What a fiasco. My prediction was that after the wedding our lives woud slow down and we would get into some kind of a groove. The wedding happened. The honeymoon happened. Then the Camry decided to become a lost cause. That presented us wth the task of finding two new cars in one month. Fun...
Caleb'c car actually was the easiest to find. It only took four days to look at it and seal the deal. He found a Pathfinder on ebay which happened to be located out in Clovis. It had the carfax report already online so that helped ease our minds about it. One owner, lesss than 100k miles, big enough to hold Caleb's bass and yet still let me sit in the passenger seat! :) All for the low price of $7900. Our buget is about 8-9 grand per vehicle. I think it is going to be a great car. We're praying it does not require a lot of mainenance.
We had thought that the SUV would be the harder one to find at that price, but we got really "lucky" there...or maybe people are tryingt to pinch pennies so they are avoiding the gass guzzlers.
We have hit over 15 car dealerships in the past week.
10 this weekend.
5 today.
My gosh. I hate car salesmen. Officially. They literally all have the same modus operandi.
Locate a customer.
Approach for the kill.
Introduce. Shake hands.
Ask for what they are looking for.
Ask price range. Get contact information.
Show customer crappy cars just under price range. Mostly KIA and Hyundi.
Show customer one that is "about in their price range" (eaning 4000 more than their budget).
Tell them it's "the best car for the money. You're not going to find anything better than THIS"
After the customer says "it's kind of out of our price range" they say, "well what would you say if I could get this to around your price range? Do you think this could be "the one"?
Customer hesitates and during that pause the salesman puts the keys in their face and says "why don't you just give it a drive".
So the customer takes it for a drive. Likes it, but still leery about the price.
After the test drive the salesman says "well how did you like it?" of course the customer likes the car that's worth $4000 above their budget. Better car. Doesn't smell like cigarettes.
Then he invites them inside to sit while he goes to "see what he can do." He of course closes the door when he goes in to speak with the sales manager. Sales manager comes out. Shakes hands. Coy smile.
Gets out paper and writes numbers, then more numbers. Then says, "THIS is what we can do for you. We can cut $100 off the asking price"(...still a good $2500 over blue book...), "and if you add taxes and fees and taxes for fees and finders cost and inspection fees...it looks like it comes out to...11995!" (very consistently this number comes up) "is that about what your budget is?" My GOSH people. Really. A little communication. After the customer has sat there haggling for four hours all they want to do is go home and go to bed! These poor people! They've just wasted both peoples' time.
Another ploy is to show the customer crummy cars and talk the ENTIRE drive. "...Duel side air bags, great suspension, solid wheel base, AM/FM stereo, moon roof, cruise control..." Then when he runs through the list, he starts over, "...duel side air bags, great suspen..." The customer cant even listen to the engine, much less identify if this car is worth buying!
Aside from lots we have dabbled a bit in internet advertising. Caleb's car was from ebay, as I said, but today we called on a few Craigslist ads. What a piece of crap. This kid shows up at the Rite Aid Parking lot with his dad's Camry. Nice looking on the outside. At a closer look the tires are a bit old, the coolant is almost dry, the spare is bald, the belt is cracked. Upon starting the car, the engine light was not on...but having done a bit of research I knew to check that it even came on at startup briefly with the rest of the lights. No. Someone had puled the check engine lightbulb! I mean MY GOSH!! We could have bought the car thinking it just needed new tires and a fill-up on coolant! We asked the kid questions as we drove and he had almost NO answers. Al he could say was "IIIIImmm....not sure...you'll have to ask my dad" We couldn't even find out when the brakes were last done, if the Transmission had been flushed, if the battery was new, if the coolant had been flushed. How is a person suppose to make an informed decision on a car without that kind of information?!! Do they think we're morons? Who would even buy a car without that kind of information? Then as we drove it on the freeway the tires buzzed intermittantly (uneven wear). We just happened to ask him if the title was clean, and NO. he kid said, "no, but really I think salvaged titles are the way to go, because usually it's just a little bumper damage. You can get so much better of a car for the price that way!" Really. After we left him with his car, we waited at Caleb's car a bit because we wanted to check the fluid levels. After we left the lot the car was still there. The kid had left and we actually saw him walking home! What??
I am SO stoked for the day when we don't have to spend every evening car shopping.
I miss my friends.
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