Buying a car can be stressful, and if you’re not careful, it can be easy to get taken advantage of. Even after doing the research, looking at quotes and price comparisons online, agents still find ways to make the process confusing.
A couple catches a car salesman lying
TikTok user Olivia (@sylver.witch) shared her recent experience trying to buy a Toyota Sienna, and according to her, things got dicey.
“This morning, three things are true,” she said in her video. “Car salesmen are liars, they don’t like to be caught, and seeing an Italian man angry is funny.”
Olivia explains that she and her husband have been shopping for Sienna for a while. They’ve already collected multiple quotes, including one from the same agent team online. But when they came in person to meet with different salespeople, they were told something different.
“He would say, ‘There’s no negotiation. Toyota Siennas are MSRP,'” she says, referring to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.
“We pride ourselves on honesty and integrity. That’s the price you get,” she remembers him saying.
But Olivia’s husband, Justin, wasn’t convinced. “He was like, ‘Well, this started out really bad,'” she says. When the salesperson seemed confused, Justin brought up the dealership’s online quotes, which offered a lower price.
“You told me when we first started that you valued integrity and honesty,” she says. This is not what I see now.”
“We weren’t supposed to give that discount.”
Things escalated when the agency manager came. “He says, ‘Yes, sorry, that was a mistake,'” Olivia says. Our sales development representative was not supposed to discount the Sienna.”
However, the manager decided to honor the citation. “He said, ‘We weren’t supposed to give you a $500 discount, but we’ll honor that — and as a show of good faith, I’ll give you another $200.’
Olivia says she appreciated the slight drop in prices but wasn’t sure she believed the “wrong” explanation. “I think they were caught,” she says. “If they really aren’t allowed to offer this discount, then I feel sorry for this poor actor.”
She ends the video by asking her viewers: “What do you think?”
Commenters along with the buyer
In the comments, many users supported Olivia, saying the seller’s excuse didn’t seem convincing.
“They act like the market is booming right now,” one person wrote. “It seems superficial.”
Another shared insider knowledge: “As a former salesperson, if you worked with someone online, you should have worked with that person online. It’s just a game, but with Toyotas, the prices don’t usually get that much lower.”
Others said they saw similar tactics. “A lot of agents have gone so far as not to haggle prices, but sometimes the online side has better deals. It’s all about who gets the credit for the sale,” one user explained.
What buyers should know
according to CarriageTactics like the ones Olivia described aren’t exactly rare. Some agents try to create a sense of urgency, telling customers that the price they’re offering is “only good today.” In fact, the same deal will likely still be there tomorrow, or even next week.
Another common line is that the agent is “losing money” during the sale. This is almost not true at all. Between manufacturer rebates, financing commissions, and warranties, there’s always a profit hidden somewhere.
Then there’s the classic “someone else is about to buy” move, designed to get you to commit before you’re ready. Dealers also like to inflate trade-in values to make you feel like you’re getting a great deal, when in reality they’ve added that money somewhere else.
And if they say the car has a “clean history”, Carriage It is suggested not to assume that this means it is flawless. They warn that even cars with perfect reports can have hidden issues, which is why getting your own inspection is always worth it.
The bottom line is that if a deal seems rushed or too good to be true, it probably is.
Engine1 I’ve reached out to Olivia via Instagram messages for more information, and will update this article when she hears back.
