It's good advice but it's all stuff that anyone paying attention
should easily be able to see if it's a good or bad deal, with the possible exception of number six. Personally I doubt many people that actually read and remember the stuff from that article when they buy a car (or anything else) were likely to fall for any of those tricks to begin with.
1 - Common sales trick for cars and other purchases with negotiable prices. It's also one of those sneaky tricks that gives car sales the bad rep it has IMO, but anyone spending tens of thousands of dollars should be aware of what they are doing and calculate that the sellers idea of a bargain isn't necessarily the same as the buyers idea of a bargain.
2 - Typical credit trick, falling for it is pure shortsighted greed on the part of the buyer. This one is even easier to spot, just run the numbers and see if this is a good or bad deal.
3 - Again this shouldn't happen to anyone (except maybe at Saturn
), it doesn't take much logic or research to realize that leases are just as negotiable as purchases. This isn't even the dealer doing something at all bad, they are normally asking for what amounts to list price and the customer is happily accepting.
4 - Again common sense that anyone making a large purchase does if they aren't being lazy.
5 - This is just standard advice for any purchase, pay attention to what you are buying. Salesmen like to sell you stuff you don't need so pay a little attention.
6 - The exact nature of this one varies dealer to dealer, some places simply offer straight forward dealer options (normally very overpriced but not always). Some other dealers try to pressure or sneak this crap in after the negotations are completed. I think this can be the slimiest trick on the list, the way
some dealers do it they should be tossed in jail for fraud IMO. They are the minority but there's enough of them that almost everyone knows someone that's been tricked by some variation of this.
7 - Another one that's not car specific, always be careful of extended warranties as they are always designed to make the seller money and can have large seller markups. The only time I see a problem on this is when the dealer represents an aftermarket warranty as an extended factory warranty. This is something that somone paying attention should notice but it's still a nasty trick that should never be pulled by a business worth buying from.