That Didn't Work Out

Sometimes things don't work out and that's just the way it is. So, today I went up to the car dealer meeting my father there, who was actually there having a car serviced, and we met with the salesman from last time. Last time, Jennifer and I thought he was terrific, this time, not so much. Not so much is actually kind, more like not at all. The idea of trading my car in was in the theme of blog of having less and saving more. I was excited about the replacement, even though the present car has virtually every bell and whistle you can imagine.

The used car evaluator came back with a price that wasn't even in the same area code, zip code, or same region of the United States. This guy ends up skipping over all the vehicles like ours in metro Atlanta, which had a higher value here, pulls vehicles from the midwest, where they sell for less, all have 25k-30k more miles, and aren't even the same model! His trade-in value was 4,500 less than what we were looking for. We had to hear all the b.s. about book value, actual selling value, etc. So, while they were working on improving the trade, thanks to something called the internet, I magically find a few vehicles being sold within 20 miles of here that totally validated my trade-in value. They ended up at 1k less than we wanted, but that could have been workable if the new car price worked. It didn't.

The salesman, who was so good last time, kind of checked out. When I verbally smacked down the car evaluator, I guess he thought it was all over. This drama took over 2 hours and then the discounting on the new vehicle was 1,000 less than several other dealers around. It's amazing that they remarked how we've bought multiple cars there and want to keep us happy and have a sale.

It's was a terrible experience, but I have to be honest, when someone is full of garbage and you call them out on their nonsense, it feels quite good. When they throw out invoice pricing and all that nonsense, I swear you just want to tell them to drop. Instead of the good purchase last time, it was good ol' boy magic today. Our salesman checked out and was ready for the next customer.

So, we're not replacing my car, which isn't a problem. It's a terrific vehicle and I'll have to live with the crazy high-end Bose sound system. I could care less about all the other features it has, but the sound system, that's something else. Now we're on to having this paid off this year and removing the remaining bill.