Other tricks of course include the “torture chamber” room where you are supposed to sign all the paperwork. In this room, it’s the guy’s job to get as much money as he can out of you by asking you to buy the Permaplate paint protection package, the $1000+ KARR alarm system (which by the way they will tell you is “Already installed” and you’ll have to wait 2 hours for them to remove the alarm if you want the car without the alarm), extended warranty, and GAP protection.
I’ve been through this as well with my first adult car purhase (not the alarm, but the rest of it). The woman tried to get us to buy all sorts of protections and warranties, one of which overlapped significantly with the “certified Honda warranty that we already had. She kept trying to make the argument that it made sense, and I kept arguing it didn’t, until I finally said: “Okay, let’s do the math…” and proceeded to show her that unless the car required $200 or more per month repairs every month for the first two years that it would be ridiculous to buy the additional warranty… and was she actually suggesting that the vehicle was THAT unreliable?
At which point she came unglued, and proceeded to rant about “stuck-up college-educated jerks” as she hurriedly signed everything else.
These days I would just walk out at such behavior, without closing the deal. I can’t stand that sort of thing, and will never return to that dealer, and would not reward a dealer who allowed that behavior with my business in the future.
With my most recent car purchase when we moved to that stage I just simply looked over the options briefly and stated quite simply that I never purchased them as the financials never made sense. When she tried to persuade me I (gently) reaffirmed my stance and told her there was no way I was going to purchase it and I could repeat that three more times if her job required it. And we moved on.
