Well let me set this up right quick:
had a 1994 Mazda 626, P.O.S. I found out towards the end of the financing, with $3000 left on the car to pay, the tranny went. $1200 later the car runs but I vow not to keep it any longer or buy another used car.
so I eventually end up at the toyota dealer here in town, of which there is only one, making competition nonexistent and the dealers NOT wanting to give you a deal because you cant get a toyota from a dealer within 50 miles.
anyway they only want to give me $2500 for my car, I owe $3000, but in the end they basically tell me Im screwed. I would have taken it to a larger city with 5+ Toyota dealers and had them each bidding for my money and trade-in, but on the way down south to the cities, the tranny started to go again, so I turned around and went home.
only way I could afford a new car, was to lease with the option to buy at the end.
So i leased my Toyota Matrix for 4 years, ~$250/mo payments.
I had to get a dealer trade, meaning the dealer trades one car for another from some dealer far away, because of course they dont carry Manual transmissions.
So i say "look, I drive around and everywhere I turn I see license plate holders, and stickers and laminates on cars advertising the dealership where they came from. Now those people might be alright with free advertising for you, but I am not. DO NOT PUT ANY DEALER STICKERS ON MY CAR!
When the car arrives a week later, from Michigan where there is no GatorLand Toyota, and once I get all the papers signed and hop it, BAM on the back is a black sticker of the dealer.
I walk back inside and say "Look, you said you wouldnt (and he did promise me) put the stickers on it, and you did. Take them off." He said he would. I waited for about 30 minutes or so, I forget, and I go out to look, stickers still there. So I scratched them off with my finger (it was freshly stuck on) and balled it up for the dealer to see.
he apologized and said when I come back in 4yrs he will give me a deal on my car.
So I figured I would be able to negotiate the end of lease cost.
Apparently, according to the Lease Company who is NOT the dealer NOR Toyota, that if any written amount was in the "residual value" box on the contact, thats what you pay, no negotiating.
So not that the amount is HUGE or anything, in fact its about $3k LESS than what the car is worth, a rarity in leasing, but I mean they did NOTHING I asked for and (laughing all the way to the bank I am sure) forced me to pay $500 for them to take my trade-in, I feel I am entitled to a little compensation.
Namely, knock off $500 or so from the residual price I am going to pay.
Or waive the acquisition fee ($350 extra to buy the car) which is basically their way of making sure that, since you are buying the car and not returning it (wear n tear costs, over mileage etc, which I have neither), you give them some sort of bonus cash as you take the car away.
I hate car dealers.
I am going into the same dealer I got it from soon, and ask to speak the Leasing Manager, I am good with getting people thinking that if they dont help me I will make it so no one goes there anymore.
had a 1994 Mazda 626, P.O.S. I found out towards the end of the financing, with $3000 left on the car to pay, the tranny went. $1200 later the car runs but I vow not to keep it any longer or buy another used car.
so I eventually end up at the toyota dealer here in town, of which there is only one, making competition nonexistent and the dealers NOT wanting to give you a deal because you cant get a toyota from a dealer within 50 miles.
anyway they only want to give me $2500 for my car, I owe $3000, but in the end they basically tell me Im screwed. I would have taken it to a larger city with 5+ Toyota dealers and had them each bidding for my money and trade-in, but on the way down south to the cities, the tranny started to go again, so I turned around and went home.
only way I could afford a new car, was to lease with the option to buy at the end.
So i leased my Toyota Matrix for 4 years, ~$250/mo payments.
I had to get a dealer trade, meaning the dealer trades one car for another from some dealer far away, because of course they dont carry Manual transmissions.
So i say "look, I drive around and everywhere I turn I see license plate holders, and stickers and laminates on cars advertising the dealership where they came from. Now those people might be alright with free advertising for you, but I am not. DO NOT PUT ANY DEALER STICKERS ON MY CAR!
When the car arrives a week later, from Michigan where there is no GatorLand Toyota, and once I get all the papers signed and hop it, BAM on the back is a black sticker of the dealer.
I walk back inside and say "Look, you said you wouldnt (and he did promise me) put the stickers on it, and you did. Take them off." He said he would. I waited for about 30 minutes or so, I forget, and I go out to look, stickers still there. So I scratched them off with my finger (it was freshly stuck on) and balled it up for the dealer to see.
he apologized and said when I come back in 4yrs he will give me a deal on my car.
So I figured I would be able to negotiate the end of lease cost.
Apparently, according to the Lease Company who is NOT the dealer NOR Toyota, that if any written amount was in the "residual value" box on the contact, thats what you pay, no negotiating.
So not that the amount is HUGE or anything, in fact its about $3k LESS than what the car is worth, a rarity in leasing, but I mean they did NOTHING I asked for and (laughing all the way to the bank I am sure) forced me to pay $500 for them to take my trade-in, I feel I am entitled to a little compensation.
Namely, knock off $500 or so from the residual price I am going to pay.
Or waive the acquisition fee ($350 extra to buy the car) which is basically their way of making sure that, since you are buying the car and not returning it (wear n tear costs, over mileage etc, which I have neither), you give them some sort of bonus cash as you take the car away.
I hate car dealers.
I am going into the same dealer I got it from soon, and ask to speak the Leasing Manager, I am good with getting people thinking that if they dont help me I will make it so no one goes there anymore.
