Moment ‘shady’ car dealer caught trying to get customer to pay more – tips to prevent this from happening to you

CAR experts have uncovered a sneaky negotiation tactic used by many new car dealers. Buyers can potentially save thousands of dollars by understanding and countering this tip.

In a YouTube video, the creators of CarEdge explained how a dealer tried to score an extra $4,000 on a popular SUV.

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Zach and Ray Shefska, the father and son who run CarEdge, a website that provides car buyers with tools and resources to make informed vehicle purchases, filmed an interaction with a “shady” dealership.

CarEdge’s son Zach called a dealership to inquire about the price of a Toyota Corolla Cross.

It is the cheapest SUV in the Toyota range.

Auto experts did not reveal the name, location or brand of the dealership.

The Corolla Cross has a starting MSRP of $23,860. The vehicle Zach called went through a series of upgrades, bringing the car to $27,224.

However, a $4,000 “dealer markup” brought the SUV’s price to $31,224.

When asked about the additional cost, the phone company appears to have reduced the markup by $2,000.

“The dealer adjustment isn’t actually $4,000 – it seems like it’s about half that amount,” Zach said.

YouTubers claimed the “dealer fit” was removed from the car’s sales page after filming the interaction.

While looking through the terms and conditions of sale on the webpage, Zach alleged he found several inconsistencies in the price of the car.

For example, the phone company said there was probably no handling fee on the car.

A document fee, commonly referred to as a document fee in the fine print of a car contract, is a fee charged by car dealerships for processing the documents involved in the sale of the vehicle.

Zach found two listing details for the Corolla Cross that listed both a $399 documentation fee and a $175 documentation fee.

The father-son duo said the interaction highlighted several pain points for shoppers. They suggested three tips for saving thousands of dollars.

First, they suggested researching the average selling price of a vehicle in the buyer’s area.

The cars will sell at different prices throughout the United States, depending on availability and popularity.

Zach alleged that drivers looking at the Corolla Cross on CarEdge would have found the SUV’s average price closer to $26,000.

They also suggested looking through the fine print to find inconsistencies before walking into the dealership – like changed documentation fees.

Finally, they also said that buyers can also put pressure on sales managers by asking the true cost of the purchase.

“By the time you call, and push a little and ask for a ‘out the door’ price, the dealer adjustment is now half (the original price),” Zach added.

Still, Ray, a former car salesman, said the interaction showed why dealerships had lost consumer trust.

“The concept, at least when I was running dealerships, you don’t advertise your second best price, you advertise your best price,” he said.

“It’s high time for dealerships to move into the 21st century.”

Ray said federal consumer protection rules, known as the CARS rules, “need to go into effect.”

The protections, adopted by the Federal Trade Commission in December 2023, are four-pronged rule changes that will require dealers to be more direct on pricing and financing.

Previously, Zach also told the US Sun that partnering with Amazon could jeopardize dealership models that prey on consumers unwilling to bargain.

Amazon recently announced a partnership with Hyundai to sell the Korean automaker’s vehicles on the e-commerce platform.

“I think it will one day eliminate the sellers,” Zach said, speaking of buyers turning to buying cars online.

“(Dealers) deliberately prolong the purchasing process so that it takes longer than necessary.”