Poll Shows Scariest Things Car Salespeople Have Done to Car Shoppers

Lots of Tricks, But No Treats

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 27 -- Some car salespeople can forego their Halloween costumes and go trick-or-treating as themselves, because they have done scary things to car shoppers. In honor of Halloween, a recent poll conducted last week on carmax.com. shows that more than 73 percent of 2,466 respondents had a car salesperson do one of the following scary things to them:

   What is the scariest thing        Percentage         Number of
   a car salesperson                                   respondents
   has done to you?

   Changed my finance rate
   or term without my
   knowledge                            26%                642

   Charged me fees I didn't
   understand                           19%                473

   Did a credit check
   without my knowledge                 16%                401

   Lost my keys                          6%                149

   Told me he would lose his
   job if he lost me as a
   customer                              6%                139

"Sometimes, car shopping can be scary, but it doesn't have to be. If you feel uncomfortable or think you are being tricked, then walk away from the deal," says Joe Kunkel, senior vice president of marketing and strategy for CarMax. "In fact, CarMax was created to make the car buying process a transparent, fun experience -- that's what consumers told us they wanted when our founders did a survey as they were creating our company."