I am not a dealer, nor affiliated with one.

I am capable of doing every repair on most vehicles myself or at least I was before I moved to TV this year and have no real space to work. I can take an engine down to the crank, put it back together and it'll work again.

All that said, my experience with dealers is the same as yours when it comes to the non-luxury brands. Your basic Honda, Toyota, Ford, etc, they all have gotchas and rip-offs and seem to do whatever they can to lighten your pocket.

My experience with my Acura was exactly the opposite as well as my father in law's Lexus.

I did every repair the maintenance minder wanted at the dealer and all the other things such as brakes, transmission oil changes and whatnot. A 4 wheel brake job at my Acura dealer with Acura rotors and pads was _CHEAPER_ than Midas using whatever the cheapest parts Midas can find are. Not only that, Acura did the brake fluid change while they were there. Oil changes were $54 for the blend and $65 for Synthetic. I had my oil changed on my wife's Honda CRV here in FL just because I don't know where to dispose used oil, it was due and we were headed out on a road trip last week. It was $69 at Tire Choice on 441.

My father in law found the same thing at the Lexus dealer.

I asked the sales guy I dealt with about it. His answer was "The cars sell themselves, we don't pressure anyone. The more times we get you in here to see the new ones, the more likely you'll buy another one, so our service is reasonable".

Maybe it was just my dealer, Park Avenue Acura of Maywood Nj.

This is actually a great time to buy a new car due to the massive demand in the used car market. In the past year we replaced a CRV, Jetta and an Accord. The new CRV was $4000 out of pocket, our old one was 4 years old with 60,000 miles on it. We had just put new, much quieter tires on it and I insisted we would only do the deal with Jenkins IF they swapped out the tires between the two vehicles. The Jetta is our sons car, it was also 4 years old with 50,000 miles on it. We did move from the highest package model to the next one down…but we did that for $500 out of pocket. The Accord held excellent value, but we did upsize that to a Lincoln. All three cars bought locally. We need to do our research ahead of time and know what you’re willing to pay. My husband reached out to 4 dealerships around the state to get trade in values. He came with the best one in writing & insisted if Jenkins couldn’t meet that price, we would be happy to day trip elsewhere. He actually walked out the door of the VW dealership with my son. The manager ran into the parking lot to get them & agreed to his price. We hold the power. The sales people don’t. We also chose cars that were not on the Jenkins lot-thus avoiding the $2000+ “Jenkins package” of crap like pinstriping and a safety kit. Just BS add ons that they use to make more money. We told them IF they added that crap before they delivered the car to us we would not pay for it-and we didn’t want that detail on our car so they would be breaking the terms of our agreement.
Be tough out there.

I am not quite a senior yet but close. Anyone can be targeted by annoying salespeople so do try not to think it is your age all the time when you get harassed by these salespeople. It is that they are annoying and are lousy salespeople.

I called my cable company as I needed a new box in one of my rooms. The customer service started trying to sell me a new kind of service, which would have cost more for me, that it made my head spin. Well, to put it this way, I did not buy the other service, and I did not order a new box, which is why I called for. Perhaps, I will call again and maybe another customer service agent will not be so pushy.

Sales people are trained professionals, aka rip-off artists.
You are not going to win once you enter their play ground. Think of it this way. You purchase a new car/truck every so many YEARS. The sales person sees 10 of y'all EVERY DAY. Seasoned sales people have seen it all and heard it all. Unless, as the other poster stated, "Just walk away", you are never going to win in their backyard.

The OP may be 90 but obviously is sharp enough to post on TOTV and write a coherent message.

All salespeople are there to “target” customers, no matter their age.

I suspect the OP may be one of those people who has had difficulty, all of his life, resisting sales pressure.

Although you shouldn’t have to, recommend taking a friend with you to navigate this.

Why did you stay!!

My father would always take me with when he went car shopping, started when I was in the single digits, good education. When I buy a new car I tell the salesperson that I want a written quoit, out the door price, model ,color options, that I will price three other dealerships and do business with the best price, any change in the price I walk. When they appraise my car I go with so they cannot hold my car hostage,, over the years I have gotten the impression I am not the preferred customer. The few car salesmen I have know have made no secret that "they" always have at LEAST some contempt for the customer. "If god did not want them shorn he would not have made them sheep"

Sorry this happened to you, but just walk out. I've walked out of two dealerships when they didn't want to show me what I was interested in, including the Buick dealership here in Fruitland Park about 3 months ago. Probably just a poor sales person, but I won't go back to that dealership. He kept showing us everything we weren't interested in except the one vehicle on the lot we wanted to test drive. Then followed me in his golf cart, as I walked away, yelling at me that we hadn't asked for a test drive. Some (not ALL) see seniors as an easy target.

…. How about the Dealer add on fees, over MSRP??? Go anywhere’s else and u can purchase a vehicle well below MSRP… Where are the Consumer Policing agents in Florida???

Go into see seniors V Crime, a project of the attorney generals office, when something likes this happens. Not sure what can be done now since it’s been 6 months but we have had similar cases. We are located in the sherifs annex and handle all kinds of issues like this. Phone number is 352-689-4600 ext. 4606. You can also call before you buy to see if there are any cases against them.

Nothing new,In 78 got tired of the road .I Had just bought a new canalfront home in Tavares and after moving in quit My job. Not having a lot of savings I got a job as a car salesman.. Was quite good at it too but the management treated the older and younger people like pure sh#t… Soon moved on to wholesaling vehicles on My on..

You can take used oil to Walmart.

If you tell a dealer that you are going to shop and compare his price with other dealers, you will never get his lowest price. To get his best price, you need to be prepared to buy the vehicle immediately.

The only number I would ever discuss with a dealer is the out-the-door price. If you engage in a discussion about dealer fees, invoices, add-ons, etc. you will always lose. Know what the vehicle is worth, rebates, trade-in, taxes, title, and tags, and do your own calculation of the out-the-door price.