(no subject)
So, J's car needs work. It's a '97 Pontiac Sunfire, and by rights should never have survived this long anyway. But at this point, there is no sense in putting another penny into that car.
Hey, he just got a raise! Looks like we can afford to finance a new car, yeah. And it's October, when car dealerships are marking down last year's models dramatically to clear the way for next year's models. A while ago I went out with Sis-in-law and just sat in a whole list of cars, to see what had tolerable seats (it was surprising what was nice and what was just completely miserable). So we had a list of three cars to test drive yesterday, along with various other info about them and Consumer Reports reviews and so on.
The Nissan Sentra felt absolutely nicest, though the sticker price was pretty high and I didn't know if it'd be a good buy. The Honda Fit was a low-end car, small and cheap, but hey, cheap and good reputation for reliability. We walked out of the house half convinced we were going to buy a Prius. Mom-in-law has one; it's a good car, gas mileage is good, and I've done a few several-hour trips in her car without major problem.
We went by Nissan first, with J convinced we were going to get a hard sell from all the salesmen and that it was going to be an absolutely horrible, miserable day. We talked to the same guy who walked around with SIL and me while I sat in various Nissans, and he took us to test drive a Sentra; very low stress, low pressure, definitely trying to sell us the car but not sleazy or unpleasant. It was just as pleasant on a longer ride as it had been to sit in briefly, initially. The Sentra--their only 2010 left--was $6k off original sticker price and way, way down within our budget. And quite a nice car: good ride, pleasant drive (says J), lots of extra goodies.
Very nice to have such a positive experience right off the bat.
We moved on to the Honda dealership, where the salesman also just took us right on out to drive the Fit, talking happily about what a good car it was. Except compared to the Sentra we'd just been in, it really, really wasn't--and the price was $3k higher. But the salesguy answered our questions, didn't get pushy or sleazy, was pretty much straightforward. As we were heading out to test-drive the Prius, they told us, "We've just started marking everything down significantly!" I asked for specifics. "Oh, significantly!" I asked for actual numbers. "Oh, big big discounts!" Hmm. Yeah, that's not quite so straightforward as just taking off as much as they're willing to and putting it on the sticker.
So we went to the Toyota dealership. We asked to test-drive a Prius. This guy took us to his office and wanted to fill out paperwork before letting us test drive. After he pulled out the paperwork, I said, "We'd really like to just go ahead and test drive the Prius." He said soemthing about matching us to just the right car. We refused to give them some of the info they wanted (you don't need our phone number just so we can test drive a car). Then he took the sheet and wandered off. And stayed gone. Now this is somewhat more high-pressure tactics; all we asked was drive *A* Prius, and he wanted to find the car to try to sell us before stepping out of the building.
So after a few minutes, I turned to J and said, "Want to just go? That Sentra is a good deal." He agreed that he'd been thinking the same thing, So we left. As we went by the open door of the office where "our" salesman had gone, I heard some of what the guy was saying to him; it was coaching on how to best present the car. Basically, more high-pressure. Salesguy was facing away from us, and didn't see us going. We were pretty pissed at being dragged through rigamarole when we repeatedly said we just wanted to take a test drive.
At some point, by the way, that guy actually argued with me about whether other Toyotas would work for me. Maybe we should test drive them, so I could sit in the seats that made my back hurt for LONGER, to see if they really bothered me in actual use! Seriously, that was his reasoning.
So. We went to go sit down and chill out and talk it over, and have some pizza. Did we really want the Sentra? Was this how we wanted to handle it? The Sentra was affordable and a very nice car, nicer than we were expecting to buy. Was that making us like it irrationally, or was it just a bonus? Was the Nissan salesguy's easygoing approach influencing us unduly?
We decided it really was just a good deal and was definitely a car J would want to drive for, hopefully, a decade or so. And that we were glad we could benefit the guy whose sales approach was a really pleasant experience, along with the dealership who was straightforward about "we're cutting prices on 2010's and this is how far it can go" instead of "significant savings! yes! no numbers tho!"
We actually had to leave partway though the Sentra purchase, to make it to a doctor appointment. When we went back we finished up the purchase but were too tired to arrange automobile round-robin to get two cars home with just one driver. So J is going to catch a ride over there this morning (from a brother or mother or something) and pick up his New Car.
J's got a shiney new red Nissan Sentra. And we now have a smaller car that I can actually sit in, so we can make trips without having to take my gas-guzzler. And I'm not so worried that J's car is going to have a sudden catastrophic failure. And he has a horn. And a radio. And A/C. Oh, I am so glad.
Hey, he just got a raise! Looks like we can afford to finance a new car, yeah. And it's October, when car dealerships are marking down last year's models dramatically to clear the way for next year's models. A while ago I went out with Sis-in-law and just sat in a whole list of cars, to see what had tolerable seats (it was surprising what was nice and what was just completely miserable). So we had a list of three cars to test drive yesterday, along with various other info about them and Consumer Reports reviews and so on.
The Nissan Sentra felt absolutely nicest, though the sticker price was pretty high and I didn't know if it'd be a good buy. The Honda Fit was a low-end car, small and cheap, but hey, cheap and good reputation for reliability. We walked out of the house half convinced we were going to buy a Prius. Mom-in-law has one; it's a good car, gas mileage is good, and I've done a few several-hour trips in her car without major problem.
We went by Nissan first, with J convinced we were going to get a hard sell from all the salesmen and that it was going to be an absolutely horrible, miserable day. We talked to the same guy who walked around with SIL and me while I sat in various Nissans, and he took us to test drive a Sentra; very low stress, low pressure, definitely trying to sell us the car but not sleazy or unpleasant. It was just as pleasant on a longer ride as it had been to sit in briefly, initially. The Sentra--their only 2010 left--was $6k off original sticker price and way, way down within our budget. And quite a nice car: good ride, pleasant drive (says J), lots of extra goodies.
Very nice to have such a positive experience right off the bat.
We moved on to the Honda dealership, where the salesman also just took us right on out to drive the Fit, talking happily about what a good car it was. Except compared to the Sentra we'd just been in, it really, really wasn't--and the price was $3k higher. But the salesguy answered our questions, didn't get pushy or sleazy, was pretty much straightforward. As we were heading out to test-drive the Prius, they told us, "We've just started marking everything down significantly!" I asked for specifics. "Oh, significantly!" I asked for actual numbers. "Oh, big big discounts!" Hmm. Yeah, that's not quite so straightforward as just taking off as much as they're willing to and putting it on the sticker.
So we went to the Toyota dealership. We asked to test-drive a Prius. This guy took us to his office and wanted to fill out paperwork before letting us test drive. After he pulled out the paperwork, I said, "We'd really like to just go ahead and test drive the Prius." He said soemthing about matching us to just the right car. We refused to give them some of the info they wanted (you don't need our phone number just so we can test drive a car). Then he took the sheet and wandered off. And stayed gone. Now this is somewhat more high-pressure tactics; all we asked was drive *A* Prius, and he wanted to find the car to try to sell us before stepping out of the building.
So after a few minutes, I turned to J and said, "Want to just go? That Sentra is a good deal." He agreed that he'd been thinking the same thing, So we left. As we went by the open door of the office where "our" salesman had gone, I heard some of what the guy was saying to him; it was coaching on how to best present the car. Basically, more high-pressure. Salesguy was facing away from us, and didn't see us going. We were pretty pissed at being dragged through rigamarole when we repeatedly said we just wanted to take a test drive.
At some point, by the way, that guy actually argued with me about whether other Toyotas would work for me. Maybe we should test drive them, so I could sit in the seats that made my back hurt for LONGER, to see if they really bothered me in actual use! Seriously, that was his reasoning.
So. We went to go sit down and chill out and talk it over, and have some pizza. Did we really want the Sentra? Was this how we wanted to handle it? The Sentra was affordable and a very nice car, nicer than we were expecting to buy. Was that making us like it irrationally, or was it just a bonus? Was the Nissan salesguy's easygoing approach influencing us unduly?
We decided it really was just a good deal and was definitely a car J would want to drive for, hopefully, a decade or so. And that we were glad we could benefit the guy whose sales approach was a really pleasant experience, along with the dealership who was straightforward about "we're cutting prices on 2010's and this is how far it can go" instead of "significant savings! yes! no numbers tho!"
We actually had to leave partway though the Sentra purchase, to make it to a doctor appointment. When we went back we finished up the purchase but were too tired to arrange automobile round-robin to get two cars home with just one driver. So J is going to catch a ride over there this morning (from a brother or mother or something) and pick up his New Car.
J's got a shiney new red Nissan Sentra. And we now have a smaller car that I can actually sit in, so we can make trips without having to take my gas-guzzler. And I'm not so worried that J's car is going to have a sudden catastrophic failure. And he has a horn. And a radio. And A/C. Oh, I am so glad.