Is it standard practice to rip a car a new one when someone comes in to have it checked when they are thinking about buying it? I have had numerous run ins with mechanics telling customers that cars are complete pieces of shit when they clearly are blowing things out of proportion. Todays lost sale is a '97 Civic EX. The customer came in and test drove it saturday, loved the car, but wanted to have it checked out by a mechanic today just to be sure. I saw no reason why she shouldn't, the car drives just fine and I'm not trying to hide anything. This is the list of reasons that he said she should not get the car which, because he is a "professional" she believed and there was nothing in the world I could do about it.
1. Hood release is broken. The little handle you pull inside the car is broken off, I was amazed myself when it happened because I thought Hondas were the best cars in the world, but I have since learned it is a common thing on these cars. You can still pop the hood by hand, you just don't have a handle with a diagram of a car with an open hood on it.
2. Dip stick is broken. The plastic end of the dipstick is broken (probably made by the same people that made the hood release handle) I still haven't seen a reason not to buy the car, but maybe that's because I'm an idiot.
3. Needs four new tires. Complete utter bullshit, tires are absolutely fine, the girl even commented on the car having good tires when she test drove it but since a "professional" said they needed to be replaced, she doesn't want the car.
4. Needs an alignment. Once again, bullshit, I've driven the car on numerous occassions, you can pick your nose and talk on the phone and the car will keep driving straight.
5. Oil pan gasket is leaking. Does anyone understand "normal seepage"? There has never ever been one drop of oil on the ground under this car. I would pay money to see a completely dry 8 year old motor.
6. Needs the brake fluid flushed. Whatthefuckever.
7. Needs the tranny fluid flushed. I guess bright red, unburnt tranny fluid is not desireable

That's it, she absolutely didn't want to hear anything I had to say, walked in with an attitude and threw the keys on the desk as if I was trying to pull some sort of fast one on her. Just to really make himself seem like he was smart, he told her if she was paying anything more than $2k-$3k for the car she was getting ripped off. It's a fucking '97 civic coupe EX!! Why would a "mechanic" blow little shit out of proportion and try to sound like he was smart when obviously 90% of the stuff was BS and the other stuff could be taken care of in a couple of hours as opposed to making the car worth $2k-$3k? The only explanation I could possibly see would be if they thought she was going to bring the car back to them and have the work done, but that doesn't fly if he's telling her she's getting ripped off if it's over $2-3k. Now the poor girl is going out shopping dealerships thinking she's going to get a car like that for $3k. Rough wholesale on that car is $3100 and anyone in the business knows Hondas are going for more than what the book says anyway. Maybe she'll talk to someone that has a decent head on their shoulders and come back, I did tell her that her mechanic was an idiot at the end when I saw it was going nowhere and she told me what he said the car was worth