Up early and bored Tom decided to go car shopping for some fun. Most folks hate the process but I for one love it. The initial questions where they are trying to get you committed to a payment start the fun. When asked what I’m looking to spend I answer by asking “what do you think is fair?” They are never really prepared and mostly answer with some quip about the vehicle being priced fairly already. It gets better from there.
On the test drives they sometimes ask personal questions to which I give odd answers. I mentioned that I’ve only been here for a year as bait. So when he naturally asked why I moved I answered with “I was asked to leave Illinois.” Oh. -was his puzzled response.
We are now in the valuation stage of the game. He gently floated the question if I’ve done any research around possible value and I just told him to get as close to what I paid as possible. I wish I could follow him back to hear what he’s saying about me. So great.
By the way I will be walking out of this dealership without a car because I’m still in the looking stage. I’m not a car guy and I have no brand loyalty. I want something a little bigger for less money per month which should be easy as I want to lease. I’m in a phase of my life where I would rent my clothes if possible but that’s a post for another day.
The walkout is the best part. Everything about this awful antiquated system is based on taking my money TODAY. When I want to go I get worse. The dealer will send out a closer to try and stop me with an if I can… will you today? And my answer will be no. When he or she asks why not I will say it’s because of them. Should have given me your best shot out of the gate and I would have bought the car. Live and learn.
A couple other notes. I control the time. I say I have somewhere to be in two hours so don’t use the delay parts of your process. I also show them my credit score and tell them they can’t run my credit to shop my paper until we have a deal. Finally, I announce myself as a pain in the ass from jump and ask every salesperson if they are up for a challenge. Gots to go, here comes the kid with the paper he’s going to draw 4 squares on…