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Many years ago, there was a Honda dealer in my area that had a “bait” Civic hatchback that he would advertise for a very low price. When customers would get to the showroom, the bait car had “just been sold a few minutes ago”. This mid-'80s Civic didn’t even have a radio–which I hadn’t thought was possible, but it was devoid of a radio.
Fast forward to the end of the model year, and a notoriously cheap guy who I know was able to buy the “bait” Civic. He was so cheap that he never had a radio installed, and instead drove around with a boom box for music. He drove that little Civic for about 15 years, and definitely got his money’s worth from it.
Radio delete options became “a thing” in the 80’s. If I remember correctly, it was a response to the patently awful factory radios (about as good as a kid’s transistor radio) and championed by aftermarket car stereo manufacturers. Ultimately, they forced the car makers to offer the option to leave out the radio altogether so the consumer wasn’t forced to pay for the factory radio and then buy a nice one.
Japanese imports would often leave them out so they could option the radio separately. They did that with AC systems, too.
I did that with my 84 GMC pickup. GM radios were crap. I installed my own. It was far far better then the so-called high-end GM radio I could buy for over $1000 at less then half the cost.
There is something that is called “puffing” which is used by dealers.The proper name for it is “legalized lying”.
Dealers rely on one thing and that is foot traffic onto the lot. They will say and advertise anything to get people onto the lot where the thumbscrews are then applied. Advertising cars or prices that don’t exist is a common method.
An example of this is the Ford dealer here. We have had a lot of rain and storms this year but no damaging hail. All summer their radio ads start off with thunder and then “Uh oh…more storms and more hail damage. The bean counters are done, insurance has paid off, and now YOU can take advantage of the savings on hail damaged vehicles”.
See what I mean? There is not nor has there been one hail damaged vehicle on that lot all year. It’s to drive people in; nothing more. All of the rain we have had is nothing more than a weak excuse to puff.
As for your situation that varies by state/country and what your paperwork says. They may take it back but you may pay a penalty for it. Depends upon whether the dealer is halfway or totally devoid of ethics…
Just because it shows up online does not mean it’s actually there. I was recently shopping for a truck, and one of the ones I looked at was sold on a Saturday shortly before I arrived. It was still listed for sale online the following Friday. It’s not uncommon for dealerships to still not understand that effective internet sales involve immediate updates to remove things that are not for sale, and post things that are. They’re still working on the “put it in the car shopper circular once a week” business model and will probably have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Probably. Many states have some sort of buyer’s remorse law. In my state, you can cancel a vehicle purchase as many as 3 days after you buy it, even if you took it home and have been driving it around.
Don’t ask the dealership - they will lie, even if they didn’t lie to you the first time. Look up your state’s law to know for sure what you can and can’t do.
As to having made an appointment to buy the car you wanted, unless a deposit was included in that appointment, they were under no obligation to hold it for you. Having sold vehicles to the public myself (private Craigslist sales) I can tell you with certainty that most buyers are absolute flakes. If you hold a car for the guy who promises to be there at 5pm tomorrow, and you decline an offer to buy that you get at noon today, you’re taking a real risk that you’re not going to sell it to either party, because odds are good the guy you held it for won’t show up, or at best will show up and then only want to pay half of what the car’s worth.
IIRC, back in those days, Honda’s A/C systems were all installed either at the Port or the dealership. That was definitely true with Civics, but I’m not positive whether that also applied to Accords.
What happened during my conversation with the online person, I offered to give a down payment for the car and she told me that they did not receive any money through the phone, that I had to have an appointment for that car, so I took the first available. You know the rest of the story. Probably you are right Shadowfax.
Let’s see what happens. This information is good to know for next time. Thank you though.
In 2017 I found a Honda Accord that I liked and started the buying process. The salesman looked it up on his computer inventory, and found that it had just sold. The couple was in the showroom, and he pointed them out. I looked at the remaining stock and found one I liked well enough, and I bought it. Different colors and I liked the first more, but it wasn’t available anymore. It was late August, and that’s the price you pay for buying at the end of the model year. Better prices, though.
