Ah, missed that one. I usually agree with him, and in this case I only agree with him about halfway. The dealership probably did nothing legally wrong. I do think they deceived OP, but I also think OP was practically on his knees begging to get taken to the cleaners. It would have taken 2 minutes to say “Yeah, BS, there’s no way 2 tires on this thing are going to cost you $1,000 wholesale. Nice try,” but as he himself said, he was too rushed to do that.
Yes, we’re being a bit harsh, but it’s VERY important for the OP to learn from this experience. They went into this with a totally unrealistic idea of how a transaction like this works, Now (I hope) they know better.
Really - you’re questioning this? I expect nothing less then complete dishonesty from a car dealer. Why do you expect them to be honest with you?
Agreed that the dealer probably did nothing legally wrong although the law does have higher standards of conduct for merchants (a person who deals in goods of the kind or otherwise by his occupation holds himself out as having knowledge or skill peculiar to the practices or goods involved in the transaction). Sorry for the long definition - I just took a commercial law class!
Overall, you’re right. He was vulnerable and got taken to the cleaners but, at least in my mind, that doesn’t make it right or his fault, just unfortunate.
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+1
That leads to the inevitable question:
Has the OP never purchased tires?
There’s something else to consider. It’s entirely possible that the person who said the front tires needed to be replaced honestly thought they did need to be replaced. Once the car was purchased someone else could have said “Hey, those are not so bad”.
Being an ex-dealer mechanic I’ve seen some pretty bad errors made by sales personnel and many times it was simply ignorance; not fraud.
One particular mistaken assumption by a salesman led to the dealer eating 4 grand+ worth of VW diesel…and the firing of the salesman who committed this egregious error.
The salesman assumed (bad thing to do…) that it only needed a couple of fuel injectors. In reality, it needed a new engine.
No matter; it’s all water under the bridge. You shot yourself in the foot. No amount of crying, pleading, or threats of a lawsuit will change anything.
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UPDATE: I did the original post on Tuesday. So I called yesterday (Wednesday) and talked to one of the employees and they had the manager call me back today (Thursday) and he said he’ll sell my car back to me for the price I paid for it ($3000.) So he’ll give it back to me. So that worked out. And I’ll try to sell it independently for like $7000. People are cheap though so I doubt I’ll be able to get more than $4000 for it even if I sell it on my own, ha.
Which leads to another question: Best site to independently sell your car? Should I list it on Autotrader? Definitely not Craigslist, I know that, haha. On Craigslist people will be like “I’ll take it off your hands for free and you can pay me $50 for driving out to your place to pick it up.” I hate Craigslist.
Sounds like the best deal possible all around!
At the top of the Car Talk web page you can click on Car Info. Then there are choices including Selling. Under that, advice on selling your car. Best wishes.
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Well, you got lucky.
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I agree that the seller needed to do more research before selling the car. Car dealers are slimy but he AGREED to the deal. I hate customers like this in my business. One guy called me a year prior for a price quote. Then I showed up and he was all pissed off that I had raised my rates slightly since the original quote. I even had one guy agree to pay the quoted price and then complain and threaten to file a complaint with the BBB after paying me. HE did file a complaint but it was dismissed by the BBB as nonsense.
If you think Craigslist is bad, don’t even bother with Facebook Marketplace. I don’t think the people on that can really read and write. I also things being sold for like 4x the original price all the time. For example, there was a cheap no-name TV from Wal-Mart up there for $350. I found it on the WM site for $89. Then I try and sell something for a decent price and they offer less than scrap value for it. So, I have decided it is easier to just scrap it myself than deal with these types. Does anything actually SELL on FB marketplace? Yes, I have sold a couple things. One was easy as the right buyer happened to see it within 24 hours of me posting so I didn’t have to deal with much nonsense. The other was something I had all but given up on selling after dealing with nutcase after nutcase calling me.
Most were non-running mowers I had collected over the years. They were repairable or had parts of greater value than my selling price. I don’t even bother trying for more than like a day or two. if someone doesn’t bite, I pull the parts that I want and that sell on eBay, and then just junk the rest.
there are only 2 2014 fiestas on my local CL. both are $7-8k range but they are both at dealer. dealer might take 6k offer. and they paid you 4k? seems reasonable. be sure and post back on how you do on your sale. you will know if your asking price is fair by how much or any offers or interest you get. you keep lowering the price till someone bites
I think the OP needs to look at Kelley Blue Book and local listings because their 7000.00 selling idea might be wrong.
Use your local newspaper’s classified ads to sell your car. You will find a more qualified and reliable base of potential customers there. At least they have the gumption to buy or borrow the newspaper and read the fine print!
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Yes, many papers have a free ad section for ads of X words or less. Use it.
In owning my own business, I have found that advertising in something people have to PAY for to read immediately weeds out many of the idiots you get on free stuff like Facebook, Craigslist, etc.
Advertising on talk radio also works well for me. My local station has a non-businesses only call in where you can sell stuff. I think there may be exceptions to cars, realty, and animals but I have sold a few things there and the people who called were decent. I even had a few things that no one wanted. You only have about 30 seconds or so to talk so can’t really give a detailed description. Yeah, people called but were decent about it and not just complete nutcases like you find with the online sites.
You know it is pretty bad when there is this much discussion about how to weed out these types of people. I make no bones about wanting to advertise to a mature, affluent, and educated demographic. The same applies with cars. This is a new enough car that someone decent will bite.
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Wonder if GottaQuestion made it the dealer and bought their car back before dealer sold it to someone else?
I am puzzled why the used car dealership sold the car back. They couldn’t sell it? Did the front part of the deal - which was never mentioned - result in the dealership looking at the trade-in as the money losing part of the deal?
Just my uninformed thoughts on this deal. 1. Someone else realized they might not be able to make a profit on this vehicle 2. The leather seats ( that are most likely not all leather ) that were put on the front seats only would make people wonder why 3. This vehicle may not be in as good shape as they want on their lot so was going to auction anyway
Stay away from car dealerships. Sell your car privately then buy online. Use truecar.com to decide what you want to pay for a new car and stick to it.
Determine used car selling price online as well. If they gave you 3k the car is probably worth 5 or 6k.
I tried using Truecar and wasn’t satisfied. I didn’t think the price was all that good. I did better negotiating on my own. I suppose it’s OK for folks that don’t like to negotiate, but I don’t mind, and actually find it fun.
Yeah we have a free section for items under $350 or something. People try to sell all kinds of stuff there like used T shirts and fence posts. One guy a couple weeks ago wanted $30 for an air compressor tank-only problem was it had a hole in it. My BIL sells all kinds of stuff on his local electronic market so he says, but I dunno, I just am throwing good stuff in the dump. What I consider good stuff anyway, like a tire inflator and car vacuum.
So I don’t know how you would sell a car reasonably. In the old days I used the paper, and Car Trader, but now with the bogus cashiers checks etc. I’d rather not bother.