Tired to buy a Honda Fit for 17,000 and change a few years ago with a offer by the dealer that would give double trade-in value. We had a single cab Tacoma but needed more room it was worth 15,000 KKB (maybe 18 months old 26,000 miles). We did ask for 9,000 and not even asked for the double. First they wanted to charge us $1500 for a cargo liner and those plastic strips you put on car doors I said no i didn’t want them then they said they wouldn’t do any high trade in for a Fit because they don’t make any profit (hence the $1500 crap) so I walked a way. They said I was unreasonable. Not true don’t send an offer listing Fits (no small print) and then not honor, bad business.

We are currently looking at used RAV4s. We test drove the other evening a 2008 and they kept trying to pressure us to make an offer after I was honest and said I would have to think about it and check a few things out, so I made I ridiculously low offer $5000. We agreed to test drive one other vehicle, newer RAV4, and it was nice but I had not check for prices yet on the 2009 so I said I would have to think about it. Offer 19,000 out the door. First the sticker on the car was $25,995 and when they showed the offer they showed $27,995 minus $2,000 to make the offer the sticker price, the next one was $24,995. But if you are not listening to me then I will not make good offers. I did not say no or I wouldn’t be back, I just had to think.

On both I am glad did walk away because the 2008 actually after doing some research I realized 4wd issues and it had been in an accident so I have a feeling other things may have been wrong(which they did show the car fax). The 2009 was nice but the same deal is available for one with less then half the mileage and the same options.

I admit I do try to find the best bargain and yeah a few hundred dollars is important. If you don’t think it is then you have a lot more money then me. You never know if you will have a job the next day in this economy. I do not like being pressured to buy a car I am not quite sure about. Just give me a bit of breathing space. And documentation fees are $699 in some places we had to pay $599 when we bought our Scion XD. A car is a big investment at least for me.

So I don’t mine paying a fair price but I do have to think about my budget. The car industry needs to start treating the dealerships fairly. You need Unions to protect workers in manufacturing otherwise they would pay them minimum wage and no compensation. Not all Unions are bad but not all are good.

I have known car salesman who were told by managers to jam it to people and those who treated people fairly. One other thing what is meant by “if the customers lips are moving he is lying”????