Car buying is the most irritating, frustrating, time wasting experience ever invented by man. Salespeople are the most frustrating, irritating, dismissive people that the general public is forced to interact with. I’ve had the car for a few days now and I am still mentally exhausted.
I really did try to keep an open mind going into this; most of the deal was supposed to have already been worked out over the many phone calls that took place with our original salesperson, it was supposed to be pretty much ‘sewn up’ with picking the actual car and signatures being the only detail to be worked out. I did my homework, I knew what I wanted/needed financially speaking, and I was not moving an inch.
When we arrived there was an eager predator holding the door open and asking “How can I help you?” I told him who we had been dealing with over the phone; this person was not at work yet so we were stuck with this particular vulture for a while. I should have just waited but was assured this salesman could get our paperwork that the original salesman had worked up already.
It’s almost as if dealers make their salespeople take a reverse lie detector test at the interview to make sure they can properly screw people while appearing to be as friendly as possible to their victims. I was not fooled (I am naturally cynical) and insisted that Si call the original person and leave a message of “urgent help sorely needed” just in case he was already there and this new guy was stealing his sell, or for when he did arrive at work so that hopefully he would be quick to hurry over and make this sell.
The vulture that grabbed us at the door refused to listen to anything that we told him. He kept trying to make us raise our financial limit, brought car after car that he was told from minute one that we could not afford or were not interested in, making us sit in them and drive them. If it were not for Si going along with this asshole I would have walked away and directly asked to see someone else that would actually listen to me. I think Si was having fun with all the test drives; I was obviously not amused.
Sometime well after noon our original salesman finally calls; he had just arrived, apparently working the evening shift. Less than five minutes later he arrived to save us from the vulture trying to steal his sell.
What was really funny is that when I saw our original salesman in the flesh, I realized that I knew him from somewhere. It took a few minutes to figure it out but then I remembered that he used to date my sister way back in the day. I think we were still teens back then, things get fuzzy after so many years, but we were definitely still just babies in the dating world.
I asked him if he remembered her and at first he thought that he did but said that he wasn’t sure. Even if he wasn’t sure, I was; I remember the name, his profession, and his face. He was totally not her type back then; he had to be the most disgusting guy she ever considered, I remember that every time I saw him back then he had on a dirty, holey t-shirt.
When I asked her what she was doing with this guy she would say “You have to see him in his suit”. She had met him at his job while she test drove new cars, one of her favorite things to do back then. Seeing him again now I still thought he was gross, maybe because he still wasn’t wearing a suit! lol At least he seemed cleaner these days. Anyway, I just thought it was funny to have had him sell me a car; ah… memories.
It was a much better and smoother experience after he arrived; he already had a few cars for us in mind that thankfully met all of our demands and was within all of our limitations, this took less than an hour and we were then sent to the financial office to close things up which took more than an hour.
I did read over everything that I put my signature on; the finance guy was very nice, he explained everything clearly and confirmed every deal in writing. I think it was a fair deal, but we were told we had to come back the next day for more paperwork that couldn’t be finished that day.
I cannot say that I was happy overall. The first salesman was evasive and dismissive, it took way too long to get down to business and complete paperwork, and the fact that I am adding to my monthly expenses is not something I am happy about, it is not something to be celebrated and something I had been fighting against for years now.
I am grateful to be on wheels again though. Even though it is cheaper than owning a vehicle, public transportation in this city sucks a big one. I can’t deal with the unreliability of public transportation here; it takes forever to get anywhere even if you call a cab, sometimes the cab shows up quickly, sometimes takes more than an hour; it’s impossible to plan anything or show up on time anywhere.
Anyway, goodbye to my wonderful Red; she will always be remembered…
Hello to the new girl…
She doesn’t have a name yet because she hasn’t earned one yet… I’ll let ya know.
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