This is the text of my complaint to Dodge based on my experience at Christophers Dodge World in Denver, on July 22nd, 2006:

This weekend, I have experienced the absolute worst sales experience of any product shopping experience I have had in my life. At Christopher's Dodge world, the sales people used high pressure, possibly illicit sales tactics to attempt to force my wife and I to purchase a vehicle on site at the time of our visit.

The visit began regularly enough. My wife and I are in the market for a Dodge Charger SE, and have done some research on the subject. We would like to trade in our 2000 Ford Focus, apply the money from the trade-in, and make a financed purchase of a new 06 Charger. We arrived on site, were put in contact with Mike, a salesperson there, and proceeded to take a test drive and make a close inspection of the vehicle we were interested in on the lot.

Following our test drive, we sat down with mike and turned over the keys of our focus so that it may be inspected for trade-in value while we discuss purchasing a new vehicle and start the paperwork to get a cost and financing options. Soon thereafter, mike disappeared to talk to management and finance and returned with a paper that had several numbers scrawled accross it. Mike presented me with an MSRP of more than $26000 for a base model Charger SE. A car that I know for a fact under normal circumstances, with no discounts, and even allowing for increases via destination and dealer charges, carries a regular retail price of $23,000 and some spare change.

From this price of more than $26000, he offered to subtract employee pricing and the proposed value of our trade in (a below-value $2500), so before taxes and tags, that would lead us to a final price of a little more than $21000.

Upon being pressed, mike admitted that what he had presented as the MSRP was the "Effective MSRP" consisting of the "factory" MSRP and "an addendum". Upon being pressed about what an "addendum" was, he said it was a dealer cost and reflected in the "Effective MSRP" which is the cost of the car.

As if this bout of dishonesty, a raw and blatant attempt to use deceptive means to give us nothing for our trade, were not enough, things were soon to get worse.

The wife and I talked with mike about our research and our offers from another dealer in Brighton, CO and the price points we had recieved there. We discussed the extreme difference between what dodgeworld was trying to "offer" us and what we had been offered directly on the lot at the other dealership. The wife and I were not comfortable with the salesman, the dealership, or the numbers being presented (the financing payment numbers presented to us were very high and despite requests, the salesman offered neither the name of the bank that was making such a proposal, nor the APR that would result in such high payments), and so we said that we would like to go home, consider the various offers, and make a followup on monday. We asked for our keys back.

Mike continued to press. I made it clear I wanted my keys and wanted to leave.

Mike abruptly stood up, grabbed his papers off of the desk, slammed his chair into the desk, and stomped off to the managers area in an unprofessional show of what might be compared to a tantrum. Within moments a younger sales representative sat down with us and started talking with us, making small talk. At a certain point after several moments of this, the wife got impatient and directly asked what this had to do with us getting our keys. He indicated that he wanted to find out "what it would take for you to take these keys" and indicated the key to the charger we had just test driven. Despite 5 more minutes of conversation and at least 3 more attempts to ask for our keys, the salesman continued to ask about options to discount pricing and financing options for us to buy the vehicle at that time before we walked out.

Finally, it took me losing my temper and demanding my keys, ending any attempt at courtesy to get our keys returned to us so we could leave. Research since leaving the dealership has revealed that this dealership has previously been closed down by the state for unfair and improper sales practices.

The way we were treated and lied to makes me feel that these dealers were attempting to cheat me. I discussed my suspicion with a Criminal Investigator for the State of Colorado Department of Revenue itnformally and based on my description of the incident, he agreed and advised that I file a complaint with Dodge and the BBB, which I am now doing.

For a supposed Dodge "Five Star" dealership, this was absolutely the worst experience I have ever had in any retail establishment, not just car buying. The salesmen were high pressure, outright used a system of price increases to attempt to give us no value for our trade, attempted to conceal and mislead us as to this increase, refused to return our keys to us, continuing high pressure sales practices despite our clear and present wish for the return of our property so we might leave the establishment.

It is my belief these trade practices are, at the very least, unethical, and possibly illicit.