Car Shopping

Coker, Alabama

Weather: low 55 degrees, high 82 degrees, light fog and clouds early, then scattered clouds with thunderstorms beginning about 1600 hours, then light showers until late

Today was the warmest day we have seen since last fall. It sure felt good to me. I went for a walk this morning, and almost worked up a sweat. Highly unusual body activity that I have not seen since October.

Terri asked me to go car shopping with her today. I buy a car about every 10 years. A car expert I am not. However, she felt it was better to take a male with her because car salesmen are notorious for taking advantage of women. Not that they don't do the same thing to men, just not as much. That is, if you can believe what other men say about how they pulled a slick one on a car salesman. I have a feeling you have to get up very early in the morning to put one over on a car salesman. Unfortunately, I don't get up that early, and I admit it.

We arrived in town about 1200 hours and stopped at the first place she wanted to look. As soon as we parked, a salesman walked over to see if he could help us. Have you ever noticed how they don't want you to walk around and look by yourself? Don't you wish you could get that kind of help when you need it in a department store or at WalMart? After the usual greetings and glad handing, he wanted to know what kind of vehicle we were interested in looking at. Terri knew what she had in mind, which was three different models. One was a small car, one was a mid-size car, and the last one was a small SUV type car. Have you ever noticed how small a mid-size car is? Even the SUV seemed small. We sat down in each of the cars as the salesman explained all the great features of them. The whole time, he was asking us to take them for test drives. Finally, we decided to take two of the cars for drives. Just about any new car is going to drive halfway decently, and these two cars did, also.

After the test drive, we asked what the price of the cars was. The salesman told us that they had a no hassle policy, which meant that the price marked on the windshield was the price. However, the factory had a rebate in effect that would reduce the price. Huh? I thought the price on the windshield was the price. Anyway, we asked him to give us a drive out price on the two cars that were driven. What a shock, because the price on the windshield bears no relation to what you actually pay. Sales tax, transfer fees, prep fees, transportation, extra this and extra that. All of a sudden, you're talking serious money. At least to my way of thinking.

Now, this salesman claimed that it didn't matter to him whether we bought the car or not because he was not paid on commission. You could have fooled me, because he sure worked hard to get Terri to buy a car. My experience over the years is that when someone is trying to sell something as hard as he was, it's time for the buyer to back off and think about what is happening. Which is what we did. We told him that Terri needed to look at her finances because it appeared that buying a car from them was going to seriously stress her budget.

After leaving that dealer, we drove down the road to another lot. Now, there was not a doubt about whether the new salesman was operating on a commission basis. However, we did not feel that he was putting the hard sell on, and he showed us several cars that were nice, but just were not right for Terri. Just as we were about to leave, he brought up one other car that might work for Terri. We looked at the car, and were impressed with it. The price was reasonable, it was big enough for the use Terri needed it for, and when we took it for a drive, it drove and handled better than the other ones we had driven. There were no hidden fees until Terri started signing papers, and I noticed that they tried to slip in a $995 extended warranty charge for a car that already had a warranty. After that little item was straightened out, the sale was finalized. Terri now has a car that I think is safer for her and Thomas, and should give them good service for a lot of miles. I'm glad that's over and that Terri is happy with her car.

Whew!! I'm tired, because we didn't get done until 1800 hours. Car shopping wears me out. However, it was a productive day. I'm going to relax the rest of the evening.

More later, be safe.

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