Ok so I get a call for Subaru today, I am approved they said the car is mine. HELL YA> I told them that I was going to come in later to talk figures and they said alright. Around 2 i got off work and went in to talk to the financial specialist. I get there and wait around 10 minuets for the specialist and when i get in there he says alright $725 a month....lol I thought he was joking, that was like 13% interest. I asked him what was going on and he said that Wachovia, and Bank of America both declined my application and that Subaru Financing was the only place that would take me. I was like huummmmm, ok. I look at the interest rate and it is 11.9%. I tell the guy that this is ridicules and said that its kind of odd that Ford approved me by myself for 3% interest on a more expensive car and that Subaru cannot even finance me for under 7%. The financial then started to shake his head and then surprised me with this....There is no way with your credit score that Ford financed you with that interest rate....I was like whaaa? I kind of sat there for a minute then said whatever, thats ford and we arent dealing with them, lest get back to topic. We then started to talk about monthly payment and I was like $725 is outrageous and I WILL NOT pay that. I then told him that if he was able to lower it to under $700 that I would sign the papers TODAY. He then surprised me again with...If $25 a month will make or break you then you dont need to be looking at a STi. He get me off guard this time. I took it almost as if the STi was too good for me...I told him that I could in fact afford the $725/month but I set a limit and $700 a month was it. He then said that this was the best he could do. I got up ad walked out. Once i got home i call the Subaru of Gwinnett manager and told him about my experience and he said that he was sorry and that he was going to try to fix everything and would call me back shortly....its been over 3 hours now and still no call. Also I decided to call Wachovia to see if I really got rejected. I gave the rep all my information and I was in fact approved for a loan for the car....so My question is, why did Subaru say I was declined and when i called wachovia directly they approved me? I had the worst experience ever with Subaru of Gwinnett and recommend that if you want bad customer service when buying a new car to stay away. I WILL NOT BUY FOR SUBARU OF GWINNETT EVER OR RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE. THE ONLY REASON I WILL EVER SET FOOT NEAR THE STORE WILL TO SEE SCOTT.
sorry to hear about that. lucky for them that they have Scott there, he might be the only reason that some people come back(myself included). I will agree that their sales force can be dicks at times, but let us know if they even bother to call u back
I will... I am going to atlanta this weekend to look for another 07 sti so maybe this weekend i will still get my car.
^^SS is a great reason to go back.LOL Sorry to hear of your issues with SOG sales. I would not let it get to you as ALL car sales men are shady. I have talked to the sales guys while waiting on performance mods and they are a bunch of f***nuts. I recommend going and getting approved for the auto loan at your bank or credit union and get them to cut you a check for the full amount. It is what I did, then you are esentially negotiating with cash!
funny thing i was turned down too & my only choice was to go with their financing..............$580 a month i think on a silver 04 Sti..................i was like peace-out....preciate the test drive:hsnono:
If you dont have to have STI limited, check out Troncalli Subaru. They gave me the best deal when I bought mine 2 yrs ago. SOG couldn't earn my business back then too. However, SOG has better service & parts departments compare other dealers.
i too went to SoG first and they didn't want to budge for crap when i was in the market for an 05 STi. went to Troncalli, and they got a nice deal that SoG wouldn't come close to. however, the service dept rocks out.
Couple words of advice... 1) Never, EVER, negotiate on payment alone. Look at the final price and the final price only; if you need to worry about the size of the payment you're buying more car than you can afford. 2) By saying that you'd be ok paying under $700 you basically agreed to paying 10% or more interest. Unless your credit is entirely fucked (did you pull your score before shopping around?) that would be a terrible, terrible decision. 3) Repeating myself here, but if you're buying a $32k+ car on a loan like you're talking about, you'll pay $40k+ in the end. Ask yourself this: If you had $40,000 in the bank would you take all of it and drop on a car? If the answer is no, then why are you buying it? Payments or not, you're still paying that much for something on wheels. Anyway, that's about it.. sorry to throw this in here, but I hate seeing people get in way over their heads just to get the car they want. If SoG really tried to pull a fast one on you like you describe, their finance manager deserves to burn in hell for it though.
When we went to buy my wife's 05 Mustang at Team Ford they pulled the same crap...something about not being able to finance my wife without a $7500 deposit and then payments of $600 a month...this for a car we ordered 6 months prior and waited all that time. When we ordered we were told $500 a month with no deposit...so end result I brought my sister the banker to the table. I had them run my credit alone (722) and then they tried to hit me with a 7.5% interest rate and said if it was not financed that day that I would lose the car that we custom ordered for my wife. My sister made a call to her bank and they said they could have me financed in under 1 hour at 5.5%. THEN Team Ford somehow said that all the sudden they could get me 5.4% (2 full points down from what they said their best was before) with no down payment. It is amazing what these finance people will try! From that point I got pre-approved on any further purchases. I refuse to deal with that crap again. Oh and I later refinanced with my credit union for 5.25% and payment ended up at 450+- and that was WITH a 100k aftermarket warranty.
the main reason I was trying to get the monthly payments down was because I was going to take the $700/month payments for a year, this would give me time to save so $$$ and sell my truck, my car and my bike, thus giving me $12-18K to throw down for the car and refinance it all. The only reason i was going in with nothing down was because it was the LAST Limited in the south and I wanted to get it. also my credit score is a 668, i still dont see why 13% was still my interest...o well SOG bye bye and All other dealership, I will be looking at the end of the month for my STi. guess the limited is out, but hey I still love the 07 STi, white with bronze wheels....FTW!!!
If your score is 668 you should probably wait six months and clean it up a bit, that'll allow you to get much much better rates. Unless the dealer is desperate it's unlikely you'll get a reasonable rate; you generally want a 720+ score to qualify for decent financing.
Wow dude that sucks. Are you absolutely sure it's the last one in the southeast? I saw a white one at Gerald Jones in Augusta sometime right around christmas. Augusta not having a huge car scene, I kind of expected it to be there for awhile. Although, seeing as you are having so much trouble with the sales department, maybe they've been pulling crap on everyone and that's why they have the only one left.
if you are not dead set on the limited i would go to troncolli and talk to christopher wren. hes one of the nicest subaru sales person ive met.
ya what I am actually going to do is just stll my truck and put the $6K down, i figured this would also help put my interest down because it would make me look more serious.
Dude unfortunatly 6k down won't help your interest rate, that is based on your credit alone, unless you use the money to pay off some debt. I financed through my credit union and it was by far the easiest car purchase I had ever made. Go to your bank and get them to cut a check for the drive out price that is figured up... I also first went to SOG to purchase a STi and the sales rep would not stop trying to get me in a wagon.He actually told me the STi was not for everyone, needless to say I drove down to Columbus and I bought a 05 with 5k miles on it for 4k less then what I was quoted at SOG. GOOD LUCK
good god at that interest rate. I traded my 98 GMC Jimmy in on my 05 Sti, and only a couple thousand with it. in the end my payment was 591/m for 48 @ 3.9%. I can not imagine anyone paying more than 10% on a car.
I will never buy a car without going here first. Once you are approved they send you a blank check. You walk in the dealership, negotiate a price on the car, then sign over the check and drive the car home. I've bought my last three cars this way and never had to deal with the shady finance dept. It's in their best interest to jack up the finance rate so they make more money after the sale. Check out the link above and run the numbers with their calculator. I just looked at SoG's website, and their Limited is $34,028. With $6k down and an interest rate of 6.25 for 60 mos, the payment is $545.12/ mo.
Oh, its not the same Consider this, you were unsatisfied with the dealings you had with SOG, we all understand that now. Why not simply tell them you are taking your business elsewhere and leave it at that? I more than understand your agitation, but a dealership is still a dealership. That will never change, they play games, end of story. They didnt bite at your offer, and that's really that. If you do infact have the $700 a month (I am not implying you do not by any means), why not just walk into another dealership, strike up the same deal and see what happens. If they come back with a similar offer, then you know maybe it isnt just SOG, maybe there's another factor involved. A dealership is in the business of making money via selling inventory. Considering the volume SOG deals (top 100 subaru dealerships in sales / volume in the US), if someone comes in to buy a car and does not, they will still sell it. If you take one step back and view all of this as a business, they're doing what they do best -- moving inventory. Not every business carries a solid reputation of customer service. You are unhappy, no one in this thread is denying that. The most effective way to display your frustration would be to buy the same car (or similar) from another dealership, not SOG. If this happens, then SOG knows you were serious, and they did in fact lose a conquest (converted customer -- ie they buy a subaru). Good luck with your search, alex
i have to agree with alex. It sux that you have had a bad experience with them but it is the last limited STi why should they budge, that car is going to sell no matter what and they are all about making money just as any buisness is. Not tryin to be the a^^hole here i really do feel for you I just think that Sog kmows what they have and if you dont buy it for that much someone will. also, I hate to be the SoG butt kisser but when I bought my 05 Wrx i got a 4.9 percent intrest rate who any $ down.
I get the distinct impression that he isn't upset that they're not budging on price, he's upset that it appears they flat out lied about his not getting approved by another bank so they could ream him on interest via Subaru financing. It would be nice to have somebody from SoG comment on this, because if it's true that's some very nasty behaviour, and if there's more to the story (not calling OP a liar, mind you!) it ought to be shared so that people who read this thread later come out with an accurate assessment.
I have no idea how any of the financing works. I do know that SoG management is unhappy that they have an unhappy customer. I have a feeling that mcnamara did not speak to the same people at Wachovia that SoG deals with; our Sales Manager showed me that the loan application from Wachovia was denied. I'm sure he would be happy to show mcnamara. (They did not show me anything inappropriate, there is a screen with all the applicants and all the banks and they either have a green check mark or a red X, mcnamara from Wachovia had a red X, I saw it myself) Again, I fully believe that when mcnamara called Wachovia they told him they could approve him for a loan, but when SoG applied, that app was denied. The only other thing I would like to mention here is that our Sales Manager did call mcnamara back, on the only number he had. Mcnamara was in class and our Sales Manager left a message. Mcnamara has not called him back yet. I believe our sales department has proven themselves (lately) to have a strong desire to serve this community well. From sponsoring the site itself, to sponsoring and hosting events, to offering the no-haggle invoice pricing on everything other than special edition cars (to wrxatlanta members only), to having a huge banner in the showroom, and telling everybody about the site, they really are doing lots of great things for the wrxatlanta community. There are many people on this board that have had great buying experiences at SoG. SS
the main reason i am mad is because of the insulting way the financial person talked to me. o well Atlanta Classic Subaru is just up the street. Scott. Sorry to get you involved in any of this. I will hopefully be up at your shop with my 07 STi within the next month or two ready for some work Everything that has been done is done. SOG to me sucks, thats my personal opinion. I will not recommend them to anyone but in the same time I will not just go out of my way to bad mouth them either. My opinion will remain to me unless someone asks. Once again this thread was written to inform people of my experience. Hopefully it will not happen to anyone else. THANKS
Its just odd that you had an experience like that with them. 9 times out of 10, all of the people Ive sent there have had nothing but praises to speak of them. Are you sure that you did not misinterpret what they were saying to you? Anyways, as I said earlier, best of luck in your search.
oh the irony Good luck finding the car you want and a dealer you can work with. And like moose said, don't go in looking for a monthly payment. That is a losing proposition.
I also had a not-so-great experience with SOG. When I was in the market for my wagon I went to nearly every dealership in a hundred miles. When I went to SOG I was told that 7.9 (iirc) would be the best interest rate I could get on a 60 month loan through subaru financing. I had a credit score over 700 and $6000 for a down payment. I also got the talk from the sales rep about not getting in over my head and if you are worried about xxx amount of dollars than maybe this is too much for you blah blah blah. I literally laughed at the guy and informed that the fact that I was worried about a few dollars had nothing to do with what I had in the bank or what I bring in. I simply can't justify paying so much for a car. Anyway I walked out laughing. I then went to Troncalli where they pulled my credit score and IMMEDIATELY offered the then lowest finance rate on a 60 month loan of 3.9%. HMMMMMM. They even went as far as to find the car I wanted in the color I wanted and have it brought up from Valdosta. They then proceeded to install a short throw shifter, piston shifter knob, auto-dimming mirror, security shock sensor, and a rear bumper detector. All for FREE!!!!!! I ended up getting all this for $23,500 and got the interest rate I wanted and the color I wanted and the extras I wanted. It was easily the most pleasant car buying experience I have ever heard of much less been involved in. Bottom line, Troncalli is where it's at for sales. Talk to Tom Young and you are guaranteed to get a straight deal. He absolutely will not screw you around. Good luck with your search. BTW, last time I was up there they had a white on gold STI sitting there waiting to move. Give em a call.
definately go to troncolli. Every person I have ever talked to up there seems to be very honest and SOG is chock full of wieners
Couldn't agree with you more. I bought my last STI from Troncalli, they were awesome. I was in and out in about an hour, they got me financed at 3.9% when everyone else wanted to charge more. I recommend them to everyone. To this date it was the most pleasant purchase from a dealership.
cross creek at fort bragg got me 0% apr at 350 a month in 02, they were awesome (But i guess that is like 500 miles away)
I'm going to be going to my dealership back home in Augusta on friday. I have this feeling that they still have a limited, but I'll definitely let you know.
I am going to have to agree with this 100 percent. I bought my STI from troncalli over in cumming and I was able to bargain with them all the way down to 21,000 on an 04 STI with only 50k miles on it. The car is beautiful and in perfect working order. I love Subaru of Gwinnett but I just found a better deal here. Troncalli has blowout sales all the time so keep looking!