or whatever
airlines and you fly down there. Now, what if they had asked you for a deposit? Well,
it's a risk, but if you feel good about the dealership and you've checked out their Google reviews
and you feel comfortable with them, then you can send them a deposit. If they ask you for
any more than $500, tell them, no, you'll pay $500, but you want them to send you a receipt
for the $500 and something stating that if everything isn't as quoted online and on the
sales contract, then the $500 is fully refundable. And that's signed by a manager as well.
So are you covered now against most kinds of frauds? Yes, you are.
But there are still crooks out there that will find out ways to take advantage of you.
I just, you know, I wouldn't give them a credit card number because they ain't no telling what
they'll do with that. They're strangers. They're working in a car dealership where it's a 50-50
chance that there aren't some crooks working in the showroom or in the business office somewhere.
You know, the people who work in the service departments and the parts departments in the
office there, more than likely there aren't any crooks there. They just typically work in the
sales department, unfortunately. But if you get a receipt for your $500 and it says that it's fully
refundable under these listed circumstances, like what if you get down there and the car's got a big
ding in one of the doors? That wasn't disclosed. That's unacceptable. What are they going to do
about it? Are you going to jump in that car and drive back home with a big dent in the door
with an IOU in your hand? I'm not, you know, because then they have to paint it. Or I mean,
let them have their dent doctor come and push that ding out. And when you look at it, you're
satisfied you leave. But what if they have to paint the door and then the paint doesn't match?
So there's all kinds of little things that can happen. What if you get down there and you're a
cash buyer? Oh, we don't have the title to this car. It was just traded in. See, I forgot to mention
that that's important. You do need to verify that they have the title to the car. Well, how do you
do that? You make them send you a picture of the front and the back of the title. I can't believe
I didn't say that up front. I apologize. It just popped into my little head, my big head. Yes, you
need to see a copy of the title. So what could cause them to not have the title? Well, if it is a
recent trade, maybe the trade had to pay off. They sent a check to pay it off and then they
haven't received the title yet. You know, there's a lot of banks that will hold even a dealer's
check for 10 days to make sure that the check clears. There's a lot of check fraud even between
not just between customers and car dealers or customers and any type of business, but
you know, there's a lot of car dealers that that are in trouble financially.
And many times they don't have the funds to pay off a trade in. This happened big time in a town
not too far from me at a Toyota dealer. He ran out of funds, blew it all, and there were hundreds
of people that were waiting on titles that never got them. And the people that traded those vehicles,
their payoffs were never made. So they were in a new car that was financed that they were making
payments on and they were still on the hook for their old car because it had never been paid off.
And that's on them. You know, you always have to make sure that your vehicle gets paid off
when you trade. One clear indication is that is your bank calls and says, hey, your payment's late.
How come you're not making your payment? Well, I traded the car. Well, I mean,
it's been 60 days and your 30 days passed due and we expect payment from you. And then you call
the dealership. How come you guys haven't paid off my car? Oh, we paid it off. Well, the bank
hasn't received the check. You know, in that kind of case, I'm not talking to anybody in the sales
department. I'm going to the top. I'm talking to the general manager. Another person good to talk
to in the dealership is the person who runs the office, the office manager. And if she's
in cahoots with the crooks upfront, then she may lie, but more than likely she's one of those honest
ones and she'll check into it for you and find out what's going on. So to make a long story,
even longer, who do you trust? Nobody. Trust documentation. Trust titles that are signed
on the back transferred to the dealership by the previous owner. If a vehicle, if let's say,
okay, the dealer doesn't have the title, then I'm not flying to Florida to pick up the car.
When he gets the title and they send you a copy of it front and back, then you go to Florida.
If you really want to go to Florida, you know, the best thing to do is though,
buy close to home. You're not saving any money going to Florida. You think you are. Some people
out there say, I'll save 10,000. No, you didn't. Now there was some kind of misunderstanding on your
part as to what you could save by going a thousand miles to buy a car. It's rare that anybody's going
to save any money. I mean, maybe $500, but who wants to drive 500 miles to save $500? I don't.
My time's too valuable. I'd rather buy it from the dealer down the street that has a good reputation
that I know a couple of the people that if there's an issue, I can just drive down there and see them.
You know, I don't have to do anything by phone or email or stuff. People are just so addicted to
texting and emailing and all this stuff. They get comfortable when they shouldn't get comfortable.
And they need to do business with people that they know. And, you know, even if somebody calls
me and say, hey, Lenny, can you get me an Acura? I said, why you want an Acura? I mean, I sell
Nissan's and Ford's. I don't want a Nissan or Ford. I want an Acura. And I said, okay, let me see what
I can do for you. So, you know, I'll help anybody buy anything that they want. Now I may not make
anything, but you know how much I care about that? None. Because if I can retain them as a customer
at some point, they're going to come back and buy something from me. That's the way I look at it.
Okay, I'll be back in just one minute.
So this is something you call a cautionary tale, TALE. It is a narrative often originating in
folklore or mythology designed to warn listeners about potential dangers of specific actions
or behaviors. That's exactly what this whole thing was. This whole episode was about
a cautionary tale that you cannot trust an internet transaction on a new vehicle or a used vehicle.
It's a little bit safer on a new vehicle because the vehicles have titles in the dealership. It's
called an MSO, a manufacturer's statement of origin or a certificate of origin. And it's what
you take to the DMV or in Tennessee, it's the courthouse and you register your vehicle. And then
when you register it, if you borrow money for it, then the title will be issued and sent to the
lean holder. But if you pay cash for it, the title will be sent to you. So if you're buying a used
car from a new car dealer or another used car dealer or an individual, you just kind of make
sure that they have the title in hand and you get copies of the front and the back. And then before
you make reservations to go anywhere, get a copy of a signed buyer's order sales contract or preferably
a bill of sale where it actually has everything itemized. And then if they require a deposit,
send it to them, but make sure it's refundable. So those are the key things that you need to do.
On a new car, you don't need to see the title because they won't have a title yet. It'll be the
MSO. And then you need a copy of a buyer's order signed by a manager and then they send it to you
and then you sign it and you send it back. How do you do that? Well, you use a scanner. You may have
a printer connected to your computer at home that has a scanner. Just use your iPhone or your
Android device. It has a scanning app and you get it from them and it's signed and then you
send it back signed. And then you've got a legally enforceable document. And when you get down there
and let's say the game changes all of a sudden and you have that legally enforceable document,
they say, well, what are you going to do Sue us? Say, that's exactly what I'm going to do. And here's
how that will happen. I'm going to go back home and I'm going to sue you in my state. And then I'm
move that lawsuit to your state, domicile it and your state. I'll hire a local attorney
and I will get a judgment against you on that and it'll end up costing you three times what it's
costing you now to knock off that extra $2,000. So what do you say? And when that salesman
or that desk manager goes back to the GM or the dealer and says, sir, this is what they're saying
about that extra 2000. We added to it. He's going to say, okay, fix them up. See, sometimes it's
not who you know, but what you know that makes the difference. If I can help you with any of this
kind of stuff, call me 423-552-2020 or send me an email to Lenny Lawson 2020 at gmail.com. And I'll
About this episode
A Florida man's experience buying a used Hyundai highlights the pitfalls of trusting online car deals without proper verification. After flying in, he faced unexpected fees and add-ons that significantly inflated the price, leading to frustration and regret. The discussion emphasizes the importance of obtaining written quotes, checking dealership reviews, and ensuring all terms are clear before making a purchase. Listeners are advised on how to navigate the car buying process to avoid similar traps, reinforcing the value of preparation and due diligence.
