After weeks of car shopping, website searching, forum reading (at this awesome place) and soul searching, yesterday I helped my daughter buy a 2012 Hyundai Elantra Limited with Nav.
I spent many hours reading the archives of this sub forum about everyones' journeys through the car buying maze; its pitfalls and elations. I was hip to the spurious charges of Etching, Nitrogen and Admin with myself being quite vocal in the Etching stickie on this forum. I'd been down that road myself a couple of times and I was prepared.
From the freebie part of the website Carsaver.ca I got their opinion of the invoice price for that car. Their promise of dealers pre signed up to accept 3% above invoice probably wouldn't run to the city where we shopped so I didn't risk our $40 on that.
Under their page titled "Essential Tips for Negotiating Your Car Price" was this nugget - “Administrative Fees”, “Advertising Fees” and “Handling Charges”. You should never agree to pay for these charges. Tell your dealer firmly that you will not sign anything until they have agreed to drop the charges from your contract. If they refuse, just walk away, this sort of dealerships are not worth your time at all."
We'd previously shopped a Honda dealer for a used Accord and the man said that all their car sales had an Admin fee of $400 added which was for "insurance" on all their stock plus the etching (scam) and a few other nebulous goodies like paperwork. He said it could not be waived at all (!!!). Scratch them.
So yesterday we entered a Hyundai dealership in London Ont to see what ol' dad could do with his information and negotiating skills. My first offer was close to 2.2% above "invoice". The sales manager responded with his offer close to 3.25% above our invoice figure. We accepted.
They had a Nitrogen and Tire package on the car ($199) which we politely declined. That was no problem for them. I was expecting Admin fees to raise their head but the sales lady announced that Hyundai would not allow Admin fees as extras to their car sales. Wow oh wow! I was impressed.
The rest of the transaction was pleasant and ably taken care of by the sales lady, finance man and the sales (general?) manager. They were pleasant, courteous, honest, fun and a joy to deal with. This is how car sales should be. Let's hope that Hyundai in its quest to be the #1 car company has set high standards for its dealerships and staff. Car sales have had a justifiable bad rap over the years due shady sales people and practices. We deserve better and we should demand better. Doing this with our wallets is the best way. I won't stay in a dealership where I feel I'm being abused or taken for a fool in any way.
I doff my hat to the sales team of Jan, Ray and Dean at Airport Hyundai in London Ontario. Their standard should be adopted by all sales people and then all car buying would become the euphoric experience that it should be.
