Protection package

[MoBenzOwner]

I think some dealers just do it to get their mark up over MSRP. A lot of dealerships are charging over sticker. People are to a degree complaining about that practice. Easier to add a fake or low-quality service at an inflated price to not get pushback. Some folks will fall for it.

[John U]

It’s total BS. Most consumers relent and pay it. Find another dealer!!!

The Honda dealers in AZ were quite united at $5000+ add on scams. I waited until back in MN and the dealer down the street was selling at MSRP. It’s a dealership I’ve been impressed with for parts and service for years and was happy to finally purchase a vehicle from.

[Bobby B.]

Walk away from that deal. Time to search around with other dealerships.

[PouncingPanzer]

before I bought the truck I have now a dealer tried to pull that on me.
I called bullchit and they would not budge...I bought from another dealer that didn't have such nonsense added to the invoice.
The dealer I went with told me flat out......they are RIPPING people off....plain and simple...

They might be added some protection to the paint, but it's an inferior product for sure.....

Another reason I give dealers a decade or so before they're gone. Buy the car online FOR STICKER. It ships to your residence. Then you just go to the local service center when needed. Ford is doing away with dealers they say, they're sick of people leaving the brand due to mark-ups at the dealer which Ford can't police apparently. Dealership? More like stealership.

[chilly]

Another reason I give dealers a decade or so before they're gone. Buy the car online FOR STICKER. It ships to your residence. Then you just go to the local service center when needed. Ford is doing away with dealers they say, they're sick of people leaving the brand due to mark-ups at the dealer which Ford can't police apparently. Dealership? More like stealership.

This is kind of what people are doing in Alaska with Teslas

There is no dealer, no support, and people don’t seem to care

They just buy them from wherever and ship them up and go about their business

There is one independent Tesla mechanic with a mobile business

People seem satisfied with the arrangement

I know the “service after the sale” I have received at the Lexus/Toyota dealer in Anchorage has simply sucked

This is going to sound paranoid as hell but I feel that when you are getting 0% financing and you decline absolutely all of the finance guys up-sale attempts you get a black mark next to your name in their system

I just had to go 10 rounds with the general manager because NO ONE from the service department would return any of my contact attempts to schedule a service

It took me an entire week to get an appointment scheduled and then it was another week until the appointment

It feels kind of like “we aren’t going to make any money off this guy so let’s schedule some chumps who we can BS into getting their muffler bearings replaced”




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kdo0444]

WOW! Did you see the total towards the bottom of that sticker? They included a "PACKAGE DISCOUNT" of $599! It sounds like such a deal!!!

[Bruno Soares]

I'd say go get the same car elsewhere but with how things are these days, you may not have that option. Try, hopefully you can find the same car at another dealer. But if you can't, do whatever you can, even paying for said package but demanding they don't actually "install" it to the car, because it's junk and likely to cause more harm than good.

Years ago when buying a Honda they also had a mandatory package. I refused to pay and said just remove all this crap from the car, I don't care (it included wheel locks, pin stripe, mud flaps, trunk liner, nitrogen filled tires, and maybe something else). In the end they removed the charge and left all that on the car. The pin stripe was almost a deal breaker but since the car was for my wife and she didn't mind, we took it. I would not have bought a car for myself with that crap on.

[CleanIT]

It's absurd. Toyota tried to do that when I was looking at 4Runners. Ridiculous.

[PaulMys]

I work for a Ford dealer, so I see this first-hand every day.

At our dealership if someone flat out refuses the "Ad-on's", they will relent. No sense in losing an entire deal over some BS. But other dealers in the area will not relent.

Ford's "Protection Package" is called "SurfaceCare", and as you may have guessed, the exterior product is just a crappy paint sealant. The interior product is just like a "Scotch Guard" spray.

All of that said, the SurfaceCare (while a rip-off) is not totally worthless.

A customer recently brought in her new Explorer Limited (with SurfaceCare) and showed the salesman where one of her kids had spilled grape Kool-Aid or the like on the back seat. No way in hell that stain was coming out.

But since she paid for the SurfaceCare, Ford agreed to replace the seat cover and foam. ($880 parts & labor)

I know this one instance does not come close to justifying the cost of these rip-off packages, but I just wanted to share this one fact about the Ford one.

[dlc95]

My bassist got a new M3. The original buyer backed out, but the charge for the "ceramic coating" was still on the bill.

They gave him a care package from Penske. It's basically a cleaner sealant they gave him to "maintain" the "coating".

In a couple weeks (when his new Macan is done) he's taking it to my part time gig and getting full front of Xpel then I'm going to coat it with Cquartz UK 3.0 (×2), and Gliss.

Total rip off by the BMW dealership.