In /r/personalfinance OP's girlfriend decides to buy a car but takes an unexpected detour to the cleaners. It's tears for OP's fears as one disreputable dealership wants to rule the world. (self.SubredditDrama)
SubredditDrama
193 ups - 0 downs = 193 votes
A visual aid to help set the mood
Welcome to your life / There's no turning back
OP's 20 year old girlfriend just got her license and wants a car to celebrate her independence.
Acting on your best behaviour / Turn your back on mother nature
OP can't go with her to the dealer because of work, so she decides to go with her mother. OP pleads with her not to sign anything or leave with a car. His girlfriend disregards said advice because she knows what she's doing.
It's my own design / It's my own remorse
She disregards this advice and ends up paying $12,800 for a car worth less than $5,000, with a 21% interest rate + $200/mo for insurance. All told, she's on the hook for $620/mo over 4 years on an income of $1,300/mo. For an 8 year old Dodge Caliber with 100,000 miles.
Help me to decide / Help me make the most
Can /r/personalfinance bail them out?
Of freedom and of pleasure / Nothing ever lasts forever
So glad we've almost made it / So sad they had to fade it
Is the dealer a scumbag or just really good at his job?
I can't stand this indecision / Married with a lack of vision
All for freedom and for pleasure / Nothing ever lasts forever
Should OP dump his GF, lawyer up, and delete from Kelley Blue Book?
Everybody wants to rule the world
77 comments submitted at 22:39:05 on Oct 24, 2014 by GAMEOVER
Very impressed by the application of Tears for Fears lyrics, OP!
>Dump her and move on. Not only did she disregard your explicit instructions to not buy anything, she got the worst deal possible.
I'm surprised no one is mentioning that car salesman routinely do this to women, specifically. The people I bought my car from tried the same crap with me. If you don't go in expecting it and with a prepared number in mind, I can see how it could be easy to get taken.
They try it with everyone, I think.
I walked into a benz dealer to inquire about a lease on a cla. The salesman said the only leases they had were about $500 a month. I whipped out my cellphone calculator, did the math and realized that he was offering $7000 in interest on top of about $15000 financed. Yeah.
Not really. They know that less women know about cars so they have a better chance of getting the complete rip off.
If they try that on someone who knows shit about cars then they will walk out immediately.
Although I'd bet they do the same to a 20 year old guy who looks like he doesn't know shit.
So, not really.. Except for when they do it to 20 year old guys.
Like you said, if you don't know your shit (and even if you do) a shady car dealer is going to ~~try and~~ take advantage of you. Doesn't matter if you're man, woman or other-kin.
How does a dealer know you don't know your shit? They have to guess. And they make the educated guess that women are more likely to not know their shit about cars.
I sell cars
Its really fucking obvious. Like I can see it from a mile away.
Just had a deal, $50,000 grand cherokee, they really grinded me...I gave them our pre haggled price (which we are happy selling for) minus factory rebate. Lady said "not good price" I said "What would it take to sell you the car?" she said "Give me floor mats" I thought to myself "$1,000 commission check for $75 set of floor mats? Yea I'll do that" shook hands paid for the floor mats. She also made several other very common/silly rookie mistakes that anyone who did a bit of research/critical thinking wouldn't have.
She wants the high end rubber durable floor mats, of course a $50,000 cherokee comes with floor mats, cloth ones.
Uh, they talk to you. If you don't know about cars it is really easy to figure out. For example, I don't know anything about cars, my roommate does. He often talks about things that I haven't even ever heard of. He could easily trick me into believing something was important in a car, and it would require me to go look it up to determine whether he is bullshitting or not.
Also, my roommate used to work at dealerships and often says they loved when customers like me (ignorant) came in, because they would often get them to agree to terrible deals.
No, there's actually a good bit of profiling employed by dealers. Even if the person buying the car is acting out an identical script (link), guys will tend to be able to get more favorable final offers. Even before they've actually spoken in any significant capacity, the initial offers pretty heavily favor males (and whites, as well).
To some degree you could claim it as racism / sexism but it's probably not necessarily intentional; a cars salesman has to figure out how adept a bargainer someone is with very little information, and subconscious biases built up from previous experience and stereotypes can significantly affect their judgment. And to be fair, there is some truth to it - like, twice as many blacks don't know you can bargain over the price of a car as whites.
You know, I keep seeing that study cited but I never actually read it before and it's astonishing how poorly it's been interpreted.
The study actually showes that the difference in both initial and final offers for men and women (after accounting for race) is not statistically signifcant. The real difference in the study is between offers to whites and blacks. And apparently black guys get fucked the most.
Also, the study is a quarter of a century old. Why do people keep citing a study that is probably literally older than a lot of actual car salesmen?
But it confirms my previously held biases! How could it possibly be wrong or out of date? ^^^/s