Car Buying Adventure (Part 3)
Is this the end of the great car search of 2009?
My wife met me after work to go car shopping. If you have read any of the other posts on this topic, you know how enjoyable this has been. Before we get onto the adventures, you should know my wife and I traded some instant messages about the topic earlier in the day. We spent a lot of time on Auto Trader and similar websites. One thing we have have discovered is, the dealer and the websites barely match up. Usually they try and act like the Internet price is so incredibly low that they cannot offer anything lower (**cough**lies**cough**). We learned, quickly, this one important car buying tip:
NEVER TELL THE DEALER YOU SAW IT ONLINE
We took this important tip with us and our research to a bigger-sized dealer in Northern Cincinnati. We walked around the lot a little and saw a couple of minivans we liked (and later we saw the AWESOME 2009 Dodge Challenger. Good work Chrysler. Good work) before a sales guy came out to greet us. He quickly showed us some vans before asking the question; “What is your price range?”
Oops. I told him higher than we really wanted to spend.
He conveniently found a van that fit in the price range (upper end of the range, of course) and we were off on a test drive.
***IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE***
My wife takes no bull from sales people. She told him his price was too high. I love her 
The van drove well. My wife practiced backing up (she has never really driven a bigger vehicle) and we rocked out the brakes a little. It seemed to do well. The radio was loud, and there were some great features. We liked it, but we wanted to check on a couple other vans we researched.
We dropped the van off and the sales man told us he was allowed to sell the van for $1900 below the first price he told us.
$$CHA-CHING$$
Could it be? Is our search about to end? We had to be rational about it. So we went out for bagels. And an I.C. Mocha. For me. I have found caffeine and brain freeze help me deal with car salesmen better. I pulled out my trusty Black Berry and did some quick research.
First, the good:
- The car has a KBB value of almost $1900 more than the dealer wanted.
- The CarFax was clean (three owners, one being the dealer, no wrecks, never out of the tri-state area)
- Better EPA highway millage than any CAR we have ever owned.
Then, the bad:
- The dealers online price was less than he first told us (about $900 less). This made the deal seem less awesome.
- The van spent the first two years of its life as a rental vehicle.
We went to look at another van we saw on the google machines.
It was sold. Then we looked up another van we saw earlier. It was also sold. Who knew that in a recession minivans would be a hot commodity? We decided to go back and test drive the other one again.
This time I took it on the highway. It drove well and we decided we liked it. We were ready to make the offer…er…I mean accept the offer. We took delivery last night.
It is true. I own a minivan.
My masculinity is slowly being drained. I do not even think painting flames on the side of the minivan will help. Maybe I can convince my wife to buy me that $38,000 Dodge Challenger.
Probably not.
-Don-
Car Buying Adventure (Part 2)
First, a word from our sponsor….er…I mean me.
Don’t forget to keep your TV / Videogame / Internet logs and prepare to confess them to us on Monday. I have been keeping mine and will post it as well. If you do not know what I am talking about, feel free to check out this post: TV or Not TV and join in.
Onto the Car Buying Adventure!
A lateish modle minivan with 47,000 miles and in our price range. It was as if the clouds broke open and a single ray of light rested on the dark blue Dodge Caravan. After eating dinner at Panera we jumped in the car and trucked to Xenia, Ohio.
We drove along state rout 35 in the rain listening to music and talking. Our stomachs were full and our hopes high. This could be the van. Never mind that it was our first real test drive since the Car Buying Adventure stated. Gazing ahead through the windshield we saw the car lot, rising out of the landscape like a distant mecca. An oasis in Xenia.
Allow me to interject something here. I should have taken this as the first sign things were not going to fly well. See, the lights on some of the lettering on their sign were out. I would think if you were going to boast about being one of the best used car dealers in Ohio, you would at least make sure your sign worked….
We met one of the guys we talked to on the phone. He took us right to the van, opened up the doors, and let us look around. The van looked as nice as its picture. Dark blue exterior, black interior with white faced gauges, and power EVERYTHING. If any minivan could be “masculine,” this one could.
Time to interject again. I noticed an old disposable coffee cup sitting on the floor by the back seat. “Oops!” I exclaimed hoping to let this one incident slide…I should have known at this point…
Our salesman, let’s call him “Andy” “Randy” to protect his identity, asked us if we wanted to take a test drive. “Sure” we said and began to discuss who would drive first. After pulling the van around, he was pretty insistent on the route we would take the van on our test drive; “up 35, turn around, come back.” He said this about five times. I felt like he was our wannabe dad who was trying to make sure we did not get a ding on his vehicle while out on our date.
This was the beginning of the end.
If you know me, you know I have owned around 11 or 12 cars. I have driven new cars and many, many old ones. I know what problems feel like. You don’t own cars with almost 200,000 miles on them without experiencing worn and malfunctioning parts. This van had a slight “shimmy” to it at higher speeds. I think it needed new tires. I wanted to make sure I was not “searching” for issues so I asked my wife to confirm it for me when she drove. She did.
When we returned to the car lot (don’t tell the guy, we deviated from his directions), I stated my concern. He assured me his mechanics would look at it and he would call me the next day. Then something astounding happened. I was pretty sure this was a line you would only hear in a movie about bad car salesmen. Maybe you would hear it from the guy in Fargo or in a Tommy Boy movie.
So, do you want to buy it tonight? Or wait until our mechanic looks at it?
My brain started to hurt. I am pretty sure blood was going to dribble from my nose. There is no way I did not have an aneurysm right there in the parking lot. My logical / reasoning brain froze up like pistons in an engine that ran out of oil. And just when you thought it could not get any worse, my wife attempted to redeem the sale by launching the opening salvo in the negotiation war. Apparently, she was the only one who was armed:
Wife: You know, this minivan has a little higher price than we want to pay…
RAndy the car salesman: Well, it is the most economical we have. I can call you in the morning about this one (the one we test drove).
That’s right. No dealing or haggling. No showing us other vans in a similar price range. No, “I can call you if anything better comes in.” Just, “…it is the most economical we have.”
Maybe I am crazy, but I thought we were in a recession.
I thought people would WANT to make a sale when there were very few buyers and tremendous amounts of competition. I thought the red carpet would be rolled out and the best wines served.
“Welcome customer! It has been ages since we have seen one like you. We have battled through these tough times and survived by offering unprecedented customer service! We value those who would invest their money at our car lot! Please, make yourselves comfortable while I ask the manager if we can work on offering you a good price.”
Guess I was wrong.
-Don-
Car Buying Adventure (Part 1)
I have a feeling this process will take a while.
My old car was totaled out. It is on to buy a new one now. We have been around to several lots and all over the Internet. Car buying is one part fun, one part evil. We all know the fun part, YOU GET TO BUY A NEW CAR! I mean, look at all the shiny new features! Sparkling paint and finely detailed interiors! That new car smell!
But evil is lurking at all (or at least most) of the car lots.
We call them car salesmen. Before you get yourself in a tizzy, we did run into a couple of nice guys. The rest of them (OK, really just the guys at the Kia dealer) were like sharks waiting for blood. We told them our price range and they did not seem to like it. I explained we had no desire to finance a vehicle and wanted to pay cash. It was like I was from outer space. After we got passed this obstacle, here is our (paraphrased and mildly embellished) conversation:
Sales Man (SM): We have this one over here for 4k less than you wanted to spend, with low miles!
Me: Wow! That is a great price! What’s wrong with it?
SM: Nothing! It is just older, it’s a ‘99.
Me: Let’s take a look at it.
(Upon looking at the vehicle, we could see why it was cheap)
Me: (Inspecting duct tape on drivers door) The door molding is missing.
SM: Yea…you can get that replaced for like $100.
Me: There is a big dent back there (points to rear passenger side door).
SM: Yea, I guess there are some cosmetic issues, but it runs great, and did I mention the low miles. If you do the math, the guy drove it less than 6,000 miles a year! (seeing this is not convincing me or my wife) Let’s look at the blue one over there, it is a little more expensive.
Me: The bottom is rusting out on it.
SM: Would you like to buy buy this Kia that you told me you did not want and that is out of your price range?
Wife: No, we heard they have a lot of electrical issues.
SM: Look, every family has a bad apple, that does not mean the whole family is bad. I mean, except Toyota, they just had a massive recall. They must be pure crap.
Needless to say (than why am I saying it) we left. We drove around and even stopped at a Saturn dealer where we saw my old car’s twin brother (and ‘06 Saturn Ion with about the same amount of miles as mine had). Don’t worry, I was able to hold back my tears over the machine who served me well and helped protect me from any serious (physical, not so sure about the mental yet) injuries.
Oh well. We will carry on.
-Don-
