caveat emptor.....

I've rarely used this blog as a forum to get up on a soap box. But I saw something yesterday that really ticked me off.

I went to a local car dealer at lunch yesterday to have a warranty transferred on the car we got for Meg. Of course there was only one person there who could do this terribly complicated transaction (take my money and put it in a drawer to be mailed; I think the guy had a diploma from MIT) so I waited for about 40 minutes to get into his office.

While I was waiting, I started looking at some of the cars on the showroom floor. Car dealers typically put the nicest, most loaded vehicles in the showroom. These are the cars everyone really wants but ends up settling for one on the lot with less equipment. While looking at some of the window stickers, I noticed an option line that really got under my skin - "MARKET VALUE ADJUSTMENT", which is another term for "Hi, this is a new model, or maybe it's really just last year's model with extra plastic and pin striping, and we're going to try our best to overcharge you even though we realize it's nowhere near worth what we're asking!" One of the vehicles had an MVA of $3,500 (over 20% of the base price) while another one had an MVA of $7,500 (almost 25% of the base price).

Yes, I realize that everything is negotiable on a car lot. But there are some people who don't seem to know this. These are the people who get their brains knocked out at the salesman's desk and leave believing they got a great deal. These are the people for whom MVA was invented. Some may say that people who pay full price on things get what they deserve. Maybe so, but that still doesn't make it right for a car dealer to rip people off.

The funny part of my visit was that the salesman who helped me with the warranty transfer had the gall to accuse oil companies of price gouging. Mr. Pot, I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Kettle.....