Marcie bought a new car today; a Scion X5. Its a 2006 holdover and the last of its kind, or so we were told. It seems like a nice car and it was reasonably priced. The sales guy was good; friendly, efficient, knew what he was talking about and not at all pushy. We agreed on the price, shook hands on the deal and then damn near walked out of the dealership with me raging at the stupid jerk who tried to jack the price up by pushing the hell out of what amounted to three extended warranties. One on the car itself, another on the interior and the third on the paint. I told him politely we didn’t want any of those things and he starts his “Yes, but” crap. I told him less politely we didn’t want any of those things but he still wouldn’t stop. I told him very impolitely that we didn’t want any of those things and added that it was exactly his kind of garbage that made buying a car so damned unpleasant. He still wouldn’t back off and more or less implied that the deal hinged on us buying the garbage he was pushing. It was then that we got up and started for the door with him following and still yapping until a guy who claimed to be a “manager” intervened.
Why does buying a car have to involve such endless hassles? Why won’t car people simply suggest an extra and accept a “no” as an answer? Why would anyone take one look at a gray haired old guy like me and act towards me as if I had never bought a damn car before? I hate, loathe, and despise buying cars. I hope this one today will be the last one I ever buy.
I’m buying one next week, for the first time in 18 years (my Honda rules, well, ruled). I’m trying a new technique. I found my car on the internet, it’s at a dealer. We agreed on a price and the sales man is driving it to my city (about 2 hours away).
Hopefully, we’ll drive to the bank, I’ll hand him a cashier’s check, sign some papers and he’ll go away. If he tries to up sell me a single thing, I’ll just say, that’s all my money. He won’t have the gall to get me to finance some silly warranty crap.
It’s a Honda so I don’t have any real worries about the car. Life is getting complicated with buying new car, possible promotion next week and moving to NC next week. I need a smooth 1 - 2 hour car buying transaction.
I bought a Scion xA in February, and it was the easiest purchase I’d ever made. I told him what I was looking for. The sales guy told me what he had on hand. I ended up getting one with a couple of upgrades I didn’t necessarily want because it had some that I did want, and I wasn’t willing to wait for something else to come in. He didn’t push - just told me what he had and what it’d cost. I did want cruise control, so I had to come back 2 days later.
I gave him the check from my credit union, he gave me the keys. I’ve enjoyed the car, and I’d actually recommend the sales guy and the dealership.
What’s an x5? I thought Scion only had xA, xB and tC…
I thought what you describe was going to be our experience; everything went smoothly until the upgrade/extended warranty jerk stepped in. That guy very nearly lost the sale singlehandedly. The car is an Xa; I don’t know how “a” got turned into “5”.