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New Car Showroom = Roach Motel
I found the perfect way to waste hours of your time today. Really, there's nothing better of letting your curiosity - and your kindness get the better of you and let thing go to far.
This morning I didn't get up as early as intended, which goes in the realm of not good things when you want to have your car looked at. By the time I got to the dealership (I know, people's alarms are ringing right now) the guy said, "Really to do what you want, can you leave it it until Monday?"
What I wanted to do is have the suspension, shocks, struts and such looked at, since my Xterra has been bouncy lately, looked at and the car re-aligned, oh, and since it's been five years, it's probably time for the clutch to be re-done, since I do drive a stick-shift vehicle that requires such things. Really, what I needed was an assessment, and I could decide on what, and when the work would be done, but that's not the way things are done at car dealerships. Of course being alone in Houston means there isn't much way to drop off your car and still be able to do stuff for the rest of your day, so I had to say, "No thanks, I'll have to bring it in later."
Here's where the curiosity problem started. Instead of doing something smart like keep driving to a car repair shop that might have been able to do something this morning, I thought I would look at the new XTerras on the lot. Yep, the shiny, re-designed, more muscular vehicle that I keep trying to convince myself that I can wait on...but really want.
I was like chum to the sharks. I did actually see them circling. I knew they were coming. "Vulnerable soul on the sales lot - the new car lot! He's looking at the SUV's - the gas-guzzlers that aren't selling as well as they once did!"
Yep, sadly in a couple of minutes one of them had me test-driving one. Test driving the only stick-shift on the lot. Mmm, it's a six speed - mine only goes to five (insert "It goes to 11" joke here). Good things - comfy seat, strong engine, still seems like an XTerra, looks good, still comes in Red - even though it's darker. Bad - dashboard is a bit tragic, looks kind of cheap and they've taken some of the quirkiness of the original - like the first aid kit and the cargo bin on the top - to a whole new level.
So after he showed me that, and what the interior of the higher level one would look like (not much different) We went into the office - ahh, the place where mistakes are truly sealed. I was interested to see what the price was since there wasn't a vehicle with exactly what I wanted. It needed to be manual, red and have Sirius - no exceptions there, plus, and here's where the trouble started, it couldn't be the base model. Well, they really don't make stick-shifts in much more than the base model, and to upgrade it cost mucho dinero.
To find what I wanted, my salesperson, a man who's English wasn't exactly spot-on, was searching a database - for a while. I had apparently asked for the moon. Of course, he wanted to be able to have just the model I wanted today, so I'd commit, so I could tell he was frustrated. He asked me if I had a second color choice. My sister would tell you, there's never a second color choice when it comes to cars. Besides for some reason, there's some really boring color choices this year anyway. There's not even a blue. Still, for me, it's got to be RED. period.
So, not finding what I wanted, and noticing my infinite boredom of watching the NFL draft (I have no idea why this is even televised) he decides to move on to financing, which includes assessing the old car, and the dreaded "What would you like your payments to be?" I really don't like this way of working a sale, but I was willing to go along with it for a bit to see what they would come up with. While this was happening, I let a call from Chris go to voicemail.
More waiting. Apparently they took the old car for a spin and checked over the credit and all of that stuff. This is actually the same dealership that I bought the old XTerra from in the first place. The only thing that has changed is that the Oldsmobiles have gone.
Truly, I was getting bored and ready to walk, but now I needed my keys. I had pretty much decided a while back that I would wait on actually purchasing a new car for a while and let me save some money. the only thing that should change that is if the repair bill on the old vehicle starts to build- and that's really more of the reason I was at the dealership, but as usual, I had let my interest in the shiny new object get in my way, and here I was wasting away my day trying to see what they were going to tell me.
I was already trying to work out my way to tell them no, when I got another call from Chris. Since I had been abandoned by the salesperson for about 45 minutes at this point, I took the call. The moment I told Chris "Yeah, I'm here at a car dealership, looking at a new car, but now I'm bored off my ass, " the salesman appears out of nowhere.
Chris is naturally concerned about me possibly buying a car today, and we're trying to talk without totally giving away everything to the now very attentive salesperson. Now I may chide Chris for making a quick decision to purchase and iPod Photo a couple of weeks ago, but really, I would have called him and my Dad before I made the final go-ahead on a car purchase. Still, I had pretty much decided that it wasn't going to happen.
I could tell that the salesman was very, very concerned about the call. He produced a piece of paper with an offer on it. Realistically, it wasn't a terrible offer, but it wasn't the "Wow!" offer that would have made me change my mind. When I'm about to pay off this car, it's hard to think I'd really want to enter into another 5 years of payments for only $50 less than I'm paying now.
Here's also two big screaming sirens that were going off as he was explaining the deal to me. One - when I asked for the financeing's annual percentage rate (APR) he said he couldn't give me one, that hadn't been determined. How the heck do you know what the payments are if you don't know what the APR of the loan is? This, I'm afraid is a bit of a con game. Secondly, When I asked about the actual car - well, that was still undetermined, but he said that he could get it to me today. Well guess what, you can check inventories on line these days, and the car isn't around the area. no dealer in the Houston area has it. Once again, he was trying to get me to sign on the dotted line.
It took about thirty minutes to actually pry myself away from his clutches. It's tough being a nice guy when really being all sorts of rude would have done the job so well. At first I was thinking that it was sad that I wasted so much of his time, but really, it was completely the other way around. I guess this was just another place where a few well-placed questions about price would have gotten me out of there quickly and I could have moved on with my day.
Still, I liked driving the new car. Damn that new car smell, it's intoxicating.
This morning I didn't get up as early as intended, which goes in the realm of not good things when you want to have your car looked at. By the time I got to the dealership (I know, people's alarms are ringing right now) the guy said, "Really to do what you want, can you leave it it until Monday?"
What I wanted to do is have the suspension, shocks, struts and such looked at, since my Xterra has been bouncy lately, looked at and the car re-aligned, oh, and since it's been five years, it's probably time for the clutch to be re-done, since I do drive a stick-shift vehicle that requires such things. Really, what I needed was an assessment, and I could decide on what, and when the work would be done, but that's not the way things are done at car dealerships. Of course being alone in Houston means there isn't much way to drop off your car and still be able to do stuff for the rest of your day, so I had to say, "No thanks, I'll have to bring it in later."
Here's where the curiosity problem started. Instead of doing something smart like keep driving to a car repair shop that might have been able to do something this morning, I thought I would look at the new XTerras on the lot. Yep, the shiny, re-designed, more muscular vehicle that I keep trying to convince myself that I can wait on...but really want.
I was like chum to the sharks. I did actually see them circling. I knew they were coming. "Vulnerable soul on the sales lot - the new car lot! He's looking at the SUV's - the gas-guzzlers that aren't selling as well as they once did!"
Yep, sadly in a couple of minutes one of them had me test-driving one. Test driving the only stick-shift on the lot. Mmm, it's a six speed - mine only goes to five (insert "It goes to 11" joke here). Good things - comfy seat, strong engine, still seems like an XTerra, looks good, still comes in Red - even though it's darker. Bad - dashboard is a bit tragic, looks kind of cheap and they've taken some of the quirkiness of the original - like the first aid kit and the cargo bin on the top - to a whole new level.
So after he showed me that, and what the interior of the higher level one would look like (not much different) We went into the office - ahh, the place where mistakes are truly sealed. I was interested to see what the price was since there wasn't a vehicle with exactly what I wanted. It needed to be manual, red and have Sirius - no exceptions there, plus, and here's where the trouble started, it couldn't be the base model. Well, they really don't make stick-shifts in much more than the base model, and to upgrade it cost mucho dinero.
To find what I wanted, my salesperson, a man who's English wasn't exactly spot-on, was searching a database - for a while. I had apparently asked for the moon. Of course, he wanted to be able to have just the model I wanted today, so I'd commit, so I could tell he was frustrated. He asked me if I had a second color choice. My sister would tell you, there's never a second color choice when it comes to cars. Besides for some reason, there's some really boring color choices this year anyway. There's not even a blue. Still, for me, it's got to be RED. period.
So, not finding what I wanted, and noticing my infinite boredom of watching the NFL draft (I have no idea why this is even televised) he decides to move on to financing, which includes assessing the old car, and the dreaded "What would you like your payments to be?" I really don't like this way of working a sale, but I was willing to go along with it for a bit to see what they would come up with. While this was happening, I let a call from Chris go to voicemail.
More waiting. Apparently they took the old car for a spin and checked over the credit and all of that stuff. This is actually the same dealership that I bought the old XTerra from in the first place. The only thing that has changed is that the Oldsmobiles have gone.
Truly, I was getting bored and ready to walk, but now I needed my keys. I had pretty much decided a while back that I would wait on actually purchasing a new car for a while and let me save some money. the only thing that should change that is if the repair bill on the old vehicle starts to build- and that's really more of the reason I was at the dealership, but as usual, I had let my interest in the shiny new object get in my way, and here I was wasting away my day trying to see what they were going to tell me.
I was already trying to work out my way to tell them no, when I got another call from Chris. Since I had been abandoned by the salesperson for about 45 minutes at this point, I took the call. The moment I told Chris "Yeah, I'm here at a car dealership, looking at a new car, but now I'm bored off my ass, " the salesman appears out of nowhere.
Chris is naturally concerned about me possibly buying a car today, and we're trying to talk without totally giving away everything to the now very attentive salesperson. Now I may chide Chris for making a quick decision to purchase and iPod Photo a couple of weeks ago, but really, I would have called him and my Dad before I made the final go-ahead on a car purchase. Still, I had pretty much decided that it wasn't going to happen.
I could tell that the salesman was very, very concerned about the call. He produced a piece of paper with an offer on it. Realistically, it wasn't a terrible offer, but it wasn't the "Wow!" offer that would have made me change my mind. When I'm about to pay off this car, it's hard to think I'd really want to enter into another 5 years of payments for only $50 less than I'm paying now.
Here's also two big screaming sirens that were going off as he was explaining the deal to me. One - when I asked for the financeing's annual percentage rate (APR) he said he couldn't give me one, that hadn't been determined. How the heck do you know what the payments are if you don't know what the APR of the loan is? This, I'm afraid is a bit of a con game. Secondly, When I asked about the actual car - well, that was still undetermined, but he said that he could get it to me today. Well guess what, you can check inventories on line these days, and the car isn't around the area. no dealer in the Houston area has it. Once again, he was trying to get me to sign on the dotted line.
It took about thirty minutes to actually pry myself away from his clutches. It's tough being a nice guy when really being all sorts of rude would have done the job so well. At first I was thinking that it was sad that I wasted so much of his time, but really, it was completely the other way around. I guess this was just another place where a few well-placed questions about price would have gotten me out of there quickly and I could have moved on with my day.
Still, I liked driving the new car. Damn that new car smell, it's intoxicating.
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Oh, thank God. I started reading this and was thinking, "TRAIN WRECK!!!"
"Full impulse shopping, Mr. Sulu!" is not an order to give in a car dealership.
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I bought my recent car at a dealership that my husbear has had great luck dealing with. It is a small Mom and Pop type of dealership where you are on a first name business and they don't play head games.
After I had researched the truck type to the nth degree on all the internet sites and forums, researching ratings and running comparisons of different types as well as determining a good time to buy (when rebates and package deals are good), I went down to the dealers with my husbear to take a look at Durango's. They were able to give me one that had everything I wanted plus other extras for thousands under invoice and they offered me 2500 more for my old truck than I asked for (2500 above Kelley Bluebook trade in value). Within a day, they were able to find me financing much lower than I could find myself even thru a credit union. I wasn't pushed for an instant answer as they gave me a couple days to decide.
There was no pressure, no games (how much can you afford a month...), and no tricks. This was the same experience my husbear got on his last two truck purchases. I will definitely do my next purchase there again in the future.
scary reading
i think we have all been down that road at sometime in someway where the added tension of making a decision without loved ones approval all makes for an exciting anxiety ridden drama....i found myself thinking "pull out pull out!!!" as i was reading your description of unfolding events and the nailbiting finish where you saved yourself from regret almost made me choke on my popcorn.....chris should indeed be proud....take care
bearzoid
Re: scary reading
They could really take a page from the folks at Saturn with their clear pricing. Sure, saturn could offer some better products, but there's a reason they get good customer service ratings.
Thanks for reading. Stop by anytime!
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Yeah, I could have used Chris, or Kip, both have done more deals than I have. still, I really went in to do something totally different, and got suckered. Just a sad case am I. :-)
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I hate to be the ass, but do you really need an Xterra?
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Never thought an entry about car dealerships would do that, considering all the bad past experience with them. Bravo! Encore!
no subject