Roxy Stylez is a 28-year-old nurse from Alberta, Canada. But before working in healthcare, she had the unique experience of working at a car dealership. "I worked for multiple dealerships over the course of 4 years. I was the desk poster and backend finance assistant. So, I saw everything that was done with every single deal, " Roxy told BuzzFeed.
Throughout her time working for dealerships, she witnessed PLENTY of unsuspecting buyers enter into bad deals pushed by car salesmen, essentially screwing them over and putting them upside down on their car loans. So, in the spirit of transparency, Roxy recently shared this now-viral video detailing exactly how to buy a car from a dealership without being taken advantage of.
"Hey bestie, I'm gonna teach you how to buy a f—ing car, okay?" Roxy kicks off in the video. "I've seen this car dealership bury 18-year-olds in their vehicle for LIFE. Meaning they're never gonna get a return on it, they're never gonna be able to pay if off, and any time they trade it in, they're gonna carry over all the negative equity that they've acquired from [the car salesman] overselling an overpriced car that's worth nothing onto their new vehicle. So you'll owe $50,000 on a $10,000 car."
"Don't let that happen to you. I'm not going to let that happen to you," Roxy says.
Before going any further, let's do a quick crash course on buying a car from a dealership. You can obviously buy the car outright, but most of us don't have $30–$40K lying around. So, instead, you get a car loan, put a lump sum of money towards the car as a down payment, and then pay off the rest of the car loan with monthly payments. The loans have an interest rate that is either set by the bank (if you get pre-approved) or the dealership. Seems pretty simple and straightforward, but there are PLENTY of ways car salesmen manipulate the situation to their advantage, which Roxy discusses in her video.
Roxy then launches into her plan on how to buy a car from a dealership without getting royally screwed over. "First thing you're gonna do, DO NOT tell them you have a trade-in vehicle, even though you do. Do not tell them that. Say you're not interested in trading your car, you're just interested in buying this car off the lot. We're gonna bring out the lie later."
Next, "Go on Autotrader, and look up the vehicle that you're buying, and the vehicle that you're trading in — but don't tell them that — and look at the price. Exact kilometers, exact year, make, and model, and look at the price. That is the price you should be paying, and that is the price you should be getting for your trade-in. You are going to swindle these motherf—ers down to that price. If they try pulling things like, 'Oh, but we need to replace the windshield,' they legally have to do that!"
After negotiating a price with the car salesman, they're going to bring out paperwork for you to sign. "When they come out with that piece of paper, and slide it out to you, and say, 'this is the price we're giving you,' you say, 'f— no,' get up, and pretend like you're leaving! If you sign that piece of paper, it's called 'first pencil.' It means they got you on their 'first pencil,' and you got f—ed. Drop it down by like five grand. ...And that's if it's close to the price you saw on Autotrader. Get it close to the price you saw on Autotrader."
Next, Roxy explains how to deal with car salesmen who won't budge on the price. "If they're like, 'No, I can't do that,' stand up out of your chair, and say, 'No problem. I already have a dealership that I just called, that will do this. ...I'm going to take ownership of that goddamn pencil, I'm going to write the price that I want to pay, I'm going to slide it back over, and I'm gonna say, 'this is the price that I'm going to pay, or else I'm going to go to the other dealership where they've already given me that price.' If they tell you that they own all the dealerships, they're LYING. They're all privately owned!"
But the fight isn't over yet. Roxy continues, "If they come back and they're like, 'Okay, we'll give you that price but we can't give you any of the extras,' yes you can! You want that price with the f—ing mats, with the extras, with the lifetime oil change, and never, ever, ever buy extra warranty — at full price, because did you know, you can also negotiate the price of your warranty?! That warranty cost that motherf—er $899, and they're gonna try to sell it to you for $4,000. I would not pay more than $1,500 for warranty, end of story."
After you've negotiated the price of your new vehicle with all the extras and signed the paperwork, Roxy says that this is the time to bring up your trade-in vehicle. "Say, 'Oh, actually, I do want to trade in my car. Funny, I just changed my mind.' Then, these motherf—ers cannot bury any extra money that they're not making off of you into the vehicle you just purchased, because you already have a price guaranteed on that one." Roxy also makes a point to say that you should stick to the trade-in price you saw on Autotrader, no matter how many excuses the salesmen try to give you to lower the trade-in price.
"If they say no, get up out of your goddamn chair and start walking to your vehicle. ...If they let you leave, they're gonna call you back at month end, when their numbers are down, and they need to get their sales up to hit their bonuses."
Roxy shares even more helpful tips in the video, like the 30-day guarantee for new car owners that allows you to bring your car back if you're not satisfied, and — if you live in Alberta, Canada — the existence of a dealership policing system called AMVIC that you can call to report anything sketchy or illegal you think your dealership might have done. But she closes on another very important aspect of the car buying process: your interest rate. "They can change the interest rate that the bank has offered you," Roxy explains. "If you get a prime rate, they can f—ing change it, and then they pocket the rest. ...So you make sure to call your bank, and see what rate they're actually approving you at before you sign those f—ing papers."
Over 13 million people watched Roxy's video, and over 23,000 people commented, many asking if Roxy can just come with them the next time they need to buy a car because she clearly has the process down to a science.
Others confirmed the tips she mentioned in the video.
Roxy told BuzzFeed that she was inspired to share her insight on TikTok because, "I'm tired of seeing car dealerships ruin families' lives because they are uneducated in this lucrative business." She also mentioned some of the shadiest practices she's seen from car salesmen while working at a dealership:
—"When finance managers would change the original % rate the bank approved the clients for to something higher to profit off the total sale."
—"Lying about the style of vehicle to someone who wasn’t aware and then refuse a trade-in after the deal was signed, or signing someone on a car they have never seen."
—"Adding value to the purchase or undervaluing the trade. They would usually do this to women or the elderly."