The Car Buying Game

On April 1, 2009 at 8 a.m. our beloved Betty gave up the ghost. After nine months of struggling from a heart transplant, she will never again move on her own. We decided that we couldn't deal with that again and with the amount of money we put into her, we could have a new car by now. Conference weekend was the only time we had available to go car hunting for another month. Between two part-time and jobs and two full-time students, life is difficult without a car, especially when it's been raining and snowing. So.... we went car shopping. Enjoy the ride!

Goodbye old pal.

We first went to a Honda dealership. The salesman there had only been in the business about two months and showed us crap cars. We didn’t stay long.

The second was a Nissan place where we almost bought a Hyundai. Joey was tired, it was 1 o’clock, we’d been up since 8 and hadn’t eaten lunch yet and Joey was recovering from being sick. We asked for a price three times and each time they went away and came back with a different person to talk to us. They wanted us to take one of their cars to lunch, but that would mean coming back. We were so tired by this time we just wanted to leave, and we still hadn’t gotten a price.

One of the times our salesman went away to find the price, he brought back with him the manager, or whoever, who tried to talk us in to buying a brand new car for more! He said we’d pay $200 the first year and then the price would go up to $300 after that. He was talking to the wrong people. We are not that stupid.

At the third dealership (Toyota), I was getting snippy and brutally honest. The salesman showed us a few options. The first car we test drove was a Toyota Cambry. It was an awesome drive and you couldn’t feel the train tracks bump as we drove over them. It was a 6 cylinder and a gas guzzler. On top of that, it was way too big for me and it had a white exterior with a brownish tan color that reminded me of diarrhea (though I didn’t say this at the time). Seriously, I wanted to puke. I said I didn’t like the color and the salesman kind of dismissed it and said that with a used car, you can’t be too picky (in so many words).

We test drove the Toyota corolla next. I wasn’t too excited about it, but Joey was partial to it and in the back of his mind he just really wanted a Toyota because of it’s reliability and it is known to go up to 300,000 miles. We have actually been talking about getting a corolla because we rented one once and fell in love.

When we got done with the test drive, our salesman (Blaine) asked me if I could see myself with this car. I honestly didn’t know. I wasn’t set on it… I wanted to see what else there was. Blaine said, “Ok, are you ready to go in and draw up some papers? See what price we could get it down to.” He also kept saying he’d have to move some numbers around to get it within our budget. This 2005 car initially cost $12,999 with 84,000 miles.

I was getting frustrated at this point because he was putting words in my mouth and there was actually a couple other cars I wanted to test drive, but he pushed us inside, pretty much.

This whole time, I was the one talking… Blaine called me the CFO. Joey was not feeling well. I did most of the talking, but when I didn’t know what to do, I’d look over at Joey expecting him to make a decision or say something, and he’d just stare back.

Throughout this whole process Joey was on the phone with his mom who checked the Blue Book value that was $11,000. I was on the phone with dad who kept telling me to walk away especially because they weren’t including the warranty.

The price started at $12,999. Blaine brought it down to $9,995, then $8,995 and through in the certification and warranty.

We were on to their games. We tried walking away probably four times. The last time was when they brought us into meet the financial guy. I told Joey to tell them we were leaving if he wanted to go, but we walked into the room, they told us to sit down and we sadly did. We realized that to play the game well, you had to be willing to leave.

Dad told me that Mick had purchased a brand new 2007 Toyota Corolla last year for $14,000. I told this to the financial guy who said there’s no way that that happened. And me, being a little frustrated and snippy, said, “Are you calling them liars?” He immediately apologized and backed off and tried to explain that price. It was very humorous.

At another point, the financial guy (sorry, I can’t remember his name) said that whatever we did didn’t matter to him. He kept saying this over and over. Joey just turned to him and said, “We know it doesn’t matter to you.” That stopped him.

The financial guy asked us if we would purchase the car on the spot that day if they brought the price down to $5,000 and included everything (warranty, certification, etc.). I said definitely. He said, “Well, we can’t do that.” However, we eventually got them down to $8,200! – out the door. They were desperate to sell a car. They had a 12 car quota, and had only sold two cars so far that day.

We eventually signed the papers and we are now loving our car! We bought it for under our budget and a 7 year or 100,000 mile warranty. Not bad for this first time purchase. We couldn’t believe we had actually bought a car!!! It was quite the experience – both fun and terrifying. We had no idea what we were doing. We tried researching as much as possible before we went our shopping, but we were starting from scratch. We are just so glad that we did not have to back out the next day.

Thank you to everyone for their support and advice: Mick and Joanne. Paul for telling us to walk away and they’d automatically come down and on top of that that they can always come down more when they say they can’t. Dad and Lori for telling me to walk away. Mama Wax for finding us the Blue Book Value.

P.S. any ideas for a new name?