My daughter is about to replace her piece of crap car with a newer one. I’ll be going with her when she does the final paperwork, since I’m not so easily swayed by sales folk. That will be my tomorrow.
So share your tales of auto-buying, both good and bad. Mine shall follow after I’m caffeinated.
Happy Moanday!
First! It’s good to be juvenile! 
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 67 Amurrkin out and cloudy (well, dark) with a predicted high of 77 and rain/tstorms/apocalypse this afternoon and evenin’. Rah. Today I shall defilthyfy da cave. Sup shall be boxed lasagna (don’t judge!), sallit, and garlic bread. Also I have Vestry meetin’ tonight. That should be enough to keep me outta trouble for the day I reckon.
I haven’t bought a vehicle since 2009 when I bought twuck. I shall need to do so sometime soonish I suppose. I do not look forward to the ordeal. Never know what I want but do know I would prefer a smallish truck which may be nigh on to impossible to find now.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day!
Happy Moanday Y’all!
Car buying. Oh dear. I spent the first 15 years of my adult life working for a car dealership along with my dad. It is a one price, no negotiations dealer. Oh, what a sheltered life I led. When RT was ready to return his leased Jeep we decided to trade in both of our vehicles on one new one. We went to a local Chrysler dealer to see what we could find. O.M.G!!! I had no idea what it was like in the rest of the car buying world and all of the games that they play. Out of the two of us, it was, honest to goodness, ME who literally almost got into a fist fight with the salesperson or manager or whatever. I was enraged at being treated so poorly. What an awful experience. We ended up at another Chrysler dealer where there is a bit of negotiating but no high-pressure tactics whatsoever and they were very nice to work with.
Now I’m working at another dealership. I don’t know what our sales department is like, but I am truly enjoying working in the shop. It’s so nice not having a ton of stress every minute of the work day where you’re worrying about the safety of others who can’t protect themselves. Life is good here in NE Ohio. 
Speaking of, I walked my first 5K of the season over the weekend. I haven’t run for quite awhile and I didn’t think during a 5K was the time to start. But, I had a blast meeting up with old friends. I’m looking forward to being able to run soon. I’m conveniently even within walking distance from work now so I will be able to run home in the afternoon.
My car-buying (leasing) story.
Eons ago - maybe 30 years - we were in need of a vehicle and **FCD **(without my knowledge) went to a VW dealer and found a Jetta that he wanted. Also unbeknownst to me, he got talked into a lease - it was all about monthly payment. We’ll never make that mistake again.
Anyway, when **FCD **told me about it, he mentioned the monthly payment, and it was doable (I managed our budget) so I agreed to go to the dealer with him. As we sat in the office about to do the paperwork, the monthly payment suddenly jumped. I said “We can’t do that” and I stood up and started to leave. Suddenly, the payment came down again. It was a lightbulb moment for me.
A year later, we refinanced that vehicle thru our credit union, and we never leased again. Plus these days, with the intrarwebz and all, we go in armed with more knowledges and I feel like we’ve gotten some pretty good deals. Tho **FCD **is still a soft sell if he really wants a particular vehicle.
Happy Moonday!
It’s dark outside, 43 degrees. Today is supposed to be N.O.S. with a high of 55.
Going to be a busy day today, I think.
I have to send out three sympathy cards.
My son found a notice in the door last night that the gas lines are being replaced on our side of the street. This means the gas will be turned off at some point, no heat, because it makes perfect sense to turn off gas lines in the winter time. It also means they need to come into the house to relight all the pilot lights, however, we have no idea what day or what time and how long we will be without heat (not that that should be a big issue this week). I have a number to call and I hope they can answer my questions, I need to know a time so I am not on a irk call when they knock.
Our new contracts from irk are supposed to come today, as well as some changes they are making in our pay. Some new types of bonuses I hear. I’m not expecting a raise this year, it would be nice, but not expected.
I suppose I should call to get somebody out to fix the dishwasher. I am getting tired of hand washing them.
We are enjoying the dog park, so that is on the agenda for today. Yesterday was pretty crowded, parking is a pain. There are only 6 spaces, and two of those are handicapped. When I first got there yesterday the lot was full, yet I was the only person there. Ripple is still a bit of a wussie, but he seems to be having fun.
I hate buying cars.
Mine is a 2012, but has just over 30,000 miles on it, so I won’t be buying anything new anytime soon. Sometimes I think about buying a full sized pickup. I don’t drive much so mileage isn’t an issue anymore, but then I think about parking it and I like a smaller truck better for that. Maybe, when (if?) my son ever gets his driver’s license, I’ll give him this truck and get something else. Then again, maybe he’ll want something new. Of course, what little bit of driving we do it wouldn’t make sense to have more than one vehicle between us until he gets a job that requires a commute.
Making my son get a driver’s license is on the agenda for this year.
Afternoon, mumpers! I am here on the first day of the week for a change!
It has been a wild weather weekend over here, I was out on Saturday to see a band over near where mum lives so we stopped off to see her on Saturday, left the car there overnight and planned to go back to collect it on Sunday. She rang me on Sunday morning to say she’d cancelled her plan to go out with a friend because it had been snowing!
That same day, we had near gale-force winds, snow, sleet, hail and bright sunshine. Now it’s sunny and bright but it’s cold out there, baby! Mum’s doing ok at the moment, she has only just been diagnosed so doesn’t have much info yet. She has an appointment with the lung function clinic and then the consultant afterwards today, so I should know a bit more by tonight when I speak to her. I did offer to go with her today but she said she didn’t want anyone. I still think she might have changed her mind but it was too late for me to get time off.
Last time I bought a car was about 15 years ago. It was an ex-demonstrator from the dealership near home. It had 252 miles on the clock, and it was red. That was the choice as far as my price range went. A red one, or a red one. So we bought a red one. Now I need to change it, probably to something a few years old but not too high mileage. And maybe not a red one for a change.
Blurf I bought my car new at the end of '13 but it is a '14. We just paid the asking price. No haggling. I paid it off a few months ago. It has a little over 80K on it and has never given me a moments trouble except for tires after the hurricane. I guess I will drive it forever. I know I don’t want payments nor do I want to buy one outright.
Blurfage. I miss my hour.
Happy new week all!
OK — for the most part we buy new unless its something I am getting to fix up and resell. My habit is to decide what I want and what I’m willing to pay and take it from there. Most dealers catch on to the fact that I won’t play the game and either play my way or say so up front. As a result I haven’t had anything classically bad. The closest was when we were getting rid of our SW2 and wanted a Vue and our regular salesman/dealer just wouldn’t admit that what we wanted was what we wanted and that they didn’t have anything to match. I had to hurt his feelings and he disappointed me but ---------
it lead to one of our great experiences. We found what we wanted online at another dealer and went to see them. By luck of the draw we drew the manager as our salesman and he didn’t know they even had the car on the lot. And seeing we already knew and were serious he basically gave us carte-blanche and stayed out of our way; handed us a plate and keys and said go test drive it and when we named a figure he said we were within a buck or so a month of what he could do and if we met him in the middle it was a deal. We actually talked to him for a total of maybe 10 minutes. I still have warm feelings about that whole experience.
Morning all. What had been predicted by the weather folks as a dry day turned out to be a wet one, so soccer may get cancelled again (rats!). Had a contractor stop by this AM to get the A/C unit ready for summer, cost me $172.50 for about 10 minutes work! But then got in and checked my e-mail and a friend I loaned money too awhile ago paid me back $200, so I’m ahead for the day.
The first new car I bought on my own I was a dealer’s dream: no negotiations, took their first offer, financed through them–I did get better as time went on, but still never felt in charge of the process.
Until I took the job overseas (99-03) and put enough money back that I could buy with cash, no financing. That along with all the information on-line has made it relatively easy the last three purchases ('03. '10, and '17) and I have a special ‘car’ account to fill up for the '24 or '25 models (whatever they will be like).
boofae, hope Mum (and the weather) improve.
sari, so like you live in ‘interesting times’. Hope the gas isn’t off to long.
stickybuns, most of the places here in N/ Ali-bama are pretty nice, but some of the ones when I was younger were much higher-pressure and I’ve never been a very good negotiator.
FCM, one of my regrets (among many) of never marrying is that I suspect women are much better at the car negotiation business than men are.
Sari, after your son get’s his license, you won’t have to worry about getting a new vehicle–you won’t have any money left after paying for the insurance!
I do remember when I bought the truck, and I think I told y’all this.
The kept trying to sell me extended warranties. I kept saying no, they tried other tactics, I kept saying no. They said but what if this breaks, or that breaks, it will cost this much to fix it. I said if you are expecting all this stuff to go wrong, then maybe I need to buy a different brand of car.
Shut them up.
MetalMouse, I like boring, boring is good.
I have to go to the doctor later this week. That is enough excitement for one week.
I keep putting off writing out the cards because I never know what to say.
This is probably very true.
Until he gets a job and can pay his own insurance.
Which, if I know him, he will say it’s not worth it and use uber.
I’m not buying a new car but I feel like I am after getting a repair estimate just now. Car is in the shop and it was only supposed to be getting an alignment but after the frazzlegrommets and veeblefetzers are replaced in the front end and hinglefoozles replaced at the back end it’s going to cost me a thousand bucks. :mad:
Happy Naked Day.
This is why my daughter is replacing hers - just the stuff they were sure about was going to run $1600. And they felt like her transmission was living on borrowed time. It’s a 2009, so definitely not worth sinking any money into. And we do trust our mechanic - he’s never steered us wrong in over a dozen years.
Ugh, car shopping…
Gonna have to go buy another car soon, as the ‘quirks’ of my current vehicle are starting to build up to the critical level, and living here without one would require considerable restriction of my lifestyle. I’ll be getting a dodgy old beater again, as that’s all I can afford. I have basically no clue about cars; I tend to get them from private sellers, 'cos at least I have a chance of evaluating the dodginess of the seller, if I don’t have a clue about the car.
Metal Mouse, in my experience, wimminfolk have to get good at negotiating car stuff 'cos so many dealers and mechanics attempt to rip us off. I tend to try drag a male friend with more clue along with me, which noticeably cuts down on the crap.
Oh, and Boofae, I’m sure your next one won’t be red. Cars appear to be available in white, silver and white now. I miss my old turquoise one; I could actually find it…
DST screwed up my irk schedule. Everything is an hour later. I am supposed to work 7 to 11, but my schedule got changed to 8 to noon.
I’ll deal with it.
This time change has not messed with me too much yet. I guess because I like this time better.
It’s a pain for me, I wanted off at 11 because I have things to do. And I hope it isn’t going to count against me that I was logged out for a few minutes, probably not, management isn’t that anal. Now I don’t know if I should change my schedule back, or if it will fix itself.
That’s how they celebrate Commonwealth Day? Who’da thunk it! 
We missed one timer the OW uses so she has light on the first floor coming downstairs in the AM. Other than that we look to be good and adjusted.
Back in my mechanic days -------- my fallbacks were muffler bearings and k’nooter pins. Either one basically meant my rent was due. 