I hate used car dealers.... a lot.

OK, related, but not related, directly, to my Subaru woes.. . . .

As you intrepid followers of the Sucky Subaru Saga, here is an aside...

You may remember that Mr. General Manager was trying to find me an FJ Cruiser to trade me out of this Baja thats been ruining my spare time. He's not been real successful so far. I find it a bit suspicious and slightly fishy.
I've been doing my own searching of CraigsList, Auto Trader, Cars.com, and other local dealers for reasonably priced FJs. Mr. GM always comes back saying he can't contact them, they aren't available, or they don't exist. Now I can buy that for some, but for all?
Dubious.....I call shenannigans!
So, I find one that is in the price range I'm interested in at a fairly local Toyota place. Its a bit higher in the miles but has a good options and looks to be in good shape- and the price is good. Plus the miles it has is like a year of driving over what I have now. So no big woop. I give them a call to see if its still there.
Its not. Also not surprising. But, he says he has 2 others at other locations he could bring in if I wanted to take a look. I say, sure if they have the right price point. HE says one of them is $19,900. Ok, thats in the range, I can go look. Just to go through the motions, I make the appointment to go.
Next Day:
I get a call from him saying that the one they were going t bring up is sold already, but they have the other one and its the same price. Hmm, yesterday it wasn't mentioned it was the same price. But ok. I'll take a look.
Next Day:
I get there. and there it is in the lot. Great- step one: it exists.
Once they find the keys I go take a ride.
Now this is one stripped down FJ. Aside the allow wheels and passenger arm rest (yes, that's an option) its pretty bare bones.Manual tranny, no upgraded stereo, no steering wheel controls, no power inverter, no roof rack, no towing package, no instrument pod...nothing.But its only got 37,000 miles. So I can live with it.
Taking a closer look around, the tires have seen better days- would likely need replacing in the next year or so. The E-Brake was also very loose. Maybe needs new Pads.
So- it drives fine, we get back.
Now- he goes into the back office to talk with the sales manager..... this is going to be fun....
He comes back with some numbers scrawled on the back of some paper. First thing I notice is that the price he put down for the Fj is $21,995. Hmmm... I'm not a math wiz, but $21,995 is a lot more than $19,900. Then the insulting part.... He has the trade in value for my car at $9,600. Umm.... yeah...... thats more than $8000 less than what I paid for it not 3 months ago.
Wow.
I say, well, I guess we don't have anything to talk about. I pick up my papers and head for the door. He all but grabs my arm and pull me back in. He says don't shoot the messenger. Yeah, he's my sales rep, he's responsible for anything he tells me. I tell him I know what the MSRP for my car is and what I paid for it recently. Its almost $18k. I tell him I was told the car was $19,900 and now somehow its magically $3,000 more. I didn't come here to get jerked around with some sort of bait and switch scam.
Being a somewhat overly-patient person, I sit and he makes a stop at the sales manager about the price change then goes into the business managers office about the trade in price.
And would you believe the guy has the nerve to come back out with the NADA book in his hand and points out to me what the average trade-in value for my car is, saying how the price I told him was way off and doesn't sound right.
Wow.
This guy is now trying to prove me wrong by pointing at numbers in a book instead of just trying to work with me. Plus I know the online NADA guide says its worth at least $13,000 for trade-in.
So I say I've done my research and I know what I paid, so I know what the market value is. I get him to look at a different guide.

This guy goes and gets the auction listings and opens it. He finds a comparable listing and was about to point to it to show me the "hey look its also saying the same thing" but his face fell and revealed a number closer to $16,000 for a non-turbo version. Now his attitude has changed. Oh "We're not a Subaru Dealer, We don't know Subarus".
Yeah, like I'm a Subaru dealer, but somehow I know how to look things up.He says, Oh, I'll call my friend at a Subaru dealership and see what we can do.
OK.... whatever......JAckass.

Car dealers....they all suck.... all of them.