Honda of Tempe not truthful in their advertisements, the old bait and switch trick
In the August 31- September 6, 2000 New Times Honda of Tempe ran an ad that listed Honda Accord LX's for $12,340 after a $3000 discount, $1000 dollar buyer down payment, $1000 dollar matching discount, and a $2000 MINIMUM credit for your trade in.
My wife and I went to Honda of Tempe, test drove an LX that according to the sales guy qualified for the discounts and started the negotiation process. Before he went back to the sales manager I confirmed with him that I would buy the car at that moment if he offered the as-advertised discounts.
The sales guy came back with the following "deal": A TOTAL discount of only $1200 and only $500 for our trade-in. This came out to be approximately $6000 more than what we had just discussed.
I asked why the advertised deal did not apply. The sales guy said, "Oh, that only applied to a single car with a sun roof which apparently would have added $2500 to the base price. I told him the ad made no such stipulations. I told him I wanted the deal as advertised.
We walked out.
Its the old bait and switch trick at its best.