Before I even got out of my car at Sands KIA, I was already being approached by a dealer. I agreed to sit down and go over my criteria of the only cars I would be interested in. I wanted a small car with great gas mileage comparable to the Kia Soul (Which, I made known was available to me in my budget, for sale by a private owner), and low miles on the car (around 50,000 miles). They were simple, but rare to find in a car with a budget of $10,000 - but that was ok, I did not need to buy a car that day. All of this was made very, very clear to the saleswoman. She was charismatic enough and I did trust her to show me only the cars that met these criteria, like she said she was going to. I didn't realize until now, when I am stuck with the car, that the only number that really mattered to the dealership was how much of the $10,000 they could get. Advice: never let a salesman from Sands Kia know how much you have in your wallet if you don't want that to be all they go on.
I really did believe I was getting a good deal when I signed the papers that day. I left the dealership in a 1997 Mercury Cougar XR7 completely confident with my purchase and happy with the customer service I had received. It was an older car, but had very low mileage (~56,000, and a clean record. I knew it wasn't the same mpg I would have gotten with the Soul (24/31HWY), but I liked the car enough to buy it when I was explicitly told by the saleswoman that it was the same mpg I was currently getting from my Buick Century(18/26HWY). My thoughts were that at least I would't be downgrading.
After the purchase, I realized I was sold a heavy tank of a car with a v8 engine (double that of anything I wanted, double the Soul or of any modern sedan). I found out that the numbers I was given during the sale were actually for a 1991 Cougar with a v6 engine. Quite a difference in years and cylinders to be lied about. The car I was sold gets 15city/23 HWY on a good day, and Sands pretends to care less and less each day I talk to them.
The dealership refuses to work with me, saying the car is all mine now and I'm under contract. Of course they don't want a car with a v8 engine. They were looking for the first young adult to come onto their lot that would fall for their sales approaches. They are only willing to let me trade in the vehicle for much less value than what I payed, or sell the car back to them for barely anything, even though it has hardly been used.
