THEE...QUINTESSENTIAL...STEREOTYPICAL...HORRIFIC "USED CAR BUYING EXPERIENCE"!
If I could give it ZERO STARS, I would!
This place could easily be the "Star" dealership in "Used Cars II". I want that THREE HOURS of my life back.
We were looking to purchase a Subaru Ascent, and were getting ready to make the trek to the Roseville Auto Mall (California), but right when we were about to get on the freeway, we got a call from Auburn Honda. They said they had one that "checked all the boxes" on the search we had submitted (Carfax, I think). It didn't EXACTLY "check all the boxes" (price higher than we had entered, a couple of years older, with higher mileage than we had entered), but it sounded sufficiently promising that we decided to go check it out instead of making the drive to Roseville (about a half hour away).
When we got there, the salesman who called us pawned us off on his UTTERLY-ILL-EQUPPED-TO-BE-A-SALEPERSON (former) assistant, who was...TERRIBLE...she didn't know ANYTHING about the car (as we were walking up to the car, we asked her what year the car was...she replied, "Uhhhhh...doesn't it say on the key??"...that was just the beginning...during our test drive, she kept EXUBERANTLY commenting...IN A WAY. TOO. LOUD. VOICE. about things like CUPHOLDERS AND CHARGING PORTS...IN THE BACK SEAT!!! (so exciting! ';-| ).
After the test drive, we went back to her desk, and that's when the "fun" REALLY started. We bandied back and forth, negotiating our way to "$30,000, out-the-door, all in". She came back and said, "OK, we can do $35K." We said, "Well, NO, that's not what we said. We said $30K OUT-THE-DOOR, ALL-IN."
She came back (after the standard, 50 (OR 70)-PLUS-YEARS-IN-THE-MAKING "gotta go check with my manager" departure) and with an annoyingly-pleased-with-herself smile said, "CONGRATULATIONS...YOU HAVE A NEW CAR!"
Thinking that we had the deal THAT WE JUST FINISHED NEGOTIATING, we went into the "Finance Manager's office" to complete the paperwork.
I should have trusted my first instinct, which was to ask to see the Purchase Contract first, INSTEAD OF WASTING ABOUT AN HOUR signing "periphery documents"...because when we got to the purchase contract...SURE ENOUGH...the bottom-line number was THIRTY-EIGHT-THOUSAND and change...UGH...we said, "WTH?? How did we end up back at Square One??" The finance gal (the only person in the entire experience who was "normal" [not "Used-Car-Sales-y"] was a bit taken aback by our "demeanor".
We explained the "negotiation" we had gone through with our "salesperson" (using the term loosely here), and if the final number was that $38+ K that was on that contract, WE. WERE. DONE!
So THEN...(of course), they went and got the stereotypical Sales Manager dude (slim-fit khakis, crisply-pressed shirt) who came in and asked, "utterly dumbfounded"... ';-|..."what seems to be the trouble here?"
We explained what had transpired over the last couple of hours and said, "if the number on the bottom of that contract doesn't get switched to a $3, with four zeros after it, WE'RE OUT!", at which point he said, did you SERIOUSLY think that we were going to give you all those add-ons for that price?? We're not in a position to just GIVE AWAY $8000 dollars!", to which we replied, "Well, then WE are not in a position TO BUY THIS CAR...WE'RE OUT..." and we walked.
It was the TEXTBOOK EXPERIENCE that EVERYONE... HATES...FOR DECADES-LONG RUNNING...about the Used Car buying experience!
Save yourself the trouble, and DON'T BUY FROM THESE BAIT-AND-SWITCH SCHEISTERS!!
8 January 2026
Unprompted review