EarlB.

I've had my new TL for a few days, but something has been nagging at me. I worked hard and negotiated a good price for the car, got fair value for my trade, and got the 3.9% financing. That's all good.

Then I got into the finance guy's office and he started selling. He wanted to sell me gap insurance - I said no. He wanted to sell me LoJack (or something similar) - I said no. He wanted to sell me activation/installation of a passive security system on my TL - I said "what?" I was under the impression that the passive security system/alarm was standard equipment, he said "no." He said the only security on the car was the chipped key that prevents anyone from starting/stealing the car without the key. I was very troubled by this, and he wanted to sell me installation/activation for $2,000. I questioned him at length about this, because I was very skeptical, but he stuck to his story.

Then we move on to discussing extended warranties, which I wanted. The 96 mo, 120,000 mile warrant was around $2,300. After much discussion, he agreed to package the security system and the alarm for a very generous $2,500. I knew that this was a little high for the warranty alone, but figured that packaged with the security system it was an okay deal.

Research over the past few days has convinced me that the guy was totally lying about the security system, which appears to be a standard feature on the TL.

Was I defrauded? What's the best approach to dealing with this? I want to keep the car, I just want a fair amount of my money back from the warranty/alarm "package."

Thanks for your help.

Indy Paul

I think he took you! The TL has a factory alarm, I'm not sure what he's talking about. Some dealers put a thing under the dash that has some little circuit card you plug into it, but esentially it's a rip off, and if you tell them you don't want it they generally leave it in there anyway (which confirms it's worthless!). Anyway, I'd call them back cancel both the security system and the extended warranty and then search this forum for the thread on extended warranties and purchase the same thing on-line from a Acura Dealer that offers them for about a $1000 less than you just paid!

Here, this thread has a link to the on-line dealership that sells the Acura Care Extended Warranty:

https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/spyware-help-156729/

ankur914

Agreed!

INSPIRE 32V

iTrader: (1)

Sorry, But You Got Owned By The Dealer

pandaman1784

you got ripped off, but he wasn't lying. The system in the TL and most cars is an ACTIVE alarm system. That means that you have to manually lock the doors before the system will arm itself. A PASSIVE alarm system is one that arms itself regardless if you lock the doors or not. Some passive alarms only arms the alarm and doesn't lock the doors. Others will do both. What you paid $2000 for is a factory alarm upgrade. DEI makes it under a few different companies. Here is one such:

http://www.automatecarsecurity.com/products/sec.asp

Scroll down to AM1. That is something they could have installed. All it is is a module that sits in your car and detects whether or not you've left your car. If you park your car and open the door and leave, the module activates. It counts down, usually 30 secs, and waits to see if you manually lock the doors (using keyfob). If after 30 secs and nothing's happened, it arms the factory alarm system.

So the moral is
ACTIVE = manual alarm arming
PASSIVE = auto alarm arming

Hope that helps.

dalieu

That sucks! Sorry to hear. But after signing the papers, can he just cancel it?

Indy Paul

I think you have three days on the extended warranty and other crap the finance people try to pawn off on you. If it's a decent dealership, they should cancel it regardless. On the warranty, it's pro-rated so if he contacts Acura Care and cancels right away, he should get most if not all his money back. Not sure what will happen about the alarm. Reguardless he needs to get a full technical explanation from the service manager as to what it does and how it works, I sure wouldn't rely on what the finance person told him!

soli1978

You can cancel your warranty in 60 days with full refund...

JAB00

What I've learned from dealing with the finance guys is that they make a commission on the extra stuff they sell; ie extended warranty, car alarms, and all the extra bull shat. They are no different than the salesman @ Bestbuy trying to get you to get that 4yr insurance plan on the $200 equipment that costs $50 with a $50-100 deductible if anything happens. Hindsight is 20/20 but unless one is very knowledgeable about what they are hawking, just say no!

pikespeakhiker

I bought my 07 TL-Type S last week from Pikes Peak Acura in Colorado Springs. Definitely the best buying experience I have ever had. And when we went through with the finance guy (who was very laid back and casual, yet was also very sharp), he didn't even try to sell us one extra item. That is the only time I have ever bought a car and not had the finance guy try to upsell me.