Car buying can be a harrowing experience and can, more often than not, totally suck. From psychological tactics like the dreaded four-square to down right intimidation from greedy managers, it can all be a lot. Worse yet is if you go into negotiations with bad advice. It can be anything from financial advice down to the kind of car someone suggested you buy.
Last we we asked readers what’s the worst car buying advice they’ve received. These were their answers.
“You should get an Audi S6 too (for reasons) The Audi chain tensioners usually all fail by 120k. So if they haven’t failed by then they should be good.” — my buddy With an S6 who bought one at 135k miles
I’m not stupid, so I did not get to enjoy the wonderful clackity clack clack of valve interference at 144k that my buddy with the S6 did.
Submitted by: redneckrob and his flock of Volvos
The worst advice is to fall for the “even split” ploy. When they tell you that meeting halfway on the difference between their price and your offer is “fair.” It never is. You have zero proof that this is the best they can do. It is not, 99% of the time.
Submitted by: Bruce Waltruck via Facebook
“After a few months of making payments, you can refinance at a lower rate”
While a history of on-time payments is an important factor in your credit score, it’s not going to offset the additional debt you now have. You will not qualify for a lower rate “after a few months”.
Submitted by: smalleyxb122
Worst advice: RECOMMEND A ENTHUSIAST CAR TO A NON CAR PERSON. In this context - a coworker looking for a commuter that dont care much about cars; a gearhead told to that person BUY A THIS MANUAL CAR WITH HUGE ENGINE YOU WILL FEEEEEEELLLL THE ROAR AND THE EXCITEMENT - my coworker went to test a challenger (auto he didn’t knew how to drive a manual) he hated it said was too noisy; rumble a lot; DRAIN GAS LIKE CRAZY; couldnt see in the mirrors etc; he said he also hated the camry/accord/cuvs.
Told him to try an EV specifically the Ioniq 5 and EV 6. He loved it; he said had awesome tech; super easy to drive, quiet, comfy could do a lot from his phone; could charge it from home and never stop in a gas station. He got the Ioniq 5 cuz its quirky looks and interior.
Submitted by: Ed GR via Facebook
“It’s not a markup, it’s just a way we make a little extra money, and you get something out of it” From a Land Rover salesman when I asked why the Ceramic Coating was a required 20k option on anything nicer than an Discovery Sport.
Submitted by: James II
Don’t finance a car, write a check for it. Terrible financial advice. If you have a low interest rate and you can afford the monthly expenditure, finance the whole car and put all of the money into the market. Your returns will usually be far greater than the monthly interest.
Submitted by: Giancarlo Lucia via Facebook
I don’t even bother giving any anymore. I have a younger co worker i tried to assist in his car buying experience about six months ago. He asked for my help since he knows i have bought a large amount of vehicles over the years. I wrote it all down for him. Step by step.
What did he do? Ignored every single item and bought a 2014 Subaru Forester with 93k miles off a BMW used section lot for full sticker, bought a $4500 POS 3rd party warranty with more exclusions than coverage. Bought it with a cracked windshield, 3 non functioning lights, multiple dents in the hood and roof, severe love bug staining all over the front, a headliner dirtier than the floor of a crackhouse and with a battery that looked original and corroded to kingdom come.
Financed it all at so he can pay nearly $30k over five years for a POS that I wouldn’t have paid $10k for total.
Some people you can’t help.
Submitted by: David Smith via Facebook
Salesman who doesn’t have ABS-equipped cars in stock told me that ABS only helps the steering to function continuously but doesn’t really reduce the braking distance.
Submitted by: Peter Shieh via Facebook
Sell your E30 M3 instead of keeping it to buy an E36 M3. That E30 M3 is now worth $75-$100K…
Submitted by: Drew Porta via Facebook
Worst advice I’ve ever heard is this. Only buy if there’s a steep discount. I had to explain this to a friend. He was looking at two identical cars at different dealerships. They were both three-year-old gray Honda certified pre owned accord LX models with 38,000 miles. You could not tell these two cars apart, and they have the exact same warranty.
One was priced at 18,995 and they offered a $3000 discount. The other one was priced at 15,995 and they offered to discount it to 15,500. He was about to walk away from the lower priced dealer when I had to explain to him that what the car was actually worth, was the consideration, not the discount
Submitted by: Jonathan Davidson via Facebook