Went shopping for a TDI SEL (OMG!)

[rmeyer23]

Since my 05 Passat TDI is now sold, I went shopping yesterday for a Passat TDI SEL at 4 Cincinnati dealers. 3 of these dealers are owned by the same company.

The story I got about current production of the TDI SEL is that this model is on the assembly line this month. This includes cars ordered prior to Oct., same going back to orders placed in July. He said that these cars will be delivered to the dealer by mid Nov. All of these dealers were saying that delivery of an ordered today TDI SEL would be end of year/first of next year.

3 of the dealers offered Lifetime oil changes; one did not. None of these dealers offered a Lifetime limited warranty on the vehicles.

I asked, if I ordered a vehicle today, for a free loaner car. Consenus was NO on a loaner car for the two to three months after the car was ordered but YES on between 2 and 4 weeks before delivery.

Pricing was about $1300 to $1400 off of MSRP but all wanted to add dealer installed options to the list price and tried to convince me that "that is just the way these cars come"?!

The best one was pricing I got from one dealer over the internet. I emailed him that I was looking for a "Passat TDI SEL, Opera red w/ black interior". He emailed me back in 5 minutes with a price of $31,814.00 plus tax and title, 1.9% APR and Lifetime free oil and filter changes. When I got to the dealership yesterday, the internet guy hands me over to a sales guy who says the price is $32,935. I asked what about the price I got in my email and showed him copies of the email. He makes the obligatory "I need to talk to my manager". He comes back, manager in tow, and says I was mistaken, the quoted price in the email is for their demo TDI SEL which happens to be Black on Black.????? They must think I am stupid; and nothing pisses me off more than people who think I am stupid. (I know you say its chocolate, but what you are trying to feed me is NOT chocolate!)

So that is my $0.02. Love to hear what your experience was. BTW all four dealers that I visited, for a Sat, were very NOT busy.

Ron M

 

[Windjammer]

The old "bait & switch" in action. I guess that dealer is off the list.
Which 3 dealers have the same owner? I knew Fairfield & Northgate were the same, but not Northgate is closed.

 

[rmeyer23]

The old "bait & switch" in action. I guess that dealer is off the list.
Which 3 dealers have the same owner? I knew Fairfield & Northgate were the same, but not Northgate is closed.

Beechmont, Fairfield, & Kings

Ron M

 

[Oberkanone]

What an experience.
OMG!

 

[oxford_guy]

Since my 05 Passat TDI is now sold, I went shopping yesterday for a Passat TDI SEL at 4 Cincinnati dealers. 3 of these dealers are owned by the same company.

The story I got about current production of the TDI SEL is that this model is on the assembly line this month. This includes cars ordered prior to Oct., same going back to orders placed in July. He said that these cars will be delivered to the dealer by mid Nov. All of these dealers were saying that delivery of an ordered today TDI SEL would be end of year/first of next year.

3 of the dealers offered Lifetime oil changes; one did not. None of these dealers offered a Lifetime limited warranty on the vehicles.

I asked, if I ordered a vehicle today, for a free loaner car. Consenus was NO on a loaner car for the two to three months after the car was ordered but YES on between 2 and 4 weeks before delivery.

Pricing was about $1300 to $1400 off of MSRP but all wanted to add dealer installed options to the list price and tried to convince me that "that is just the way these cars come"?!

The best one was pricing I got from one dealer over the internet. I emailed him that I was looking for a "Passat TDI SEL, Opera red w/ black interior". He emailed me back in 5 minutes with a price of $31,814.00 plus tax and title, 1.9% APR and Lifetime free oil and filter changes. When I got to the dealership yesterday, the internet guy hands me over to a sales guy who says the price is $32,935. I asked what about the price I got in my email and showed him copies of the email. He makes the obligatory "I need to talk to my manager". He comes back, manager in tow, and says I was mistaken, the quoted price in the email is for their demo TDI SEL which happens to be Black on Black.????? They must think I am stupid; and nothing pisses me off more than people who think I am stupid. (I know you say its chocolate, but what you are trying to feed me is NOT chocolate!)

So that is my $0.02. Love to hear what your experience was. BTW all four dealers that I visited, for a Sat, were very NOT busy.

Ron M

Be glad you can get 1.9% now. At the end of September my friend bought his TDI SE at 2.49% with great credit. They also claimed the protection package and the spoiler are "how they all come". With tax and such, he paid over $30,000 for a TDI SE with sunroof. They did give him a decent offer for the trade-in, though, so the inflated price for the car itself balances out to some degree. The big question remains the reliability out of warranty.

 

[TheGrove]

I went looking back around 9/28 after I totaled my 04. I was quoted 8 weeks for delivery.

Picked up a TDI SEL from VW of Langhorne for $200 over invoice ($31,897). Interest rate is 3.24%. Check with Chris @ Langhore, they had a couple still on their lot and were trading with other dealers to get cars buyers wanted.

 

[MonsterTDI09]

On the dealers offered Lifetime oil changes the odds are they will put the wrong oil in the car.Good luck .

 

[rmeyer23]

On the dealers offered Lifetime oil changes the odds are they will put the wrong oil in the car.Good luck .

Why would you say that?

Ron M

 

[aja8888]

Why would you say that?

Ron M

Search is your friend here.....COUNTLESS threads on dealers putting the wrong (very wrong) oil in the TDI's. The car wash jockeys that do the warranty oil changes just pull the 5W 30 hose of the rack and put that in. The required spec 507 oil is typically not put in due to ignorance.

 

[TomB]

Search is your friend here.....COUNTLESS threads on dealers putting the wrong (very wrong) oil in the TDI's. The car wash jockeys that do the warranty oil changes just pull the 5W 30 hose of the rack and put that in. The required spec 507 oil is typically not put in due to ignorance.

Many times.

Most here do our own changes or take our own oil with us so we get the right oil in them.

 

[TwoTone]

Why would you say that?

Ron M

Also cost, I'd read the fine print to make sure the TDI is included in the lifetime changes.

 

[dieselfueler]

Yep the wrong oil was put in to my 09 the first time it went in for a free change I now ask to see the oil bottles before and after the change. Do Not trust the service dept at any dealer....

 

[rotarykid]

Overfilled with the wrong oil is not uncommon at VW service centers..............I had a few of those free oil changes a few years back and got a cross threaded drain plug for my trouble!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Give Chris a email and do your own oil changes, your life will be so much better......................

 

[Massracin]

Nothing earth shattering in the OP's post. First time at a dealership??? Nothing VW specific here either, same stuff happens at all brand dealerships.

 

[statistic]

In my area(Atlanta) I used truecar.com which equated to +500 over invoice basically. Had to place a order as the ones listed on cars.com have been presold. Was told 4 weeks till delivery. Since there was no price to haggle over, the one dealer that I ended up placing the order with offers both lifetime oil changes and a lifetime warranty on the purchase.

 

[rmeyer23]

Nothing earth shattering in the OP's post. First time at a dealership??? Nothing VW specific here either, same stuff happens at all brand dealerships.

No, just a little suprised that the attitudes at dealerships 20 years ago are still prevalent today. (And they call me a dinosaur?!) I have noticed a couple dealers over on vwvortex that "get it" and believe that their customers do have an ounce on smarts.

Ron M

 

[740GLE]

just go to chris of langhorn and be happy

 

[heykw]

statistic, What dealer did you go with?

 

[rmeyer23]

statistic, What dealer did you go with?

I ended up with Kings VW of Loveland. This was after both Fairfield VW and Beechmont VW, after I agreed to the prices that they quoted me on Sat., said they "could not meet my request". Neither one of them made a counteroffer.

Draw your own conclusions.

Ron M

 

[sonero]

Money talks. Cash is King. If anything throw the manager a grand under the table and the sales guy two fifty and you leave with $30,725 all hooked up.

 

[Windjammer]

Money talks. Cash is King. If anything throw the manager a grand under the table and the sales guy two fifty and you leave with $30,725 all hooked up.

I think most of us want to keep our deals above the table. No sense in making the car buying experience worse than it already is.

 

[rmeyer23]

I think most of us want to keep our deals above the table. No sense in making the car buying experience worse than it already is.

I agree

Rm

 

[oxford_guy]

I ended up with Kings VW of Loveland. This was after both Fairfield VW and Beechmont VW, after I agreed to the prices that they quoted me on Sat., said they "could not meet my request". Neither one of them made a counteroffer.

Draw your own conclusions.

Ron M

That's odd. They're all owned by the same company.

 

[sonero]

Not that I condone that but where I live I can see it happening if you buy all cash. The ultimate point is the more cash down the more room to negotiate. You can't push down a sales price when you are coming with A) reliance on VW financing and/or B) very little cash i.e. under $5,000. Best bet is come with pre-approved auto loan paired with your cash down and you can run the show. I bought a Jetta so my previous $ amount in the above post is BS.

 

[TDICT]

Not that I condone that but where I live I can see it happening if you buy all cash. The ultimate point is the more cash down the more room to negotiate. You can't push down a sales price when you are coming with A) reliance on VW financing and/or B) very little cash i.e. under $5,000. Best bet is come with pre-approved auto loan paired with your cash down and you can run the show. I bought a Jetta so my previous $ amount in the above post is BS.

I don't think that is the case. Dealers of most any product make a profit or a small placement fee on the financing so it would be to their advantage to have you the buyer finance through their lending source

 

[sonero]

I don't think that is the case. Dealers of most any product make a profit or a small placement fee on the financing so it would be to their advantage to have you the buyer finance through their lending source

True. But you miss my 'perfect world buyer' point in that you arrive with a pre-approved auto loan from somewhere else i.e. a credit union and your cash down to sum up to X total which is what you can pay. Granted you figure for taxes, tag, title...etc. Of course they make fee on VW financing, that falls from the tree.

 

[TDICT]

I don't think the spread from invoice to sell on these cars is so great. I know I got $1,000 of the list of mine car. Maybe the dealer made $500-$1,000 on my deal. You think thats a lot of profit on a $30k+ sale. I don't. Thats why dealers try so hard for the add on sales. They make more on the sealer/wax package than they make on the car. I think it is funny reading about folks driving way out of territory to save $200 bucks and than expects the local dealer to bend over backward when it comes to service.
The guys who think the dealers have a bad attitude, did you ever think your smartest guy in the room attitude might have anything to do with there actions toward you, Just a question?

 

[sonero]

Of course being all-knowing and arrogant is a turn off to dealers. But we are talking strategy here not there. Game face. Good point nevertheless.

Errrgghhh...skidmarks...but you know the numbers you threw are really inflated. We are in a Passat forum and someone here posted they are paying their workers $14 an hour. I may be wrong about that but surely you would be better off worrying more about your savings than their profit on the overall. Besides obviously having nothing to do tonight, I'm done.

 

[TheGrove]

I don't think the spread from invoice to sell on these cars is so great. I know I got $1,000 of the list of mine car. Maybe the dealer made $500-$1,000 on my deal.

If memory serves me correct the spread on my SEL was $1,500 and from what Chris @ Langhorne told me that is pretty much what all of them are running.

 

[TDICT]

Of course being all-knowing and arrogant is a turn off to dealers. But we are talking strategy here not there. Game face. Good point nevertheless.

Errrgghhh...skidmarks...but you know the numbers you threw are really inflated. We are in a Passat forum and someone here posted they are paying their workers $14 an hour. I may be wrong about that but surely you would be better off worrying more about your savings than their profit on the overall. Besides obviously having nothing to do tonight, I'm done.

I don't understand what numbers you see as inflated? We are talking about the profit margin on the dealer side. What VW pays it's workers has no effect on the dealer invoiced price and the street sell price.
I think that a US worker in TN making $14.00 an hour is better than paying the Mexican worker that assembled your car. The dealer and his profit are the ones keeping the doors open on the local level, the guys in service, parts, sales and administration are all looking for a check at the end of the week and making $500 a car is not a lot to cover all these cost. If they sell 1,000 cars a year that only grosses them $500,000. I would bet their fixed cost would easily exceed that and thats just to keep an empty building open.