so i recently bought a new car... YAY!!! and
@1sh0t1b33r has been pestering me to do a write up of my car buying experience. frankly, i think he just missed my potty mouth.
so without boring you with the, uh, boring details... i'll jump to the two things you really want to hear: the new car is a RAV4 and FUCK!
i honestly have no idea how anyone deals with car salesmen on any kind of regular basis. after the experiences i've had with buying my old car (the mustang) and this new one, i'm surprised there aren't more mass shooting sprees at car dealerships. car salesmen (and saleswomen) are just sleazy motherfuckers. ugggh.
so i had some very specific requirements for buying this new car: fits the bikes in the back if we need them to, gas mileage, cost. i was able to eliminate quite a few cars just with those 3 requirements alone... and that left me with the choice of a RAV 4 or a CR-V. well, you know how that ends. i did all my research and checked all the little facts and all the comparisons first. then i moved on to actually checking out the vehicles in person... which also meant whipping out a measuring tape and seeing if the cargo space could actually accommodate the bikes. this meant i had to deal with actual car salesmen. :/
now... i won't mention any specific names or dealerships, but i'm sure you guys can figure it out. i live in morristown and right down the street from me are a few dealerships... one of which might be a toyota dealership. the first time we went in was purely to LOOK at the cars. we walked in, checked out the one on the floor which was a hybrid and noticed that the seats didn't fold flat very well. i told a salesman that i'd like to look at another RAV 4 to see the backseats. he proceeded to walk to the hybrid and say "see. they fold flat." "that's not flat." and i walked out.
a number of friends who have RAV4s said to go back and check it out again because their back seats do fold flat. so i said fuck it... we'll go back to the dealership down the street instead of driving all over NJ and we'll see what happens. we get a different sales(wo)man this time and she offers to show us another model and let's us play with the car and test drive it and all that. she also mentions that the hybrid model seats don't fold flat because of the batteries. good. at least one person knows the fucking product here.
after the test drive and all that, we go back inside and talk to her about the car and my wants and needs. i mention i'm still looking and that i'll probably be trading in the mustang and blah blah blah. "what can we do to get you to buy the car today?" Me: "nothing. i am not buying today"
the financing manager who is also with us does his sleazy salesman bullshit speech some more and i tell him flat out: i'm not buying today. and, frankly, based on my experience with buying the mustang, i've crossed off dealerships from my list because of the way they treated me. (he raises an eyebrow and i continue) for one, people talked to my father rather than me... and i'm the one paying for this so you have to deal with me.
there's some more back and forth shit and we eventually leave.
then i get the emails. and text messages. and phone calls. in the period of about an hour (while i'm in church for my nephew's communion!) i get a total of 3 text messages, a phone call and two emails. fuckers. i block the texts, delete the phone message and email them back and say "look. the car will sell itself. and this aggressive sales pitch doesn't work with me"
they back off and i don't hear from them for a while.
so after looking at other cars and talking to a halfway decent toyota salesperson at a different dealership after the nassau group ride, i made my decision. i found my car on the inventory list on toyota's site but i couldn't find the actual dealership it was at... which means it's probably like 100 plus miles away. fuck.
so memorial day we decide to take the plunge and actually start talking to salespeople about numbers and trading in the mustang and all that shit. we figured we would hit up the dealership down the street and see what numbers they give us. at the very least, we'll be prepared to talk to the other dealership (from after the nassau ride).
we go in to the place down the street and they're very happy to see us (of course). i tell her exactly what i want and how i'm paying for it. let's talk numbers. they do a search and say they can't find my exact model. ok. so maybe the car sold already. i go look at what they brought out for me instead. it has several features which i specifically don't want and its starting cost is $5k more than the other one. the only thing they got right was the color. we go inside and start talking. they try to find me another car. in the meantime, i had handed over the key to the mustang to have them look at it for trade in value during this whole thing. she starts giving me some bullshit math crap about leasing and financing and how they'll give me $7k for the mustang and they'll put $5k towards the new car and give me $2k in cash and then i can have payments for 5 years and pay $16k at the end of the lease if i like it and want to buy it. WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF MATH IS THIS SHIT?!
i say i need to think about it and ask for my key back. they throw more numbers at me and tell me they'll give me more for the mustang... i ask for my key back again. and again. and again. YES. I ASKED FOR MY FUCKING KEY BACK 4 TIMES. THEY WERE HOLDING ME FUCKING HOSTAGE AT THE SHIT-TASTIC DEALERSHIP!
we somehow manage to get the fuck out of there... and we're in my car... i hated the way i felt like i was being held there but i told steve that maybe my car wasn't available any more. maybe that other car was the closest i was going to get. he told me to think about it and we'll go back to the other dealership and talk to the so-so sales guy and see what he says.
on the way there, steve finds a dealership in flemington. it looks like they have my exact car just in a different color. i say ok. we'll check it out. i'd prefer a different color but that's not the most important part of this decision. we go to flemington and meet a new sales person.... Brian (yes... i'll say his name here). he starts with asking what he can do for us:
i want this RAV4 but not X, Y or Z and i'd prefer this color and... (he stops me)... "you said wanted A, let's find you A (he finds it at another dealership)... and how do you want to pay for it?" i tell him trade in plus rebate plus $.
ok then.
we go look at the mustang and i hand the key off to him. he says he's going to run some numbers and will be back with us shortly.
he comes back, hands me my key and tells me we can do $$ for the car and the trade in and all that shit.
i say SOLD! give him a deposit and we wind up picking up the car the following wednesday. (it's PERFECT! i love it!!)
and then i get another email from you know who. i politely tell him i'm taking my business elsewhere.
and then i get another email from you know who and she wants to know if we changed our minds about the car.
those fuckers just don't get it. i'm still expecting to hear from them again. maybe next time i should just email them a pic of my new car.
postscript:
@StayHydrated was messaging steve mentioning he went to look at cars and saw you know who. i think the gist of their conversation was "OH HELLZ NO! HAHAHAHA"
