Well lets begin the story with a little background.
The Mad Blogger was in the mood for a new ride. He's been driving a 2003 Nissan 350Z for 3+ years now, and wanted something up off the ground, a bit more visible and much larger. So he began by searching for used Chevrolet Tahoes. Why a Tahoe? Why not, The Mad Blogger can afford gas, even as prices rise, so why bother with trying to be "green", The Mad Blogger is not PC.
It didn't take TMB (The Mad Blogger) long to find what he was looking for. A 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe Z71, 4x4, every option on it except for a third row seat, and navigation. The Mad Blogger has no kids, he needs not a third row seat, he's also a man, he can find his way out of a pitchdark room with no doors, navigation is not a necessity.
He found his new ride at Southtown Dodge on Lindbergh Blvd in south St. Louis County. Now it was time to deal. The Tahoe had been sitting on the lot for over 90 days when TMB found it, so this meant he should be able to get a good deal. Priced out on KBB.com TMB found it to have a value of roughly $34k, asking price on it was $26,903. First offer to the dealer, Southtown Dodge, salesman was Mike Wall, was 25,500. The dealer wouldn't budge, they said they were at their clearance price and wouldn't come down. $26903, plus a BS fee of $97 dollars for paperwork.
The Mad Blogger would have none of this, he came back with another offer of $26,500 a day later, the dealer still wouldn't budge. They did know what the truck was worth, and weren't going to move on it. Fine, The Mad Blogger knows when to jump on a good deal. So he calls the dealer up this morning to tell them he'll be there at 4:30pm to give them his pre-approved loan information, and pick up the vehicle. Good ole Mike Wall comes back and says, sorry, we can't clean it up for delivery till we have a deposit or have started on the paperwork. So The Mad Blogger agrees to go down there over his lunch break and get the paperwork started. TMB doesn't really care if they clean the Tahoe, it's going to rain today, all he wanted was them to put the Brush Bar back on the front which they had removed between the first time TMB looked at it and the second time he went back.
TMB arrives at the dealer shortly after 11:30am this morning, good ole Mike Wall is there with the paperwork already started. Mike looks over The Mad Blogger's preapproved loan information and tells him that he won't be able to turn the Tahoe over to TMB for 7-10 days. WTF? Excuse The Mad Blogger, did you just tell him he can't pickup this truck today? TMB comes in with a loan check that he's been told is as good as cash and Southtown Dodge won't let him take the vehicle for 7-10 days? TMB don't think so.
After 15-20 minutes of no progress The Mad Blogger decides it's time to leave. The first thing TMB does it call up his lender to verify that the check should be good as gold with a dealer. They confirm this and say that they don't have problems with dealers accepting their checks, they did offer to talk to the dealer and have them a check mailed next day to arrive on Saturday. TMB declines, he's done dealing with Southtown Dodge. TMB decides he'll check for himself and jumps off the highway to stop at another dealer, Sunset Ford. The sales guy at Sunset Ford (sorry TMB didn't get his name to give him props) said they would have no problem accepting the TMB preapproved loan check and selling him a vehicle on the spot. Unfortunately for The Mad Blogger they didn't have a used Tahoe on the lot.
So, what's the moral of The Mad Blogger's story? Don't let a dealer like Southtown Dodge jack you around. If the sales guy, Mike Wall, or whomever your sales person is, EVER acts like a *** to you, walk out of there. The Mad Blogger took a little crap from Mike hoping he'd still get a good deal on this truck. He got nothing but a weeks worth of wasted time when he could have found another vehicle.
Southtown Dodge Sucks!
