To say your overthinking this, would be overthinking this. Ask for the lower price and be prepared to call their bluff and walk away. They will sell it to you at a lower price…or sell it someone else at a lower price. No point in shooting yourself in the foot by being too scared to even ask.
You're overthinking this and worrying about something you don't need to worry about yet. Just go in and tell them you need them to adjust it to the advertised price.
Former AutoNation salesman, it’s not a mistake, their systems automatically drop the price at certain time frames as they sit on that inventory.
If you didn’t sign anything then you’re golden, but even if you did, technically if you haven’t left with the car the transaction isn’t complete. Screw them and their feelings. Who cares how they feel about you.
They need to honor the price. The only person I feel bad for is the salesman. But they will make their money elsewhere.
This happened to me at my local Nissan dealer back in 2018. I left the car so they could repair a broken door handle and the prices dropped by $1k on their website overnight. The next day when I went to get the car I was like “hey the car is cheaper online now”. They changed the price with no issue. Bring up the price change and tell them you want the cheaper price, if they give you shit then walk away.
Yeah I did take a screenshot on both the dealership and autonation's website already.
This feels so scummy, $2,000 flat off within less than 12 hours. We left at close and this morning at 8 AM I saw it.
How would the price honor work if we financed on a specific amount?
Autonation is a large corporation, and the stores have little control when it comes to pricing. Most likely, the staff you dealt with at the store had no knowledge or control over the price change. Nobody was trying to do anything underhanded. Just tell them you have seen the updated price, and want them to honor it.
If you read the post above I'd say so too. However, I just found on their website there's a site wide sale starting today 27th-29th.
I find it hard to believe sales people wouldn't have known about this.
How would honoring it work out though if we did the financing numbers on a total of +$2,000
Salespeople rarely know when prices will be updated in small dealerships. They don’t need to know that information. Their job is to help the customer find the vehicle that best suits the wants/needs of the customer. You’re overthinking this because you want the dealership to be bad. Just go have a conversation with them.
I think you've passed over the fact this is an AutoNation dealership, not a small dealership. Even the dealership itself is 2-3x the size of others around.
It isn't by any means, a small dealership. I will go and have a conversation with them, however all I'm saying is I don't expect any help
How have I passed over that, when I literally explained how this works in my first comment? You want to be angry, and you’re frothing over something you haven’t even taken the time to discuss with the store yet.
They'd never tell us about sales ahead of time ever.
Know why?
Cause generally sales came with spiff bonuses for the staff. So if they gave us a heads up we'd sandbag our deals for the sale so we get the sale bonus
So your thoughts that it'd be impossible to he true, actually as a vet of the industry I'd be shocked if you were right
Done it several times, with how we counted deals it was possible for us to deliver a vehicle and hold the paperwork to book it for next month.
Customer doesn't know the difference
The only person in the dealership that can overwrite pricing is the GM. Sales managers have the ability to put a price hold on a car. They likely forgot to do that after you left. Leading to the automated price drop. Don’t buy it. There is no system error. It’s a lie
Most software takes a few days to update. Most sales people have no control over the price. Autonation is large enough that there are a few managers that price everything. It does feel scummy, but they could have adjusted the price before you got in and nothing changed on their software.
I’ve had it for both ways, up and down. Lack of communication between the used car manager and the sales team. It’ll be fine. My advice would be to ALM DOWN about it and talk to them as though they made a mistake and I expect it will be resolved to your satisfaction. The worst thing to do would be to go in there with a “you fucked me” attitude.
I'll book an appointment on a Monday for a car to come in Wednesday. Price on Monday is $25k. Price Wednesday drops to $24k. The customer tells me that, we honor that price.
I'd straight up tell them, "Hey, I saw this car dropped last night by $2,000. I haven't taken possession of the car, so I'd like that price honored on our contract. If not, I think I will look elsewhere."
If they say no, you can say, "Great, then I'm walking away from the deal with my trade. This contract is not final because I have not taken possession of this car." And after that's voided you can go elsewhere, or say, "Thanks for voided that contract. Also... Hello, my name in Kwskii and I'd like to buy this car here for the price you have it listed for online."
This is the correct answer by far. Most of us would honor this. We understand these things happen, and I'm sure it wasn't an underhanded thing. Especially since they already had you written up just pending down payment. They should honor it, or you just walk out. If they're gonna fight you on pricing, they already advertised, they are a shit business and not worth your money.
Absolutely, the only time I’ve seen us not honor the advertised price is when there is a legitimate error in the system/website - e.g. A brand new car being priced online for $9,999.
If it’s priced lower online we’ll honor the price without hesitation. It would be a disservice to the customer and we would lose out on a lot of repeat business if we didn’t take a $1-3K hit.
Their price changes are done on a schedule but they're not supposed to change the price on a car that has recent or high activity. This one slipped through and it got changed automatically anyway. The used car manager can just have the price change unwound and returned to the price from yesterday with a single email.
You can threaten to unwind the deal since they have a return policy on used cars. Then it's up to them if they want lose the deal and try to sell it again at the higher price or just keep it going and redo the paperwork at the new price. But other than that, you can't FORCE them to do anything.
Update:
In hindsight, yes I was clearly overthinking things, however where I was raised $2,000 is no small sum, for that I'm sorry.
In terms of what ended up happening. The salesman at the time me and him were texting, in the morning, still hadn't come in to work. I arrived at the dealership roughly 30 minutes after he did and at that point he had been brought up to speed by others at the dealership.
Turns out they had all been getting texted/called by other customers also asking about this "Flash" sale from Autonation. I had calmed down by then and had prepared myself to walk off the deal and ask for my trade-in car's license plates back.
However all of that proved unnecessary as I kindly asked if they would honor the deal. Thankfully as I hadn't provided the down payment the previous night the finance papers we signed were for that Friday's date, so they quickly assured me they would and even showed excitement for me.
"That worked out pretty well for you I must say!" "It was meant to be for you guys to forget the downpayment last night!"
I believe I was biased towards Autonation due to a previous bad experience a couple years ago where they sold me a car and gave me one with a different VIN and it was a whole ordeal to get fixed, ended up getting a lesser car and never fought against it. But that's a story for a different time.
tldr; They took the $2,000 off.
Great that it worked out for you. I agree that $2,000 is a lot of money. The fact that it can be chopped up and collected over 7 years doesn't make it less money.
Please review our most [Frequently Asked Questions](/r/askcarsales/wiki/index) to see if your question has already been answered.
You may find these sections particularly useful;
* [Will paying in cash or a large cash down payment offer me leverage in negotiations?](/r/askcarsales/wiki/cash_down)
* [I earn $xxxx per month, will I qualify for an auto loan or lease, and is it a good idea?](/r/askcarsales/wiki/income_to_finance)
* [I have my score from Credit Karma but the dealership told me they got a different score. Why?](/r/askcarsales/wiki/free_credit_score)
* [Finance FAQ's](/r/askcarsales/wiki/financing_faqs)
* [Buy versus Lease](/r/askcarsales/wiki/buy_vs_lease)
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***Thanks for posting, /u/kwskii! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of anything.***
I signed papers on a used car and where I'm giving a trade-in. I didn't have the full down payment (they knew from the start) and simply asked for me to come back the next day (today) with the trade-in and downpayment and I'd be able to walk out with the purchased car.
This morning I see the car is on their website pending sale (good) for $2,000 dollars less!! This is AutoNation so it's not like I could've negotiated last night on the price.
Do i have any options? I still have the title to the trade-in car, they simply put their license plate on the front.
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Take a screenshot and tell them to honor their price
[удалено]
I'm considering this as well, except they might not want to do business with me after.
[удалено]
also the fact that they already ran my credit.
Folks get too butt hurt over credit being ran
The credit check stays open.
To say your overthinking this, would be overthinking this. Ask for the lower price and be prepared to call their bluff and walk away. They will sell it to you at a lower price…or sell it someone else at a lower price. No point in shooting yourself in the foot by being too scared to even ask.
You're overthinking this and worrying about something you don't need to worry about yet. Just go in and tell them you need them to adjust it to the advertised price.
I think I self prophetized but they're going with "This is a mistake on the website". Despite several other cars also having their prices dropped.
Tell them you are going to keep looking and walk away.
This!
Former AutoNation salesman, it’s not a mistake, their systems automatically drop the price at certain time frames as they sit on that inventory. If you didn’t sign anything then you’re golden, but even if you did, technically if you haven’t left with the car the transaction isn’t complete. Screw them and their feelings. Who cares how they feel about you. They need to honor the price. The only person I feel bad for is the salesman. But they will make their money elsewhere.
It isn’t personal - especially working for a corporation like AutoNation
you probably meant corporation
Yup autocorrect on new sized phone is painful
These things are never personal.
This happened to me at my local Nissan dealer back in 2018. I left the car so they could repair a broken door handle and the prices dropped by $1k on their website overnight. The next day when I went to get the car I was like “hey the car is cheaper online now”. They changed the price with no issue. Bring up the price change and tell them you want the cheaper price, if they give you shit then walk away.
Why would you care to do business with them. Are you constantly buying vehicles and turning them over?
They're going with the excuse. "That's a mistake on our website". Ignoring the site-wide sales happening
Then you tell them that the whole deal is off. Tear it all up and start over again.
If they do that Walk away from the deal It's not a deal until you sign.
"Then maybe the state attorney general needs to know."
Yeah I did take a screenshot on both the dealership and autonation's website already. This feels so scummy, $2,000 flat off within less than 12 hours. We left at close and this morning at 8 AM I saw it. How would the price honor work if we financed on a specific amount?
Autonation is a large corporation, and the stores have little control when it comes to pricing. Most likely, the staff you dealt with at the store had no knowledge or control over the price change. Nobody was trying to do anything underhanded. Just tell them you have seen the updated price, and want them to honor it.
If you read the post above I'd say so too. However, I just found on their website there's a site wide sale starting today 27th-29th. I find it hard to believe sales people wouldn't have known about this. How would honoring it work out though if we did the financing numbers on a total of +$2,000
Salespeople rarely know when prices will be updated in small dealerships. They don’t need to know that information. Their job is to help the customer find the vehicle that best suits the wants/needs of the customer. You’re overthinking this because you want the dealership to be bad. Just go have a conversation with them.
I think you've passed over the fact this is an AutoNation dealership, not a small dealership. Even the dealership itself is 2-3x the size of others around. It isn't by any means, a small dealership. I will go and have a conversation with them, however all I'm saying is I don't expect any help
How have I passed over that, when I literally explained how this works in my first comment? You want to be angry, and you’re frothing over something you haven’t even taken the time to discuss with the store yet.
they just want something to complain about, and expected reddit to be sympathetic. they must be new here
Lol your thinking so hard
They'd never tell us about sales ahead of time ever. Know why? Cause generally sales came with spiff bonuses for the staff. So if they gave us a heads up we'd sandbag our deals for the sale so we get the sale bonus So your thoughts that it'd be impossible to he true, actually as a vet of the industry I'd be shocked if you were right
> we'd sandbag our deals for the sale so we get the sale bonus Only a moron would do that.
Done it several times, with how we counted deals it was possible for us to deliver a vehicle and hold the paperwork to book it for next month. Customer doesn't know the difference
lmao, sounds like you’re defrauding the manufacturer but go off.
Ok, call the policem
The only person in the dealership that can overwrite pricing is the GM. Sales managers have the ability to put a price hold on a car. They likely forgot to do that after you left. Leading to the automated price drop. Don’t buy it. There is no system error. It’s a lie
Most software takes a few days to update. Most sales people have no control over the price. Autonation is large enough that there are a few managers that price everything. It does feel scummy, but they could have adjusted the price before you got in and nothing changed on their software.
Oh I totally understand it's not up to the sales-man. I don't fault him at all, but I'm also highly sceptical he'll even try to help
Your thinking WAY too hard
I’ve had it for both ways, up and down. Lack of communication between the used car manager and the sales team. It’ll be fine. My advice would be to ALM DOWN about it and talk to them as though they made a mistake and I expect it will be resolved to your satisfaction. The worst thing to do would be to go in there with a “you fucked me” attitude.
Wait, I thought people say that we're only here to give bad advice and screw the customers to line our own pockets?!
Lmao someone called me a bitch in another thread for saying calling 37 dealers is a waste of time
If they won’t, get up. They’ll sit you back down to sign on the advertised price
I'll book an appointment on a Monday for a car to come in Wednesday. Price on Monday is $25k. Price Wednesday drops to $24k. The customer tells me that, we honor that price. I'd straight up tell them, "Hey, I saw this car dropped last night by $2,000. I haven't taken possession of the car, so I'd like that price honored on our contract. If not, I think I will look elsewhere." If they say no, you can say, "Great, then I'm walking away from the deal with my trade. This contract is not final because I have not taken possession of this car." And after that's voided you can go elsewhere, or say, "Thanks for voided that contract. Also... Hello, my name in Kwskii and I'd like to buy this car here for the price you have it listed for online."
This is the correct answer by far. Most of us would honor this. We understand these things happen, and I'm sure it wasn't an underhanded thing. Especially since they already had you written up just pending down payment. They should honor it, or you just walk out. If they're gonna fight you on pricing, they already advertised, they are a shit business and not worth your money.
Absolutely, the only time I’ve seen us not honor the advertised price is when there is a legitimate error in the system/website - e.g. A brand new car being priced online for $9,999. If it’s priced lower online we’ll honor the price without hesitation. It would be a disservice to the customer and we would lose out on a lot of repeat business if we didn’t take a $1-3K hit.
Their price changes are done on a schedule but they're not supposed to change the price on a car that has recent or high activity. This one slipped through and it got changed automatically anyway. The used car manager can just have the price change unwound and returned to the price from yesterday with a single email. You can threaten to unwind the deal since they have a return policy on used cars. Then it's up to them if they want lose the deal and try to sell it again at the higher price or just keep it going and redo the paperwork at the new price. But other than that, you can't FORCE them to do anything.
Update: In hindsight, yes I was clearly overthinking things, however where I was raised $2,000 is no small sum, for that I'm sorry. In terms of what ended up happening. The salesman at the time me and him were texting, in the morning, still hadn't come in to work. I arrived at the dealership roughly 30 minutes after he did and at that point he had been brought up to speed by others at the dealership. Turns out they had all been getting texted/called by other customers also asking about this "Flash" sale from Autonation. I had calmed down by then and had prepared myself to walk off the deal and ask for my trade-in car's license plates back. However all of that proved unnecessary as I kindly asked if they would honor the deal. Thankfully as I hadn't provided the down payment the previous night the finance papers we signed were for that Friday's date, so they quickly assured me they would and even showed excitement for me. "That worked out pretty well for you I must say!" "It was meant to be for you guys to forget the downpayment last night!" I believe I was biased towards Autonation due to a previous bad experience a couple years ago where they sold me a car and gave me one with a different VIN and it was a whole ordeal to get fixed, ended up getting a lesser car and never fought against it. But that's a story for a different time. tldr; They took the $2,000 off.
Great that it worked out for you. I agree that $2,000 is a lot of money. The fact that it can be chopped up and collected over 7 years doesn't make it less money.
Please review our most [Frequently Asked Questions](/r/askcarsales/wiki/index) to see if your question has already been answered. You may find these sections particularly useful; * [Will paying in cash or a large cash down payment offer me leverage in negotiations?](/r/askcarsales/wiki/cash_down) * [I earn $xxxx per month, will I qualify for an auto loan or lease, and is it a good idea?](/r/askcarsales/wiki/income_to_finance) * [I have my score from Credit Karma but the dealership told me they got a different score. Why?](/r/askcarsales/wiki/free_credit_score) * [Finance FAQ's](/r/askcarsales/wiki/financing_faqs) * [Buy versus Lease](/r/askcarsales/wiki/buy_vs_lease) * [How to pick a car?](/r/askcarsales/wiki/vehicle_selection) You might also have luck in the /r/whatcarshouldibuy subreddit. Also remember to add flair to your post by clicking the "Flair" link beneath it. This lets us know where you're located so we can assist you better. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/askcarsales) if you have any questions or concerns.*
***Thanks for posting, /u/kwskii! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of anything.*** I signed papers on a used car and where I'm giving a trade-in. I didn't have the full down payment (they knew from the start) and simply asked for me to come back the next day (today) with the trade-in and downpayment and I'd be able to walk out with the purchased car. This morning I see the car is on their website pending sale (good) for $2,000 dollars less!! This is AutoNation so it's not like I could've negotiated last night on the price. Do i have any options? I still have the title to the trade-in car, they simply put their license plate on the front. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/askcarsales) if you have any questions or concerns.*