Subaru dealer upsells

The local Mazda dealership literally “hands you over” to another salesman who pushes all those things like extended warranty, extra coating, etc. He told me he had to do this as part of his job description, and I let him finish by telling him “no”, “no” etc.

Docnick, I sort of like our salesman…an older guy who’s looking forward to retirement next year. He’s not out to break sales records or play every trick in the book.

When taking a test drive, I told him that I really didn’t like high pressure tactics or being turned over from one person to another during closing, as in some sort of Kabuki ritual. He said he knew what I meant but that they are required (by dealership or corporate, dont know which) to give upselling their best shot.

When negotiating price, he kept going away to discuss my latest offer or request with his manager. I have always disliked that because I don’t know if the salesman is really getting management’s directions or in the staff lounge having coffee and trying to make me sweat.

Anyway, he and I go into this knowing our roles, being friendly adversaries and having a somewhat respectful understanding of each other.

When I bought my first Subaru, in 1996, the dealership tried to upsell me after I had closed the deal. Naturally, I said no to everything offered by the “finance guy”–politely. The second time that I bought a car from that dealership, they didn’t even attempt any upsells with me, and that policy continued when I bought the third car from them.

Now, sadly, the dealership has been sold, and is no longer the “Mom & Pop” enterprise that it had been. If I buy another car from that dealership, I fully expect them to try to sell me everything possible.

Playing Devil’s Advocate for a minute, I might say that the salesperson is under a Titanic sized load of pressure to push extras. Failing to produce regularly means they head to the unemployment line…

Moving up the chain, if the New Car Sales Manager doesn’t push the sales people to sell those extras they too will be in the unemployment line behind the salesperson…

Still further up, if the General Manager doesn’t apply the thumbscrews they too will be in same line as the former New Car Sales Manager…

It’s a brutal business with the Sword of Damocles hanging over every head in spite of what may appear to be a relaxed and low key atmosphere.

Before you buy oil and filters, make sure your mechanic will accept them. I also wouldn’t buy them until needed, although checking now on whether your mechanic will use them or not is a good idea. It seems to me that Subaru will sell your oil and filters for a long time. You might also determine what oil Subaru uses and just buy that. I imagine that the same viscosity Mobil1 would be perfectly fine if it costs less.

As others have said…read the contract.
now.
Even though the deal is inked…read it again…many of the add-ons may already be there !
Sneaked in on the tail of a sentence and under their breath, hidden under words like '‘this price includes…’'
includes…my ash, they add it on the bottom justified that they told you all about it and you agreed !

Read it again, sam.