Ugh. Shopping is NOT one of my favorite things to do, shopping for a car? Even less so. But the Vulvy is tired -- 250,000 miles -- two smashed in doors, a hatchback that won't open, a severe rattling in the wheel-well, no antennae, no cd player...she is tired. I still hate to think of giving her up though -- with all her ailments, I still mourn every time I get in or out, thinking it is the last time, or nearing the last time. It is a good car -- and if that jerk had not hit me last winter, I would seriously think about keeping her on the road... But instead, I am shopping for a used car. And used car salespeople just aren't that fun to deal with. I found an old Honda CR-V that I liked in Augusta -- and drove it and thought it was okay. I sat down with the guy to figure out the price and he dicked around, back and forth and all that garbage and ended up offering only about $700 less than he started with. I walked away -- got home and checked Consumer Reports and Edmund's for pricing and they had it overpriced by roughly $2,000. Can anyone afford to pay $2,000 more than they should. Jim's favorite comment was when the guy said something along the lines of, "We like to make sure you have a great experience here." Well then why did you make us sit there and go back and forth for an hour instead of just telling us your price? There were other beautiful moments of the salesman repeating himself, calculating to show us "another" perspective -- ah, THIS is our perspective, this is where I am seeing things from. Needless to say, I am still on the prowl. I have faith though, faith. And a backup car if I need it.
There are always times that I look at my life and career and think about switching jobs. And I must admit there was a time when perusing the newspaper that I saw car salesperson jobs (I think it was when I was in North Carolina) and thought, hmmmm, maybe I could do that. Holy crap, I so could not do that. What a racket. Less so than the racket in the wheel well currently.
The thing with salesmen like that is you have to be a bigger meanie. You examine the car, you drive the car, your criticize the car and show as much as possible that you hate the car. Then you walk in and say you have several other cars to look at, and that you have no time for BS and he can make a sale on this horrible, awful car while your honey brings around HIS nice car (never show the crap car you are getting rid of) and then walk away. Just walk away. See if the guy comes after you. If not, adios. No car is worth the salesman it comes with.
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