W5: Undercover shoppers test Calgary car dealerships

When Alberta's auto industry watchdog came under fire for not doing enough to protect consumers, even after several w5 investigations, the province overhauled the agency, so we partnered again with the Automobile Protection Association to

test

whether that made a difference in the way car dealers in that province do their Business w5 s John Woodward and we accompanied the APA to car lots in Calgary to see if buyers are now getting fair offers and a better deal , so I have some ads here that we have put together comparing ads, it's the kind of thing that most people do when they buy a new car so you can see like air conditioning automatic transmission right now this group is looking at the ads so that you know which ones you can trust George Eenie is the president of the Automobile Protection Association, the consumer watchdog.

The group has a mission: It wants to find out if dealers are delivering on what they promised in their ads this year. They took their annual

undercover

survey to Calgary's new car showrooms. People want to sell cars. I think, unfortunately, there is a culture of deception. part of the industry and a lack of will at the manufacturers' level. I think they've gotten away with doing this for a while after George sets the marching orders, APA buyers take to the streets, cameras are wired and hidden along with audio recording devices. APA

undercover

secret

shoppers

will visit 20

dealerships

first at Eastside Kia.

The secret shopper discovered this deal: a 2016 Forte 5 LX for fifteen thousand and five, which is eighty five hundred dollars less than the manufacturer's suggested retail price, so this part is this, exactly the car. which is fifteen thousand five dollars the price seems too good to be true for a new Kia but the seller confirms the deal and is ready to write it but there is a problem the car in the ad is for sale the seller has a commitment a similar model but with a higher price nineteen 590 which is forty five hundred dollars more than the car in the ad as for the first Forte that was sold it suddenly reappears less than a week later the car appears in the Calgary Sun with the same stock number but the Price is now eighteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-five dollars, almost four thousand dollars more, is it possible that this car has been sold and returned?

Maybe it's safe, then someone made an offer on a $15,000 car, the offer wasn't approved, and it suddenly jumped to eighteen thousand dollars when it reappeared on the market. I guess it's probably enough for Eastside Kia to fail. Buyers are now turning their attention to a larger vehicle with greater savings. Varsity Chrysler is next in what sounds like a bargain. a 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan a great deal at twenty-five nine ninety-eight a savings of over sixteen thousand dollars, but buyers are immediately told that the truck has mileage, it is not a new truck, but the seller assures them buyers that it was.

It is only used by the dealer. What is the definition of a new car? Well, a new car should be a vehicle that hasn't been driven much. How much is too much? Good in transit. I could see a vehicle with twenty-five or fifty K in theory once. Are you showing it or using it to drive? It's a demonstration. It's actually not completely new. It had 3,000 kilometers. It's 3,000 kilometers. It's still a new car. 3,000 kilometers. It's no longer a new car. No, in this case with that truck, did they do it? Advertise that it was explicitly new in the case of the Chrysler university, there were a lot of vehicles presented that appeared to be new from 2016, but when we got to the dealership, this one had a demo fee of $571 and that was added to the asking price.

As far as the API is concerned, first of all, it is fake. It doesn't cost you five hundred and seventy-one dollars to complete the paperwork. Our additional fee is allowed in Alberta. Alberta, like many other Canadian provinces, has a rule called full price, so the advertised price has to include everything except your taxes and maybe one or two small government charges. The prices the price is the price sounds simple, doesn't it? So? It's anything but simple it turns out that the black Caravan that the buyers came for was sold, so they are shown a red model instead.

Same price as the original truck, but this one has been driven even further. Yes, you heard correctly. The truck they have has more than 5,000 kilometers. Could you take a Dodge Caravan and drive it literally 3,000 miles through this? country and then sell it by making it look like it's a new car, is that okay as a consumer? The day I left the dealership with it, they would mark it so that it could have 50 kilometers, but it would already have the ownership title. you and that makes it a used vehicle, that's the line in the sand that the APA believes varsity Chrysler misrepresented a used vehicle as new and added a $571 documentation feat to the price that gave them a failing grade.

CMP Auto is next in the secret shopping. On a spree, the dealership is offering a 2016 Chevy Cruze for fourteen thousand six hundred and twenty-eight dollars, a savings of three thousand dollars over the suggested retail price. According to the ad, the Cruze is loaded with options including a rearview camera and cruise control. cruise that was an excellent The deal for a Chevrolet Cruze was the real deal. Well, as it turned out, the question we should be asking is whether it was the real car. It's good so far, very good, but there is a problem. There appears to have been an error in the newspaper advertisement for this cruise.

It does not have cruise control or a rearview camera, the seller offers to pay for the installation of both options to compensate for the mistake, in the end we can still put a vision camera, a rear view camera, a camera, but then the seller drops the f- bomb F for additional fees, add the GST to the price plus 936, you don't get the GST on the part 976 nine hundred and seventy-six dollars in fees that were not advertised, that's on top of the price that earned the dealer a failing grade APA So far APA buyers have gotten off to a bad start by bringing in the big guns that the dealership has invited in a special team of commandos to make buyers feel special.

I have made over 8,000 contracts when w5 continues the APA covert secrecy. Buyers have been busy visiting 20

dealerships

in the Calgary area as part of the watchdog's annual survey. This year the focus is on advertising and so far the dealers are not measuring up. We saw some very creative people writing the ads. The real surprise is the lack of carelessness is because this is all so obvious to us, we don't buy for long before really bad advertising appears. CMP Auto admitted an error in its ad for a loaded 2016 Chevy Cruze and then attempted to charge nine hundred and seventy-six dollars on top of the car's price.

W5 requested an on-camera interview. We were denied, but general manager Kyle Ro Morrell claimed they knew APA was secretly buying them and in an email rights quote we do so. Train our salespeople on everything related to pricing and review this with them periodically. He added that if a seller misrepresented the price, our sales managers would correct this by approving the sale to the customer, but the fact is that the seller added additional fees that are prohibited. in Alberta, W5 visited CMP. Okay, we're here from CTV's W5, but we found Mr. Roemer's government was not going to be easy when we finally found a manager he didn't talk about.

This dealership did not pass the APA annual service survey, so he is not willing to answer any questions about how his dealership failed the APA survey. We do not. doing interviews we are not authorized yes we had questions about the fees the administration fees that your dealership charges the APA and I give it to you you have nothing to say to us or the other customers about the fees you charge we left CMP without answers in Eastside Kia was the case of the missing car one minute it was there the next it was sold but then the same car with the same stock number was advertised less than a week later at a higher price we were keen to speak to Eastside Kia about how an advertised car could be sold and then advertised again, our interview requests were declined and the company told us to stay away from their property in a written statement.

Dealership Director Kelly Temple informed us that an internal review was conducted to investigate the details of the situation and that Eastside Kia takes its responsibility for automotive advertising guidelines very seriously. She says that due to Alberta privacy law she cannot comment on the details, but she says the company has ended its relationship with an employee in question. Remember that varsity Chrysler is hot. The deal on a large camper turned lukewarm after the APA discovered the van had three thousand miles on it, adding insult to injury, the dealership was tacking on an additional documentation fee of five hundred and seventy-one dollars.

Chrysler varsity did not respond to w5's request for an interview, but we decided to pay a visit for answers as to why there is a documentation fee, if we are from CTV w5 and were just sent here to try to speak with a manager about some questions we had right about the APA's annual survey. and what happened here is that when they came to look for a Dodge Caravan and instead of buying a new one they were given one that had three thousand kilometers, well, another option was another Dodge Caravan with five thousand kilometers, so even more. and then on top of that they asked them for five hundred and seventy one dollars in fees so it's okay if we tell them an ambach and the APA tell us it's an unacceptable fee to charge a consumer who is against Alberta, Long Lambic It says a documentation fee is ok if it's in this city, it should be disclosed in the ad, that's what they told us.

Oh, it might be standard policy at this dealership, but the rules in Alberta are clear, all fees must be included in the price of a car, that response shows the contempt dealership management has for the regulator, the fact that they are not worried at all, they do not believe that they are going to be punished, they do not even believe that there is already a problem when buying a car. A car can be a confusing and intimidating experience for consumers, even APA's secret

shoppers

had their hands full when they visited Chrysler Courtesy. What started as a routine shopping trip for a large camper at 30% off the manufacturer's suggested retail price turned into a marathon.

Over the course of their visit, the buyers had to negotiate with three sellers, including what seemed to be a representative from Chrysler head office, so I'm really here to help, like I said, no commission, we don't work in the shop, my goal is to get as many Chryslers and jeeps on the road to back me up, the friends and family of my co-workers, etc. Well, it turns out that it was courtesy of Chrysler was hosting a marketing event known in the industry as a private sale at two. Of the theö boats that the APA visited a private sales event was taking place and in those situations the dealer invited a special team of commandos to conduct a more pressured sales event and those people represented themselves as working for Chrysler Canada for the manufacturer, but in fact, we found out later that they don't know who they work for they work for marketing companies they can come with the blessing of the manufacturer to move the metal the prices are not necessarily better than what you could get in a date on which a private In fact, the sale does not continue.

W5 learned that although the representative is registered to sell cars in Alberta, he actually works for a sales training company called Absolute Results. If I can't get it working again, all we can tell you is yes. there is a certain amount of deception and misrepresentation within the event, they are basically weapons hired by a marketing company that the consumer would not stand a chance against those practices, yes, and I also have some extra money for you from the open manufacturer above. I ever did that, okay, but I already talked to Eddie, yeah, Jake gave me the transportation act and told them to take it, okay, Eddie the sales manager does his best now that the price will have to be more taxes on rates and more appraisal, all original, yes. the rate is 1795 now guys this incentive plus the rates will be 686.

Okay it's dark they should be and they defend and I'm Vic's rate and Vic is the provincial regulator. He has a fee, but it must be included in the advertised fee. price but there is more and thenWe offer to apply tire and tire protection in the four years or 80,000 farmers who eat any night, suddenly the Dodge Grand Caravan for twenty thousand nine ninety-eight doesn't sound like a great deal six hundred and eighty-six dollars for the pickup fee and documentation from Anne and eight hundred and ninety-nine dollars for tire and tire protection, a total of one thousand five hundred and eighty-five dollars in additional fees, that's a failure.

Ambach charges a fee for every car sold in Alberta, but it's not six hundred dollars, Ambach's fee is six dollars and twenty-five cents, but the dealers will combine it with their own personal charges and in one case they actually say it was like Ambach and that costs six hundred dollars, so the M Vick portion of that fee is one percent. Right, ninety-nine percent of that fee goes to the dealership salsa for me, courtesy of Chrysler was apparently willing to discuss the APA visit, but our repeated attempts to schedule an on-camera interview failed. We had questions about the additional fees so we went and visited. in the showroom and you knew Samantha said it was time for the oven, we've already tried it sir, well this won't be available for many years.

We all had a couple of questions about these pieces. Without answers, add everything up to get the final score. year leaves a lot to be desired of the 20 dealers visited by the APA 17 fail when you have those high failure rates 17 out of 20 points to systemic problems in the industry not the actions of a few bad apples in Vic the Alberta the industry council Since the motor vehicle regulator is the province's regulator of new and used car sales, the council has been under intense pressure from the provincial government for its handling of investigations related to violations in the automobile industry.

A scathing report published last year resulted in the sacking of its chairman, the man in charge now acting. CEO Doug Lecour, nice to meet you. Yes, let's go and take a seat. W5 wants to know and explains how to move forward when dealing with distributors who seemingly break the rules at will. We have seen many fees that undercover operators found on many occasions. the rates that are charged where there were freight rates or dealer fees or processing fees are some of that if none of that is advertised, okay, no, it's not all in the prices, it's all in the prices, so than when they announce a price that should include everything except GST and financing.

Do you respect the numbers found in the APA? Do you accept that is a sign of a problem in the industry? Well, I think there will probably always be distributors who violate advertising regulations and that's why we have one. person dedicated to that and that is why we will continue to monitor the industry and deal with any complaints we receive. Would you watch the undercover video from either the APA or the w5 story and that would be enough for you to do something? No, it wouldn't be like that, why not? I would like to know all the facts before taking action on this.

Would you investigate it? I doubt it. We would have to analyze the circumstances so that the crime is carried out on video using the victim. name to collect money for a merchant apparently, but that would not be enough for an investigation since the video is not edited what was the day it was filmed those are questions you could ask in an investigation yes, we asked the CEO if when he saw the hidden camera footage that your buyers accumulated if you saw those hidden camera footage on w5, would be enough to consider launching an investigation and your response was no, a regulator that will not analyze the findings in a w5 report has its head. in the arena should be very interested in having an independent review or audit of what is happening in their market.

Our regulator who depends on the sheep to catch the wolves is not doing his job. The reason they are called hoaxes and misrepresentations is because the public doesn't actually know they are being fleeced. There's a mess out there. What advice would you give to the consumer to make sure they don't waste it? We would ask ourselves that question if we were shopping without a W5 camera. Without a car dealer helping us in the background, we think we might catch him.