Car Buying Memories Good and Bad
You may have memories like mine. I remember once when I was a teenager (a long time ago), I was hanging out with my cousin, Roy, who is 5 years older than me.
We were watching TV when a commercial come on. They were selling used cars and they were featuring a 1965 Ford Mustang and the price was unbelievable. So, Roy and I drove quickly to the used car lot and asked about the Mustang we saw featured on tv about 30 minutes earlier.
Best I could remember, the sales man brought us both a coke, I was asked to sit in the lobby as the salesman wanted to talk to Roy about his job and salary. I waited for about an hour, when Roy reappeared and told me “you won’t believe what I bought”. Yep, it was unbelievable!
We drove back home in a new truck. This truck was “lifted” really-high up and it was difficult to climb up into it. It had many upgrades, and Roy seemed happy. I asked about the Mustang. Roy told me that the Salesman had sold it moments before we got there (I thought, yeah right, and it left a long-lasting memory).
A smart buyer plans and sticks to the plan.
In 2017, my wife (yes, Magda) and I decided to buy a used car, (thinking a year or two old), that we could use for a couple years and maybe hand down to my (in the future) teenage daughter. We looked online, we visited car dealer lots, and we really got an idea of prices, mileage and tried to avoid pushy sales people.
We promised ourselves, we would stick to the exact make and model with low mileage and not be persuaded otherwise.
Fortunately, we were not in a hurry, which turned-off many sales people.
After about 2 weeks, we saw an ad for a used (one year old) model (just what we were looking for). It featured low mileage, and the price was a couple thousand less (yes less) than we had been seeing. So, we headed to the car dealership as fast as we could drive.
We showed the car salesman our printed version of the ad from the car dealership. The salesman told us, it may be sold, but we have several other cars. I got that old “bait and switch” feeling.
We got up to leave, the salesman asked us to wait a few more minutes.
When he returned, he told us that he had found the car keys, so the car must be available.
We walked with him around the large lot for about 40 minutes.
There were 100’s of cars, but not the car we wanted. So, the salesman decided a different approach.
We got into another car with the salesman. He had the “missing car keys” in hand. As he drove around the huge car lot, he pushed the key alarm button. He explained that unfortunately, some sales people hide cars for their own customers. After almost an hour no car responded to the alarm.
We parked. He asked us to wait in the lobby as he continued his search for places that the car could be hidden. The salesman seemed sincere. It felt like an hour, before he walked back into the lobby and told us he had found the car.
He said it had been well hidden.
The car had more upgrades and was a better deal than we had imagined. Next, we met with his sales manager, and he admitted that once a month that he advertises a nearly-new car and the company makes about 30 sales from the ad, when customers buy other cars. I did not think it was “ethical” but since I felt like a “winner,” and I was not going to complain. We bought that car below market value and today in 2022, with 100,000 miles it is worth almost $10,000 more than what we paid for the car.
The Most Recent
Today its July 2022 and we are gifting the (2016) car to our now, teenage daughter. We now need to buy another car, hoping for a “deal” in purchasing a year old- low mileage vehicle again. First we contacted Domingo Duenas (OHP neighbor) to help us locate a deal. He works for a big Lexus dealership and has access to “trade-in” car prices. He sent us some information. We were shocked how much the used cars were selling for compared to last year’s prices.
Hot Market 2022
This past weekend we decided to “brave” the large new and used car lots looking for our next car purchase. We met a few sales people, looked a few “used” cars but felt they were all over-priced! Then we met a salesperson, James that told us a brand new car would cost less than the 2020 and 2021 models were looking at outside in the sweltering heat.
We were getting comfortable inside the air conditioned building when James brought us a list of brand new cars that his dealership had just ordered from back east. On the list were a few checkmarks indicating the cars that were already being purchased by other buyers. From the list, there were a couple new cars coming that really appealed to us, with the color and extras we were hoping for. The prices (I felt like we were looking at a secret list) were lower than the used cars “sticker prices” we had seen in the parking lot.
We paid the $1,000 deposit; we chose the car we wanted and we got our new car two days later.
James promised; the new car will have a full tank of gas, and it did!
I am sharing this story, hoping it might entertain you and maybe help a neighbor with their next car purchase plan.
-Les