Adventures in Car Buying

Back in July, my son wrecked my car.  All the humans were fine but the machines... not so much.

The body shop let me know that the value of my car was a bit less than the repairs needed so I set about shopping for a new-to-me car.

The whole thing was crazy because we had travel in the middle of the drama - because the "murphy's law" things in life never really happens at a convenient time.  It was a huge adventure in learning to trust God for the details.

There was one car for which the shopping experience was, and still is, very entertaining.

Let me start by saying that my bartering skills need practice.  A lot of practice.  I can negotiate situations at work and in general life but when it comes to bartering for a money price, I struggle.  You'd think those would be the same skills, right?  It's probably psychological.  At any rate, I'm not good at bartering.

And, of course, shopping for a used car is about bartering.

I always think that I should give a fair price for the value of a product so I like to have concrete reasons WHY I would be willing to pay the amount I pay for a car.

So, I have been working on the skills that I hear are important for bartering well.  The most important of which appears to be "do not get emotionally attached" to the purchase object.  So I decided to take this attitude in car shopping.

I was out in the field for work one day and noticed a small used car dealership nearby.  It was about time for a lunch break so I stopped by to look at their inventory.  It was one of those lots that wants to finance you at some ridiculous rate and where most of the cars are not worth even remotely what they are asking.... if you can figure out what they are asking.

I started wandering around and couldn't really find an asking price on any car.   A salesman came out on the lot to see if I needed help.  I said I wanted to look around but that I needed to know the asking price on each car.  After some back and forth during which he figured out that I was leaving if I couldn't find this information, he finally told me how to figure it out from the way the labels were coded.  He said if I was paying cash, the price would be different and gave me an example.  From this I gathered that "different" meant "1/2-2/3 of the posted price".

I walked around the lot looking at various cars and writing down the ID numbers (a portion of the VIN) from each car that seemed like it might generally be worth considering.  Most of the cars smelled like smoke when I opened the door.  My head ached from the smells in very short order.

If a car passed the smoke smell test, then it had to pass the "am I willing to sit in this" test.  Many that were smoke free were pretty dirty.

And if it passed the cleanliness test, I looked under the hood for oxidation and obvious problems.

Pretty much every car appeared way overpriced, based on my limited knowledge.

In the end, there were two cars I would have considered.  One was a little better situation than the other so I decided to check it out more.

By this time, it was pouring rain.  I took the 2007 Saturn Ion out for a test drive.  Everything worked: wipers, electric mirrors, cruise control, radio, defog/defrost, heater, A/C, etc; it handled well on corners and hills; and it stopped and accelerated with no trouble.

So, I thought, "Hey, maybe this one will be good."

I took the car back and scheduled a time to take it to my mechanic for an inspection the next day.

I went home and looked the car up on the dealer website, pulled the VIN, and ran a CarFax.  I learned some important things.  First, this was definitely a Michigan car.  The oxidation under the hood was not bad for the car's age and the fact that it spent most of it's life in Michigan.  Second, the car had been regularly serviced at a dealership from initial purchase until the date that it was in an front end collision.  Third, after the front end collision, the insurance company declared the car a total loss.  Fourth, the car had been sitting on a lot for nearly 4 months.

I hit up kbb.com and checked on the value of the car and then texted a friend for advice.

I was warned to make sure that it was not a rebuilt/salvage title since the car had been declared a total loss.  I spent a lot of time researching and learning about rebuilt titles vs regular titles that night.  It was very educational.

The next day I called the dealership.  The salesman that I had talked with was unavailable so another guy said he could help me out.  I told him that I wanted to see the title.  He said I could come in early for my appointment to look at it.  He verified that he had the title there in a drawer.

Based on the blue book, age of the car, and car history, I came up with a "max spend" number.  I talked to my dad.  He thought it was a good number.  I called my used-car-salesman-brother.  He said I could offer whatever I want without a reason so if I decide to go lower, then I should. 

I arrived early for my appointment, as planned.  The salesman from the day before was there.  I asked to see the title.  He informed me that he did not have the title because this car technically belonged to another dealership and some other baloney.  I informed him that I was told the title was available and that I wanted to see it.  He was a bit annoyed and then the other guy showed up and said, "Oh, are you Crystal?  Let me get you that title."  Salesman #1 said, "We don't have the title." and Salesman #2 said, "Yes, it's in the drawer.  I verified this morning."  Salesman #1 continued with his annoyed act.

The title checked out as not a rebuilt/salvage so I took the car to the mechanic.  They checked it over.  Mechanically sound but they couldn't check the rear brakes.  Can't remember if that was due to the drums being rusted on or something with the lugnuts.

Back to the dealership.  I handed over the keys and Salesman #1 said, "Well, what do you think?  Do you want to buy it?"  He had a rather eager look on his face and his demeanor and conversation made it clear that because I took it to be checked out, he was sure that I was emotionally attached to the car.  I was not.  However, he was clearly emotionally attached to the sale.

I said, "Yes, I think I am interested.  The mechanic said that they could not check the brakes but everything else was pretty sound."

He said, "How about this.  We'll do new brakes all the way around on the car."

I said, "In that case, I would offer you $1800 for the car."

He started to splutter.  Think of Elmer Fudd when Bugs Bunny has just bested him at something.  You know how the red starts down low and rises as he agitates?  That is exactly what happened to this salesman as he said, "I bet you would like to pay $1800 for that car! The problem is that I paid at least $6500 more than that for it.  I could not go below $7000 for that one."

If you are doing the math then you know that he has just claimed that he paid $8300 for this car and that he is willing to take $7000 for it.  What dealer do you know that wants to take a LOSS on a car?  Plus, I know from CarFax that the car was purchased at an auto auction after someone rebuilt it.  The car is 9 years old and the original MSRP was around $18000.

As he said all of this, what flashed through my brain was, "Who would pay nearly half of original MSRP for a 9 year old, orphan branded car?!  And no dealer is going to take a loss, especially when this is one of the nicest cars on their lot."

At this point, he was so red that I was starting to wonder if steam would actually come out of his ears like in the cartoons.  The image struck me as kind of funny.  And I couldn't believe he would throw out such obvious numerical lies.  It really struck me as funny and I chuckled and said, "If you paid that for the car, then you got a bad deal."

He got even redder and stuttered around that he most certainly did not get a bad deal.  This is what he "does for a living and [he] does not get bad deals".  Then he wanted to know how I arrived at the $1800 number.

I started to explain blue book, age of the car, the orphan status of the brand (indicating that parts may be harder to source), the accident/rebuild and he started to argue.  He didn't even going to counter offer.  At this point, it occurred to me that I have no need to justify myself.  So I just said, "Well, sir, I thank you for your time but we do not have a deal.  Have a nice day."  I shook his hand and walked out.

I left there far from disappointed.  The car was not worth what he was asking.  I didn't get ripped off; and I actually saw someone get cartoon angry.

The icing on the cake?  Another customer whose deal was put on hold when I arrived back at the shop witnessed the entire exchange. 

That salesman will always be a reminder that careful research adds wisdom to decisions and that a lack of self-control will burn relationships (business or personal).  And I will laugh every time I think of his face when he knew that I knew a fair price.