Today I decided to visit the Manhattan Toyota dealership located on 645 11th Ave. I was responding to the following advertisement:

{gallery}toyotaad/{/gallery} 

I saw the fine print and shady wording being used. It states it has 0%
deals for up to 60 months. In the fine print it says only on select
models. So my wife calls in and specifically asks if "Camy Hybrids are
available at 0% apr for 60 months). So the sales person says come right
in tomorrow and schedules an appointment with the manager (Genie).
When I get there around noon time Genie is busy and asks me to talk to
Jean, a West African gentleman who seemed pretty likable.  

Right off the bat I tell Jean that I am only interested if they are
offering the Camry Hybrid at 0% apr for 60 months. He first takes us to the showroom to look at the car. A Muslim finance guy says salaam to us and tells Jean to come to him if he needs anything and he wants to take care of us. Jean takes the advert
and goes to discuss it with someone. He comes back with a sheet which
more or less looked like this. 
So he says the Camry, Hybrid in particular is not part of this specific
sale. So then he looks into my credit and comes back praising my credit
score and says that maybe they can do something because of my great
credit history. He asks me if I want to make a downpayment and I agree
on paying $500 as a down payment. Then I go for Jummah (Friday Prayers)
and come back.

The first thing he tells me is that he has brought the car over and
they are preparing it for me, and that I can take it home today. The
next step is to get my insurance, so I call Geico up, and they tell me
that I have gotten 3 tickets in the past 5 years and as a result they
have to charge $130 more than what my initial quote indicated. So after
dealing with that mess, Jean tells me he has to speak to the Financial
Bosses  but he wants all the paperwork in hand and keeps assuring me
that everything is going smooth and I'll get to take the car home
today.

So he goes up talks to them and comes back down after almost 40
minutes. I ask him if everything is set. And he tells me we are almost
good to go. He says I have to see the finance people to talk about
security systems and other additional products which I may want to look
at. We're asked to wait for another 15 minutes. Then we meet one of the
financial bosses, Jaime. He has the license plates ready and on the table. He
gives me the title paper to fill out.   He then asks what Apr was set. He says
"5.9 right?". And I'm like.. ugh… no… From the beginning I have
been talking with Jean about getting this car on 0% APR for 60 months,
and I told him: "this is the deal I am looking for or else I am not
interested". He acts as if he is totally surprised and says he knows nothing about a 0% deal.  

 So
he walks in and out of the room a few times. And then he says its not
possible. He flips through some pages he has, charts and such on
finance rates. He then calls in Jean and asks him if he told me that I
can't get the Camry hybrid for 0%. And Jean says "That's what I've been
trying to explain to him". Thats when I got pissed off. And I told them
straight up again: This is the deal I want, either make it happen, or
let me end my long (ass) day. So they ask me if I would consider other
models.. When he kept insisting that I go with a low rate of 5.9% I
told him that as a Muslim I don't deal with interest, giving it, taking
it, or witnessing it. Then he says "well we have alot of Islamic people
who do this, why can't you do it too?" The dude even starts making sly
comments about specifics about my
credit report i.e. a Family member who I have a cc card under who owes
money on their card. Then he calls in some guy with Red hair named Hind
who is the sales supervisor. And he basically says no they can't do it.
Then they say the best they can do is 24 months at 0% or they can hike
up the price by $7,000.00 and then do 0%. The guy had the gall to say:
"Where is the bank going to get their money?". This fiasco finally ends
with him taking the license plate off the table and stuffing it in a
drawer in a dramatic fashion. That was my cue to leave.

 I
know and if you are reading this you know that I was set up. This sales
person was trying to get my hopes up of taking this awesome car home.
Meanwhile he is pretending that the deal I am looking for is possible
and has been approved thus he does all the paperwork.  Only to take me
to the financial bosses hoping that I will fall for one of their rates.
I was there from noon time till 6 PM. I had invested my entire day (a
business day, missed work) to be played like a fool. I stood my ground
and was being straight forward like I was from the beginning. Genie
could have saved my time by telling me what I needed to know on the
phone (Like Bay Ridge Toyota had the courtesy to do). Jean could have
easily spoken to the financial people and told me they were not going
to do it around 2:30. Instead all these people tried to deceive me into
doing something I told them I did not want to do. I'm sure these guys
had a game plan. The result of their game plan was a lost customer.

Lessons I learned from todays debacle:
-0% isn't commonly offered, especially not on cars which are selling
well. Unless you get really lucky on a deal i.e. VW has a zero percent
deal running till Sep 4.
-Never trust a sales person, ask to first speak to someone from Finance
Dept first before taking the time out to fill out any paperwork
-Oh and NEVER EVER mess with Toyota of Manhattan, they will waste your time and treat you like crap!

And finally here's how APR rates work… According to Car.com this is how finance rates work at the dealer:

""When
a [car] dealer arranges financing, it earns some type of compensation,
which can sometimes be passed on to the buyer," Fritz Elmendorf, vice
president of communications for the Consumer Bankers Association, says.
This may be in the form of a lower price or a lower interest rate.

Car dealers borrow money at wholesale interest rates, which they then
mark up and pass on to you. Because the dealer's rate is lower, the
rate you get may be no higher than one you arrange yourself.

Elmendorf agrees but says there's a caveat. "Consumers can get very
competitive rates at the dealer, but [they] need to educate themselves
to make sure that happens," he says."

{mos_sb_discuss:7}

Filed under: Ranting and Raving