Friday, October 3, 2008

Car Update - Final - Until it quits working

2000 Toyota Camry.  Pretty nice.  Had to work over the Dealership.  I was only the second person to visit them yesterday (come on bailout).  I haven't been through this process in 11 years.  Them telling me what they have in it.  Me making an offer, them going in the back room, me pointing out what is really wrong with the car, them telling me what they will do this to make me happy, me telling them to drop the price and don't worry about that stuff.  Then deal done, I am held prisoner for 1/2 hour as they take it to financing.  Then they call me back, they want to sell me a two year service agreement.  

"Did I not just tell you my 1992 Volvo with 320,000 miles just failed, I am not worried about a Camry with 100,000, no service agreement"  

Let's look at it, we will knock $200 off of it.  NO!  Ok let me get you a receipt.   wait . . wait . . wait.  My manager will knock another $200 off the service.  No, I am getting hungry (now 8:30, I got there at 6:00), where is my receipte, I will be back tomorrow to pick the car up, please don't ask me again about this.

I much prefer to buy from other individuals or small, just used car dealers.  I am not use to being such a jerk or playing a game.  But I am happy to find a good car at a good price.

5 comments:

Casey said...

Congrats on the "new" car. I don't know many people who really find the used car purchasing process enjoyable.
Have you ever considered CarMax? You will remember that Tara totalled her car on the drive up to Warren over the 4th. Well, we ended up going to CarMax and picking up a 2005 Ford Taurus with 40K miles. Probably the best car buying experience I have ever had. No haggling over price and no hassling to buy extra stuff. Of course they asked if we wanted the extended warranty, but they took no for an answer, the very first time. They also have a 5 day return policy, regardless of the reason. If you decide you payed too much, or you don't like the way it smells, or you think the color makes you look fat, etc. they will take it back and give you your money back.
We almost took them up on it too. Turned out we had a tire issue. The whole car shook over 65 MPH. We didn't notice until it was ours. We took it right in and they gave us the choice of either letting them try to find and fix the problem (suspending the 5 day clock while they had it), or just giving us our money back. We liked the car, so we let them take a look at it. They ended up finding broken steel belts on one of the front tires. They replaced all 4 tires at no charge and we ended up keeping it.
We will definitely go there first the next time we are looking for a car. The Jeep is a 2002 with 150K miles. I hope to have it another few years or 100K miles, but you never know. The check engine light has been on for about a year now. (I did have it checked and nothing was found wrong. However, they wanted something like $200 to reset it. No thanks. I'll drive around with the light on.)

catmarlson said...

Who's this Casey guy?
best way to get the light off on the dash. Go to Auto Zone ask them to do a code read (free).
They will tell you if there are issues. Make note of this mentally and say yeah I just had that fixed. "Would you mind erasing that so I can see if my fix worked."
They press one button and it's gone. Unless there is something that triggers it again.

Awesome Triathlon post guys!!
I've been wondering about changing the title or description anyhow. Maybe this post will serve as inspiration to do so.

Casey said...

I was struck on the head back in August and had no memory of who I was until this morning.
Actually things have been crazy busy...still are actually. The big thing that has been going on is that Tara and I are getting a business started. We are starting an Omega Learning Center in our area(http://www.omegalearningcenter.com). We will be competing against Sylvan and Huntington Learning Centers. Tara quit her teaching job to focus full time on getting us started. It has been a lot of work and a lot to learn.
This credit seize-up has had us pretty nervous. We have had our SBA loan in for a while now and hadn't hear anything until Wednesday. It looks like we will be in good shape. Our application is at the underwriting stage, which is the last hurdle but is typically just a formality.
I have been putting off letting anyone know about it until I knew for sure we were going to be able to actually pull the trigger on it. We sign the franchise agreement next week, as well as the lease on our storefront location. (BTW, negotiating the lease agreement for commercial space is about as much fun as used car haggling. Too bad you can't bring your lawyer with you to the car dealer.) Then we apply for building permits to rennovate the lease space. We are hoping our doors can be open sometime in mid to late November.
Pretty exciting stuff.
In the meantime, I am keeping up with my day job and also trying to get through my last semester at VCU.
I wasn't aware of the Auto Zone option. Good tip!

catmarlson said...

Ok. Here is a suggestion for a New blog name.

We Tri to stay on topic.
ha ha!

silent_scream said...

Ahhh reading about these old cars makes me misty eyed thinking about my first car and probably the best I ever had, a rusty '67 bug with 300,000+ miles. I wasn't really sure because the counter only had 5 digits. (sigh)
Congrats on the "new" car.