I got rid of my mini about 7 months ago and I miss the little guy so went out to get new one, I was dealing with Chris Marino Internet Manager at Bob Smith Mini in Calabasas Looking at new Minis’. I was trading in BMW with only 1600 miles and I like to get figures for the trade first so Chris Marino gave his best trade in figure and it was about $3000.00 less than I wanted but then he to told me to hold on a minute and then he told yes I can give you trade in amount you want. A little skeptical I said, you just gave me a lower price and now you can give me 3K more, yes he says. I then said OK no games. He said of course not.

So I go out and look at different cars, tests drives find the Mini Convertible I want go back to his office and this guy tried pull fast one. I told him early on that I had my own financing and just give me the out the door price. Chris asked what my interest rate is. 2.9% I reply for 72 month if I want. Great he says I will give you your monthly payment I tell him can you just give me the out the door price and I can figure it out myself as my payment will be $15.15 per thousand financed. He tells me my payment with the equity in the trade will be $626.00 a month. I come back with no way that is about twice what the payment should be.

What are you figures I ask and all I get back from him is your payment will be $626.00 and oh, I will need $2,500.00 cash from you. What I say to him give me the breakdown on the deal as I am ready to walk out. He tells me that my trade in is not the amount I wanted but original amount and the $2,500.00 cash he wants will make up the difference plus the discount on the new car and now with all of that I am getting the trade in amount I wanted.

Sure, this guy must think I am some kind of idiot. I told Chris Marino that he is liar and I walked out. I sent a email to the owner of dealership Catherine Smith to tell her what I think of there sales staff and to my surprise I got reply right away and she was very concerned about my experience and wanted help me out. Well, I talked to her over the phone I while she apologized for my experience at her dealership she excused the situation as big misunderstanding and she is just as bad as Chris Marino. Stay away from this dealer.

 

I've had several "misunderstandings" like that when shopping for cars. It's not a misunderstanding, it's a dishonest salesman trying to pull one over on you. For me car shopping is one of the least enjoyable experiences in the world. I think I'd rather get a root canal with no anesthesia than deal with car salesmen (no offense to any of the car salesmen/MAs that are members on this forum....but I'm sure you know that there are a lot of snakes out there that unfortunately give all of you a bad name and put people on the defensive before they've even walked into the showroom.)

 

Financing = potential can of worms. Almost like a home mortgage.

I think they make more just from financing than selling the car for cash.

Thank goodness my wife deals with all that stuff. She takes out her handy calculator and tells them where all the extras are hidden and what there effective interest rate would be. Suddenly their 2.9% rate ballooned to a 5.9%.

 

Ugh and my fiancée is now shopping for a mini, which Calabasas would be one of the closer local dealers. I have always had good experiences when dealing with fleet or internet managers on the last few cars I bought new. And even paying cash they don't try to push their financing. They just say do you want financing? No?, okay write the check to this.

 

i bought my mini through autoland, recomended by my credit union. told them exactly what i needed, after internet and dealer perusing. autoland got back to me with written offer. i accepted, credit union immediatelly financed. great experience.

 

Thanks for the info for others to watch out for.