The used car market, for the most part, has shifted back in favor of the buyers instead of the sellers. With deals to be had on most of your typical cars and incredible savings on EVs, it also means that some dealers are pulling out all the stops to get you in the door even if the real price isn’t what it appears online. This NJ dealer takes the cake for one of the most bonkers used car quotes I’ve ever seen.
The online marketplace has forced dealers to post competitive prices upfront and gone are the days when a dealer with a $25,000 used car is going to drop down to $20,000 to make a sale. That is why the objective is to focus on the overall value of a used car versus the biggest discount. The flip side to this online market where usually the best price is upfront, is that some stores will try to “game” that system by posting a very low price to get you in the door, only to make up for it with a bunch of added fees and charges.
One of the worst examples I ever saw was from a Volkswagen dealer in Florida that added about $4,500 of nonsense to a used GTI. After the post was published I got a call from the finance director who claimed that it wasn’t a “quote” but rather a “menu” like you would order at a restaurant.
I’ve seen my share of rip-off quotes over the years, but a recent one from a dealer in New Jersey on a used Chevy Bolt has all others beat with fees on top of fees. I was recently shopping for a used EV for a customer in NY when I came across what looked like a very competitive price of just under $16,000. While this was “cheap” for a ’22 Bolt, it wasn’t exactly “suspiciously cheap” given how fast EVs have been depreciating and when I compared this number with the prices from Hertz. Even still, my gut told me that something was up since North Jersey area dealers are a bit notorious for pricing games.
Then I saw the breakdown on the dealer’s website via an automated pricing portal.
The dealer has not one, not two, but three “pre-delivery service inspection” fees to the tune of $1,495 each. That’s almost $4,500 alone in “inspections” on top of the almost $600 in fees for window etching and Nitrogen filled tires. I guess it takes some pretty fancy equipment to evaluate whether or not an EV powers up and goes. While this triple charging for the inspection could have possibly been an error, the dealer never responded to several requests for clarity regarding their online pricing portal.
Error or not, this illustrates why customers should always request itemized out-the-door prices and compare the total cost because the sale price doesn’t always tell the whole story. While some dealers will back out these extra charges in order to make a sale, most of the time they will just wait for another sucker, and these types of quotes are a sign to take your business elsewhere.
Tom McParland is a contributing writer for Jalopnik and runs AutomatchConsulting.com. He takes the hassle out of buying or leasing a car. Got a car buying question? Send it to [email protected]