Arlington Toyota Palatine

We've been researching vehicles for a few weeks, and narrowed down my choices to either a Honda or a Toyota. So we took a ride over to Arlington Toyota to test drive a 2015 model that was listed online. The MSRP on this model was around $4K more than the online price, so I had a feeling something seemed too good to be true. I looked through all the fine print to find the "catch", and the only fine print on the website was regarding the finance offer. There was also a "0%" interest rate advertised online, but I know there's not such thing as a 0% interest rate. The fine print online spelled out the "actual" finance charges, which made perfect sense. There are always some additional fees that become apparent during the negotiation phase, but what transpired today (12/27/2014) was absolutely jaw-dropping. So we test drove a vehicle that we both liked. I said that we really liked the car, and that we would like to discuss financing options. I said that since the online price seemed fair, I would be fine with offering that price contingent on a fair financing package. Until this point the salesman (Fernando) was a pleasure to work with. When I mentioned my offer, I am not making this up, he started to laugh at me. He then told me that the internet price was sort of like fishing... "We put that price online so that we can hook people, just like in fishing". So basically he was confirming that Arlington Toyota was using a bait-and-switch tactic to first get you in the door, and then try to get you to buy a car for way more $$ than you were budgeting, OR, sell you a completely different car that you're not interested in. So rather than negotiating a deal at the dealership for a slightly lower cost (like most new car negotiations transpire), Arlington Toyota said that the "actual price" was nearly $3K more that the advertised online price. For anyone looking to visit this place after finding a vehicle price online, if it looks too good to be true, it probably IS. I could not believe that this salesman actually told me that the prices online are posted only to "hook" people. Shame on you guys. I had thought that car dealers had moved beyond some of these tactics. Come on Toyota, get your act together and get rid of these deceptive tactics.