In my writings around this website I've often warned people not to take car dealer ads at face value. There's always some catch! They just want to get you in the door so their "Sales Machine" can go to work on you and turn you into a "Today Buyer!"
I'm sure you've seen similar examples of this scam before, but here's an example I recently gleaned from a local
newspaper in my area here in northeast Ohio:
PUBLIC NOTICE!!!
It's Back For A Limited Time...The Sale Everyone
Waits For, The Sale You Can't Afford To Miss!!!
It's the (Dealer Name) Ford's $2500...At Least*
Guaranteed Minimum Trade-In Event!!!
In Microscopic Fine Print at the bottom of the
ad it reads:
* New Cars, Program Cars and Vehicles Under $7,995 not
applicable for minimum trade-in offer. Program Cars
are previous lease cars, rental cars or factory demonstrators!
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So you drag in a piece of junk worth $100 and they
will give you at least $2,500 as long as you don't
buy a new car, a Program Car and a car priced under
$7,995! If they are really sincere about this minimum trade-in offer then why don't they offer it across the board on all cars?
Here's what they do! The night before the
sale the prices on the "qualifying cars" are all
jacked-up $2,500! You could go in with no trade
and still get the $2,500 off! And you'll still be
paying the retail price from the day before! There's no mystery here.
It's a Gimmick...It's a Scam...It's Deceptive...and It's Sleazy! - plain and simple!
The interesting thing is that dealers use this
particular tactic regularly, so that tells me that people are falling for this junk all the time. Please, don't be one
of them! You've BEEN WARNED!
For