40 Tricks Car Salesmen Use To Try And Outsmart Customers

While many salespeople are honorable guys and gals, the stereotype of the sleazy car salesman remains a common one. There are relatively few Harry Wormwoods out there today, though – instead, a skilled professional will charm you and leave you happy that you bought more than you planned. Still, here are 40 tricks and hustles you should know just in case you do fall into the hands of a less-than-reputable character...

40. Limited-time offers

Creating a sense of urgency is often essential to bagging a sale. This is why some car salesmen will tell customers the bargain-priced vehicle they are looking at will only be available for a limited time at that cost: they want the customer to fear missing out on a great deal. In reality, often these “limited-time” offers will simply be replaced by almost identical ones at a not-much-later date.

39. Best friend salesperson

It’s amazing how quickly a salesman will become your best friend if they get the feeling you’re genuine about buying a vehicle. All of a sudden, they’ll be asking about your family, plying you with coffee and snacks, and laughing about things you have in common. This is all a clever way of making it difficult for you to say “no” to them. You wouldn’t want to disappoint your new buddy, would you?

38. Bill consolidation

If a customer is leasing multiple vehicles from the same dealership, the salesperson may offer to consolidate everything into one monthly payment. Makes sense, right? It’d certainly be handier to only make one payment every month. But be wary, because it can mean the payment term will be extended, meaning the interest will increase – the customer could wind up paying more in total than if they kept their bills separate.

37. Hiding the on-the-road price

When you buy a new car, you just want to know what it will cost for you to drive away from the dealership in that vehicle. A salesman simply wants to sell you the car for the list price, though, and may not want to get into the weeds of the real costs to get the car on the road. Registration and insurance can add substantially to the overall price, you see, and that could jeopardize their sale.

36. New air fresheners

Everyone loves that new car smell. But if you get into a used car and it has a bunch of air fresheners hanging from the rear-view mirror, it may be a cause for concern. The dealer may be attempting to cover up some bad smells the car is giving off – perhaps mold from water damage in the carpets or the acrid scent of a burned-out clutch.

35. The dealer preparation charge

Many dealerships will have a “dealer prep” charge pre-printed on their purchase invoice. This is a charge for it to clean the vehicle, but may also include the cost of putting the sales package together – listing, finalizing the sale etc. The dealership banks on the customer believing they have to pay this, but they don’t. It’s arguably just a method of extracting an extra couple of hundred bucks for minimal work.

34. Loss-leader advertising

Sometimes a deal can genuinely be too good to be true. Certain dealerships will advertise a vehicle at a seemingly bargain price but, in reality, it will have low specification or be an unappealing color. This doesn’t matter, though, as the gambit has successfully got you through the door. Now the salesman can push you in the direction of the similar, but more expensive, car they really want you to buy.

33. The four-square tactic

Proceed with caution if a car salesperson pulls the four-square move on you. This is a disreputable sales tactic that’s been around for years. It involves them drawing four squares on a sheet of paper, with price, down payment, trade-in number and monthly payment contained within. They then confuse the customer by moving these numbers around in a way which suggests, but maybe doesn’t actually amount to, a great deal.

32. Masking warning lights

In The Big Bang Theory, a running joke saw Penny constantly ignore the “Check Engine” light on her car’s dashboard. In fact, she simply covered it over with electrical tape. Sadly, though, there are some real-life used-car dealers who do this with vehicles that have pesky warning lights indicating a fault. A carefully placed piece of tape or black marker and the customer is none the wiser.

31. Fresh polishes and sprays

Any car dealership will want to make its products as appealing to a customer as possible. It’s in the sales business, after all. But if you step onto a forecourt and spot vehicles you can tell have been recently polished or sprayed, beyond the usual cleaning process, it may be a warning sign. Maybe these cars have areas of damage or rust that the dealer is trying to cover up?

30. Distracting you from noises

This one may seem silly, but it does happen. If you are ever test-driving a vehicle with a salesperson and they turn the radio up too loud or insist on talking incessantly? It could mean they’re trying to mask telltale noises the car is making that may indicate faults. It’s always best to be as quiet as possible when driving a car that you’re thinking of buying.

29. Check for Federal Trade Commission stickers

In the U.S., every used car must have a Federal Trade Commission sticker in the window which gives information about its history, including previous owners. If you are looking at a vehicle and it doesn’t have one of these stickers, or if the salesperson says they’re selling the car “as is,” you should walk away. They’re trying to abdicate responsibility for any problems the vehicle may have, and that’s a deal-breaker.

28. GAP insurance

If you totaled your car or it was stolen, Guaranteed Asset Protection insurance would cover the difference between the amount you paid for it and the amount an insurance company would pay out. It’s a good thing to have, generally speaking. Why is it on this list, then? Well, because it’s nearly always cheaper to get it from your insurance company rather than the car dealership.

27. The “shop around” deal

Picture the scene: you’re almost certain you want to buy a vehicle, but aren’t quite ready to pull the trigger. The salesperson tells you to look elsewhere to see if anyone can match the price but, obviously, they can’t. So, you return to nab your bargain – yet all of a sudden, it’s not available any more, as the manager has put the kibosh on it. In reality, though, this amazing deal was likely never genuine to begin with.

26. Poor trade-in value

It’s best to know what your current vehicle is worth before you go to a dealership hoping for part-exchange on a new one. Salespeople often downplay what the car is worth and, if you don’t argue, they’ve got away with it. But, even if you do haggle them up on the value, that’s also a trick: it makes you feel like you can bargain successfully – so you’re more likely to buy from them.

25. Over-inflating tires

Unfortunately, this is a tactic favored by a lot of used-car dealers. You see, over-inflating the tires on a vehicle can give a false impression of how it will handle on the road. It can mask issues with responsiveness and can even artificially seem to boost fuel efficiency. But, in reality, over-inflated have lower levels of grip, which can be dangerous and may easily lead to skidding and loss of control.

24. “My sister drives one just like this”

If a salesperson says something like, “My sister drives a car just like this and she loves it,” they are trying to plant an idea in your head. Basically, if a car is good enough for their family member, it must be good enough for you. To be fair, it may very well be true in some cases. But it’s 100 percent a tactic that other, less truthful, salesmen might use as well.

23. Spot delivery

This tactic takes advantage of customers with bad credit. The salesperson lets a customer drive their new car away on the day, even though financing hasn’t been approved by the bank. The customer then has to come back days later because their finance terms were declined, and now they must sign a new deal at a higher interest rate if they want to avoid the car being repossessed. Not nice.

22. Inflating the APR

Scott Chesrown, vice president of Big Apple car sales start-up Vroom, told website Business Insider that “most dealerships” will try to inflate the interest rate on any finance deal. In order to avoid getting taken for a ride, he recommended that customers talk to their bank before even going into a dealership. Then they will know exactly what their credit rating is and have a solid idea of exactly which level of APR they can expect.

21. “Sucking back”

Sometimes salespeople bamboozle customers with numbers so much that it seems like clients are getting a great deal, even when they’re not. For instance, a good trick is offering a low amount on a trade-in vehicle, but seemingly evening things out with a brilliant price on the new car. In truth, the profit for the dealership stays the same.

20. The test drive

Taking your potential new car for a test drive is always a thrill. But it’s also a handy tactic that can be exploited by salespeople, especially if they see the customer is a true car enthusiast. It also works if the buyer has children with them. The salesman may opt to encourage the excitement in the kids as a way of emotionally blackmailing the paying parents.

19. Trying to obscure obvious defects

As hard as it may be to believe, some dealers will go to almost farcical lengths to stop a customer seeing an obvious defect in a vehicle. Whether it’s by standing in front of a scratch on the paintwork, or by parking the vehicle at a weird angle next to a wall in order to make full visibility impossible, there are lots of little tricks. Don’t fall for them.

18. “It’s a very popular car”

A salesperson telling you the car you’re looking at is very popular with other customers seems like a stamp of quality. If they’re all buying, it must be the bee’s knees, right? Not necessarily. It might mean that the dealership has a huge stock of a certain model that they need to shift. Or it could just be a method of inspiring the “bandwagon effect” in a customer. After all, most people love to join in with what’s popular.

17. Paint sealant, rustproofing and fabric protection

When buying a new vehicle, don’t be taken in by the salesperson suggesting you pay extra for paint sealant, fabric protection or rustproofing. All modern cars are manufactured with paint jobs that can last for the entire lifespan of the vehicle – buying a sealant add-on is vaguely pointless. It’s simply a way for the dealership to extract a little extra cash from you.

16. Negative equity finance

Let’s say your car was bought on finance, and isn’t fully paid off, but you want a new vehicle. Some dealerships will offer to trade-in your old vehicle, pay off the remaining finance and roll it all into a deal for the new car. If your old vehicle is worth less than you still owed in finance, it’s called negative equity and it will mean your new finance deal will see you paying off a larger loan over a longer period.

15. “Perfect timing!”

When you arrive to buy a car, you hear the words, “Ah, perfect timing!” If this happens to you, be aware the salesperson is immediately trying to manufacture something out of nothing. Unless you’ve legitimately arrived to purchase a vehicle that was otherwise going to be crushed a minute later, they’re just injecting false excitement into your negotiation. In truth, from their perspective? Any time is good for you to buy a car. 

14. Lease down-payments

The whole purpose of leasing a car with finance is to enable a customer to “own” a vehicle without paying a lump sum. It also works out better for the dealership because it makes more money in the long run. So, if a salesperson wants a down-payment as well as financing? It’s a way to get more money out of you. Tell them “no” and, if they persist, say you want it included in your monthly payment.

13. Keeping the car overnight

Sometimes a dealership will let a customer keep a vehicle overnight or for the weekend. The hope is that having it for an extended period will increase the customer’s attachment, obviously, but it also creates an extra bond between them and the salesperson. After all, they’ve done the prospective buyer a huge favor in entrusting them with the car away from the dealership – the least the customer can do is purchase it, right?

12. Don’t trust “will fix” promises

If you meet a private seller to look at their vehicle and you immediately spot a fault, you should walk away. We’d stand by this even if the seller tells you to come back in a few days after they’ve had the fault fixed. Why? Ask yourself – why would an honest person try to sell a vehicle with a known issue in the first place?

11. Not-so-special editions

The next time you spy a “special edition” vehicle that comes with a cool paint job or a swanky interior, take a second to ponder something. Is it simply a model that’s been on sale for years and is about to be replaced by a new, improved version? Because, if so, the dealership is simply trying to get rid of the last remaining stock of the old model by gussying it up as “special.”

10. Free extras

“Free” is a magic word used by car salespeople to dupe customers. If they tell you they’re adding a free treatment that protects a car from scratches and stains, you’ll take it. The same goes for a free tank of gas upon delivery and free premium car mats. You’re laughing all the way to the bank, right? Well, maybe not, because nine times out of ten, these freebies simply mean a higher initial cost for the vehicle.

9. The warm-engine problem

If you are buying a car from a private seller and the engine is already running when you arrive, it may be a problem. Some engine issues only become apparent when a vehicle is starting, so you should ask the seller if you can start the engine yourself. It would be preferable if you could do it at another time, too, when the engine is completely cold – stopping and starting an already-warm engine can give a false impression.

8. Sneaky monthly repayment additions

Car dealerships make more money from customers leasing a car on finance than they do from someone buying outright. They’re therefore incentivized to create the best possible finance deals – ones that work in their favor, not yours. It’s not uncommon for salespeople to add small amounts to each monthly payment that will add up to big sums over time, so you should keep a very close eye on this.

7. Salespeople’s code

In 2017 a Mental Floss website article revealed secrets of car salesmen and one of them was a doozy. Some salespeople in dealerships allegedly have code words for their customers. For example, a customer who takes up lots of a salesman’s time but doesn’t buy? That’s a “stroke.” A customer who doesn’t have their spouse with them is a “one-legged shopper” and someone with bad credit is a “ghost.” Who knew?

6. The hard sell

Some salespeople still use a “hard-sell” approach in certain situations. It’s easy to spot, as the overall vibe is quite confrontational, and it involves the salesperson ignoring their customer’s specific needs and wants. They’ll stop at nothing to get you to buy, even if the vehicle isn’t right for you. Generally, the hard sell counterproductively angers the majority of people, but the odd client may wind up buying purely because of the salesperson’s pushiness.

5. Clocking

In 2017 Rojen Burnett, a user car dealer from Georgia, got a year in prison for rolling back the odometer on 310 cars he sold to unsuspecting customers. He made the vehicles appear as if they had, on average, 67,000 fewer miles on the clock and was therefore able to charge on average $4,000 more on each car. This can even be done with modern digital mileage clocks by misusing software. 

4. They’ll never admit they’re selling a lemon

This can apply to both new and used cars but is mainly a problem in the second-hand arena. A car salesman will never admit that the vehicle he is trying to flog is a “lemon” – a car that has problems which will crop up quickly and affect the driveability, safety, or future value. The way to combat this is to always do your own research on any vehicle, including looking up its history and previous owners.

3. Cut & shut

The “cut & shut” is a term used to describe a vehicle that has been assembled from the front and back ends of two vehicles of the same model that have been involved in crashes. A very dodgy dealer may attempt to sell a car like this, but it would have a weakened chassis which may not protect the driver if another accident occurred. If you suspect anything like this, just walk away.

2. Stalling

If a customer is close to buying but maybe wants to shop around a bit more, the salesman could try stalling them. What do we mean by this? By taking too long to answer questions or speak to their manager about deals, it serves to make the customer impatient. As they get more and more frustrated and tired, they are increasingly likely to agree a deal quickly, as it means they can finally leave the dealership. 

1. Extended warranties

Warranties tend to come as standard in any car deal, but salespeople may suggest an extended warranty as well. After all, it makes sense to add protection in case anything happens to your vehicle after the standard warranty period, right? In reality, though, according to American non-profit group Consumer Reports, most people wind up paying more for an extended warranty than they ever would have on repair jobs.