Imagine spending $25,000 for a new car and then having buyer’s remorse. To give customers more peace of mind, Chrysler has begun offering a 30 day return program. TV commercials promise “if not satisfied, simply return it within 30 days.”
The truth is, it is not quite so painless a process, particularly to your pocketbook.
*MOUSE PRINT: “Customer responsible for 5% MSRP restocking fee, 50 cents per mile driven, and all financing, insurance and tax charges.” [TV commericial airing July 10, 2006.]
One might reasonably expect to have to return the car in good condition (additional fine print requires that), and to have to pay a usage fee for every mile driven. In this case, if one were to drive an average amount of 1,000 miles during the first month, that means there will be a $500 charge for use.
The real bite comes from the restocking fee, which on a $25,000 list price car (even if you paid $20,000), would amount to $1250. It is unclear how much the taxes, financing and insurance charges would add to this, but the total charge to change your mind about buying this car could easily be over $2000.
If you paid cash for the car, or used other than Chrysler Financial to finance it, you don’t have any refund rights under this program.
So, if you “just return it in 30 days,” expect to lose approximately 8 – 10% of the purchase price, or get no refund at all.
It would be cheaper to rent one for a while.
Knowing all this, just adds to what I think of Chrysler cars- that is, not very much to begin with. If Chrysler (GM and Ford) for that matter want more credibility from their customers and potential customers, they got to make a deal a real deal
– making it look like they stand by their products with a quasi warranty does nothing to bolster their already floundering reputation. Competing against the Foreign market means making better cars, not better lures for customers to fall for.
Why would anyone in their right mind buy a Chrysler to begin with? For that matter, why would anyone buy ANY American car?
American cars just shout out “I’m have no class or money.”
Get a Toyota or Honda instead.
Hope all you who don’t like American cars like the unemployment
line. When Ford, GM, and Chrysler go under and the retirees have
no penions, the suppliers have 1/2 their customer base removed
and start going out of business there will be very few houses purchased
and few appliances needed, etc. The trickle down effect will make
Katrina look like a birthday party.
If the products are that bad, not selling them will certainly
get Detroit’s attention. They have dropped the ball again by
not having anything to fill the gap with high gas prices. Why
the automotive industry thinks everyone makes $30,000 a year and
more is beyond me. People living outside New York, California,
Hawaii and Detroit find it hard to find jobs that pay over $10
an hour, nevermind the benefits. Why did the K-car find an
audiance? Because it was economical. Good on gas and low sale
price. They need a reality check in Detroit again. It’s
quality, Quality, QUALITY!!!! Make it decent looking with
good gas milage, a managable price, and GREAT QUALITY!!!!
Then they turn around and stick the car back on the lot for next to full price. With the $2000 you just paid them they can easily afford to market a “used” auto worth 25K for 23K and not
lose a dime. If they’re really good they could resell the car for 24K and end up making
1K over the list.
This does not surprise me at all. Since they can’t get consumers to buy their products due to their inferior quality and value, they have decided to attempt to trick us with false offers. If they really want to wave the flag and claim to be the patriotic choice, they need to make us proud by developing better vehicles AND need to stop making their products on foreign soil. My Toyota has more American parts and American labor built into it then the Fords I looked at. What a sham.
Enzo: “American cars just shout out ‘I’m have no class or money.'”
Incidentally, so does poor grammar.
This is obviously pretty deceptive, but the fee is not really
all that unreasonable. A car loses a ton of value immediately
after its driven off the lot. There’s a reason car dealers
haven’t offered return policies in the past.
This is no surprise, nor do I consider this to be unethical – the conditions are clearly visible and even if there isn’t time to read them a viewer can plainly see that there are strings attached. It is common knowledge that new cars lose up to 10% of their value the minute you drive them off the lot (when they become “used”) and lose at least 25% in the first year alone. Buying any new car is a stupid idea (unless you’re a millionaire and can afford to throw away money). BTW, most millionaires buy 2-4 year old cars – they know how to do math.
*** Hope all you who don’t like American cars like the unemployment
line. ***
Yeah, and then you go on to diss American cars yourself. What a hypocrit! What a freak!
*** When Ford, GM, and Chrysler go under and the retirees have
no penions, the suppliers have 1/2 their customer base removed
and start going out of business there will be very few houses purchased
and few appliances needed, etc. ***
Actually the total automotive industry, including all parts suppliers, employs about a millin people out of a total U.S. workforce of 144 million. So probably somebody will be around to buy houses.
“Get a Toyota or Honda instead.”
Which screams, I have no personality or soul! Nothing but cheap plastic filled boxes for the most part. American cars have “no class”? What about these soulless econo-boxes, and badge-engineered pseudo-luxury cars the Japanese pawn off ONLY on North American consumers (there’s no such thing as “Acura” or “Lexus” in Europe. They only patronize North Americans into spending FAR too much money for a Camry with an “L” on the front or an Accord with an “A”).
Sorry, this whole “Japanese (or European) cars are better than American cars” is a bunch of old-school, outdated garbage. Right up there with “duck and cover will save me from nuclear apocolypse!” Nissan just put out a Technical Service Bulletin (not a recall) on all their 2006 Sentra SE-Rs and 4-cylinder Altimas because they can spontaneously combust, bascially, somewhere around 200,000 cars. The media did not exploit this story, as they did the stories about irresponsible drivers of Ford Explorers who abused their vehicles while not properly inflating the tires. That, somehow, was the fault of the car and tire companies, but this Nissan issue did NOT EVEN GARNER A RECALL from Nissan. They just tell you to check your oil every two gasoline fill-ups and watch for oil consumption. If an American company had acted in such a patronizing, and dispicable manner, they’d be driven up a flag pole of shame. European cars are nothing but a headache for anyone who enjoys DRIVING their car– anywhere other than to the dealership to get some pointless electronic gadget repaired under warranty. All cars have their issues, and Japanese cars are NOT these paragons of quality that some of the automotive press makes them out to be. Unfortunately, the American car companies have not done much to drum up their quality control standards, and asking an American consumer to do the research, and not just lap up “what they hear,” is a bit too much responsibility to ask of many.
Cars are for going from point A to point B. “Soul” (whatever that means) is entirely optional.
And yes, Japanese cars are in fact paragons of quality, all you need to do is a bit of basic research to learn that (hint: for $5 Consumer Reports will let you gallivant through their Web site for a month comparing repair records). American manufacturers do make decent big vehicles, especially in the premium makes — nobody would pay $40,000 for a Cadillac otherwise — but on the small cars the Japanese are the clear quality leaders.
Heck, even the Koreans are making better-quality small cars than the Americans and are quickly closing in on the Japanese. That is the result of my research and the reason I bought a Korean car (Hyundai Elantra GT 5-door) three years ago.
Without knowing the specifics of the Nissan issue I cannot possibly comment on it, but it is entirely possible that the problem does not yet justify a recall. The reports I just Googled indicate that the company has instructed dealers to stop selling the vehicles and has voluntarily extended the warranty on the vehicles that may have the problem. It sounds to me as though they are in the early stages of investigating the problem — they can’t issue a recall, obviously, until they know what the cause of the problem is, as the point of a recall is to fix the affected vehicles. So, let’s not be too hasty. (That said, Nissan has always been a second-tier Japanese automaker, like Mazda and Subaru.)
I don’t blame Chrysler for having the restocking fee since a new car depreciates as soon as it leaves the lot. However, they need to disclose the restocking fee and mileage fees to the consumer before the customer comes in the door. Honest advertisements would help to build consumer trust in a company, and a product. Unfortunately, companies aren’t willing to invest in gaining your trust… they’re only interested in saying anything to get you in the door so that they can access your wallet.
What’s the point in offering a 30 day return policy if it really doesn’t work for the dealer or the buyer. Obviously they do not want to have thousands of sales come back because people use the offer as a loophole to drive a car for free for 30 days. And then the dealer has to sell a used car for less. This offer will only make people more angry at car dealers when they find out the fine print so I just don’t get how marketing thought this was a great idea. Not to mention it only makes Chrysler look less than confident in their product. BTW, I love their commercials when they talk about how the Daimler/Chrysler merger has improved quality and all they talk about is what Daimler has done to improve Chrysler cars. There’s no mention of Chrysler improving Daimler.
I repeat. Great site.
I live in the US and love it. Great place, great competition that lower the prices. But…
Bottom line, deceptive marketing is what affects deeply American brands, second comes quality. Educated people know how to shop around for cars. They do NOT see an ad, and run to purchase anything. They research first. The Internet is the way it’s done. Companies cannot hide anymore, and their methods will get known sooner today. Maybe couple of people get scamed, but they’ll post it somewhere, and everybody gets to know about it. Not very smart now a days. So wake up! American companies. Throw out your marketing people, and start producing quality stuff. Its your choice. For now we’ll stick with foreign brands that last longer, depreciate less, and are GOOD VALUE. Is not that what Globalization is all about? Is not one way as you think.
Last Irony: Most American brands, outsource their manufacturing to Asian countries. Asian car companies build their products right here in the US. Who is really contributing more to american people?
Apparently, automobiles are a bit of a flash point with the *Mouse readership. You guys are going a bit too
much for the jugular with each other.
That said, this is really a straightforward offer. I don’t see any deception. They clearly state what the
the program entails. They never indicate you are under no obligation when you return the car. It’s simply
a bad deal. And, lets be honest, even classless Enzo would be driving a different, new Chrysler every month
if there were no strings attached. I certainly would.
Sorry, chums. American cars are just poorly designed, and poorly made.
I have had the dubious pleasure of renting a few over the years, and they really are not good. Slow, slow! Where’s the point in having a 4.8l engine that only produces 220HP? Tatty, badly-finished interiors don’t help.
My best experience of mororing in the US was a 1967 Buick Electra 225. Now that was a *proper* car! 🙂
i learned it the hard way by finding out for my self payed $5139
Just another example of BUYER BE-WARE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can’t BELIEVE any thing a car salesman tell you and less than
half of what they put in writing and try to explain to customer!!!!!!!!
There is always two(or more) ways to interrpet what is written and said!!!
Hello,
That add is so true. Your “Facts are exactly right.”As A former
car salesman for 5 years selling dodge, jeep and chrysler
vehicles,we were told to ease the customers into making an
on-the-spot purchase try to calm them down with the idea that
they can return it if they arent satisfied. Twice there we
2 different shoppers who came back to return their car and
were shocked that we were not going to “fully refund them.”
They demanded to speak to the manager but then he came over and
tried to talk them into keeping the car. He even offered them
an extra savings of $1000. They refused.
HEY, YOU DROVE THE CAR AND REDUCED THE VALUE YOU SHOULD PAY FOR IT. I DON’T THINK ANY BODY IS GETTING SCREWED. IT’S BETTER THAN SAYING GO SCREW YOURSELF. STOP CRYING LIKE A LITTE GIRL.
If you didn’t know this was a scam without reading the mouse print, you are too gullible. I figured there’d be a big mileage charge, but a 5% “restocking fee”. Is the whole commercial world turned “scumbag”. Didn’t they hear what happened to Key Lay (ENRON)?
Its always amazing how they get you in the small print
Its the same people , with the same mentality , who are in position of authority in the car industry = whether it be at the ceo, executive sales or marketing ends
The poor fellow at the dealership is most cases is repeating with a clear conscience what he was told by his “sales manager”
The sales manager is under pressure , and probably does not know or comprehend what the significance of one line in the document – or its ramifications
When are these big men from Detroit realize that the game is up
Most people ( other than themselves and their competitive I am smarter than you nature) realize that most people just want to buy a quality and reliable automotive product at a fair price without the haggling
Simple as that