Dealership Scam Letter

CyrexNZ said:

A few weeks ago I received a letter from my dealership, which was in the format of a printed e-mail. The letter used choice wording like my vehicle is a "top priority" vehicle and they have someone "very interested in purchasing it". It was "from" the GM of my dealership to some other employee, and they stated they would give me significantly more than it is worth.

Before getting too excited, I looked up the names of the two in the "e-mail", and one was the GM as I stated, and the other an employee with an unknown position. And I thought why wouldn't my 2014 GTI be a top priority vehicle? Top of the line un-modded GTI, and the last of the North American GTIs to be made in Germany. Maybe some eccentric collector of fine German automobiles wanted to add this to their collection.

So I look up the KBB value of my car, and head to the dealership. I confirm with my salesman if the letter is real, and he let me know it is. He goes off to talk to the unknown employee in the e-mail, then comes back with a smile on his face telling me "Nick, we can give you $19,000 for your car".

I laughed, let him know my car is worth at least $27,000, and they wouldn't get my car unless I got into a 2015 full loaded GTI and ended up with some cash in my pocket. That is when he told me what I already knew at this point, that the letter goes out to everyone that recently purchased a car through them, in order to get them into an even newer car.

I left, pissed off that a reputable dealership would send out scams like this, and sadly left the letter with him.

I read one user that received a similar letter, the dealership looking for his modded GTI, but I'm looking to find out if this is a VWOA scam, or just individual dealerships. Plus it gives the rest of you a heads up.

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Are people really this gullible.. come on man!!! i get shit like this like once a month and it goes directly in the trash.. Also to think a dealership will give you more for your car then it is worth on a trade in is pretty silly..

Circular file.

mmmmm I'd get rid of mine for 19k, clean slate

Common sense is like deodorant. The people who need it the most never use it. Not a scam just normal business at the dealer.

27k? do you mean STi? ahahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahahhaha

My cars is worth 13 trade in and 16 private. :/ 27k is a lawls.

lol, I get these all the time from Toyota. In fact I was still receiving them for my 2000 Toyota Celica, 3 years after I had gotten rid of the damn car, lol. Now I receive them asking for my 2006 Toyota Matrix that was wrecked earlier this year claiming it's at an all time high of demand, blah bah. The thing had 110k miles before being wrecked...

It's just a scam as others said to get you in the dealer and have you sit in the seat of a new ride. At that point they figure, you will ignore the true trade in value and just use your car as a down payment to keep that new car you just sat in. Simple scam, and these go directly into the trash when I see them.

^^^ Do you understand what a "scam" is?

It's not a scam, nobody is getting cheated, it's simply a widely used sales tactic try to get people into the dealer and hopefully sell them a new car.

DBESTGTI said:

it's simply a widely used sales tactic to try to get people into the dealer and hopefully sell them a new car.

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No its not! That doesn't make any sense! My car is in high demand! Why else would ALL the dealers in my region send me the exact same letter. :lol:

Holy shit I've been attacked.

I'm an asshole when it comes to Dealerships. Why would I sell them my car for $19k when they're just going to take it and sell it for $25k+? The $27k is what my car is worth on their lot, so I threw that number out there to see what would happen. I would never trade in a vehicle for THAT much less than it is worth on their lot, I've been raised to haggle far better than that.

vrBilstein86 said:

Common sense is like deodorant. The people who need it the most never use it. Not a scam just normal business at the dealer.

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As for the letter, when you format it as a printed "e-mail", and have the GM stating that he has been specifically looking to get in touch with me (by name, obviously using mail merge) because he has another customer that wants to buy my specific car (again, using mail merge) and he wants to buy my GTI before he has to go to the auction and buy a GTI there to sell to this customer, that is a scam. I was literally swindled into going to the dealership, therefore it is a scam just to get customers into their door.

If they simply stated that they wanted to give me a good price for my car and hey, I might be able to get into a brand new car for "barely" more than I'm paying a month, that would be marketing.

I actually handed my salesman the letter asking if they sent it out. I doubted they sent it out and thought that maybe someone got their hands on their customer list and was sending this letter out because it had an external URL on it in order to submit your personal information to find your cars worth. This is only the second car I've bought from a dealership, and the last dealership never sent me any letters like this. Now I know that my dealership's sales department is the type of scum to send out theatrical letters conveying false information just to get customers in the door, ie, a scam.

I understand I was reaching with the $27k, but at least I got my point across that they're not touching my baby. Unless of course they wanted to give me $27k...

And I use antiperspirant...

$27k?

:laugh:

You're delusional.

DBESTGTI said:

^^^ Do you understand what a "scam" is?

It's not a scam, nobody is getting cheated, it's simply a widely used sales tactic try to get people into the dealer and hopefully sell them a new car.

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It is a scam, because you are being told they are specifically looking for your car model because it's in high demand (which is a blatant lie), they also promise above market trade in value for the car, which they don't offer either. It's a deceptive marketing ploy, and if someone actually wanted to sue them they could have decent case.

Dealers have done this all over the country for several years now. It is subjective as to the comments being made.. used cars are always "in demand", no matter what it is.. since the value they will put on your car is many thousands less than what they try to sell it for on their lot.

If it was truly "deceptive" or illegal in anyway, there would have been action taken on this quite some time ago. So.. while it may be "sneaky", it is not illegal.

These campaigns, which are actually run by outside marketing companies, are popular with dealerships because it's an old school tactic that is believed to be gold by the old school thinkers still in charge of America's automotive dealer network.

It doesn't work. It does get people in the door, but these people rarely even kick tires, they usually just take the free promotional item, and leave. Low ROI for the dealership, high ROI for the company selling the promotion.

I've worked in automotive dealerships for years and this tactic drives me bonkers.

Zillon said:

These campaigns, which are actually run by outside marketing companies, are popular with dealerships because it's an old school tactic that is believed to be gold by the old school thinkers still in charge of America's automotive dealer network.

It doesn't work. It does get people in the door, but these people rarely even kick tires, they usually just take the free promotional item, and leave. Low ROI for the dealership, high ROI for the company selling the promotion.

I've worked in automotive dealerships for years and this tactic drives me bonkers.

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Definitely old school thinking. Dealerships are so stuck in their ways of the past it is not even funny. They could be so much better and drive sales up by changing their tactics.

Vroomer said:

It is a scam, because you are being told they are specifically looking for your car model because it's in high demand (which is a blatant lie), they also promise above market trade in value for the car, which they don't offer either. It's a deceptive marketing ploy, and if someone actually wanted to sue them they could have decent case.

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ANY vehicle you're driving is in demand at the dealership. No matter what you drive they want it... and to get you into a new car in the process. That is not a scam, you're not being cheated, you're not being stolen from, you're being told they want your car, because they do.