Can a car dealer ask you these types of questions over the phone?

Question

I was trying to buy a car a few months back. It was a used 325i with the hard to find sports package. It's hard to find at least here in the NYC area.

Anyway, I found a nice one in CA. I called the dealer and asked him if I could have some pictures. He was talking to me nicely and then he started asking me what I did for a living. I don't know if he wanted me to tell him that I was a doctor or lawyer. I'm a student so I told him that. And let's just say I never got those pictures.

I ended up buying the car locally but it didn't have the package I was looking for.

Can he discriminate against me because he thought I wasn't "prepared" to do business when I was.

If he asks me a shady question, is it within my rights to dodge him?

Answer 1

Of course you are within your rights to dodge him.  You were also within your rights to buy another car without the options you wanted.  He's an idiot for not qualifying you properly.  So he lost out on a sale $$$$, unfortunately for you, you also didn't get the car you wanted.

In his defense though, if you were looking a few months back and just bought now, maybe he did qualify you, and realized that since you weren't buying at the time, the car would be gone by the time you were ready, so why waste his precious time on someone across the country, who's not ready, when he could be writing a fresh client.