Welcome to Pennsylvania!

This is why I NEVER use my debit card anywhere except at my bank's ATM. If my account info gets stolen at least the credit card company will refund the fraudulent charges. My bank couldn't give two shits.

Sweet Charger, man!

No, because the whole thing is a ruse. There is no such thing as a zero mileage lease with miles purchased in packages. This brand's minimum lease includes 10,000 miles per year, and the dealership was blatantly lying to make their prices look artificially lower.

I'd imagine that a dealer in Alaska has an effective monopoly and they know it. 99.9% of customers won't bother to shop in the lower 48.

Do your research. Contact the dealership's internet sales manager directly and make an appointment. Enjoy a car buying experience like this every time.

Your story is a prime example of why my #1 message in training to my internet managers is "If you don't do it, someone else will." If you don't make it a priority to respond to a customer quickly, someone else will. If you don't answer their questions about price/trade-in, etc., someone else will.

Good advice. Due to the large amount of business they send to the banks the dealership can usually leverage a slightly better rate than the credit union.

Yep. Car shopping is a daunting task even when things go well. By the time a customer hits Dealership #3 they're so mentally exhausted that they'll readily let a shady lot lizard pound them into a deal they don't want just to get it over with. Which is just one more reason to fully prepare for your purchase and have…

Ohhhh, that drives me up the freaking wall. "Destination charge extra" is such a crock and is nothing but deception. If it's in the MSRP it needs to be in the price.

Many dealerships are attempting to switch to this business model with varied success. Carmax is doing great with it but many regional chains are not.

Sounds like you ran into a little shadiness. It's illegal to charge different prices on different media. I.e. if the price is different on the website, in the newspaper, and on the lot, that's against the law. It's also pretty shady to have a customer pull out an ad with a specific price and then tell them "you can't…

You can spend even less effort on it next time. As long as you're in a competitive market you really only need to contact three dealers to get the bidding started.

Yes, and watch out for extras. Paint protection, window etching, tint, upholstery protection, nitrogen in the tires, etc. should be purchased IF YOU WANT THEM, not added to the sale price automatically. It's very shady business when dealers automatically add those to every car.

Yeah, it's changed a little bit but the main tactic is still the same. Find 3 dealers that have the car you want, contact all of them online for quotes, make sure the quotes don't include rebates you won't get or extra fees/add-ons, then compare. Also make sure to compare the service you got- the place that was the…

That may not have been the case when they first hit the market.

So you're saying they had it marked up over MSRP? Makes perfect sense then to get the deal you got, but you shouldn't have had to start over MSRP in the first place. It's not like you're buying a limited production Lamborghini here. Bugs me when dealerships do that.

That's actually not bait and switch, it's just plain old deceptive advertising. Which is also illegal (and you can report it to the FTC).

Yes, please tell us how. That sounds surprising as those cars don't normally have even $2000 markup in them.

I hear about them all the time at work. Our service guys pronounce the name like "Tippum." We've had a few cars get traded in with Chrysler goodwill certificates due to them, usually if the repair is taking forever and the parts are backordered.