Update: my car buying (mis)adventures <another rant>

*tranq78* · 12-08-2008, 01:08 PM

In this thread I ranted about my station wagon getting written off in a car accident: My car's a writeoff! <RANT warning>

Well we have now narrowed our search down to 4 brands of wagons/hatchbacks. There are a couple we prefer but we don't have any strong preferences.

So far my first efforts to get a couple of quotes have been complete and utter disasters.

One dealer's sales manager wanted $500 above MSRP. He didn't even bother to write up a proper quote. He just scribbled a few lines on the back of the sheet of paper I brought in, so even if I wanted to come back and to buy there is no way I can prove the handwriting or quote was actually his.

The second dealer for another brand made me wait over an hour to get a stupid quote. What an idiotic sales strategy. He was enjoying lunch and a chat with another employee when I finally walked into his office and told him (very politely) I was getting impatient. He also didn't bother to write out his quote on his company's letterhead and frankly his price wasn't very good either. My loaner car was being checked out so I had some time otherwise I would have walked out a long ago.

With North American auto sales at a disasterous 10 million units I would have thought that service levels and prices at car dealers would be a whole lot better. At this level of unit volume it's pretty much guaranteed that every automaker on the continent is going to lose money.

I'm one of those people that hates the car buying "experience" and this doesn't help. So maybe I'll go on strike like the other North American car buyers and not get anything for a year or so. In the meantime do you think I should use this car? It's great on gas and air conditioning is free (my destroyed car is in the background):

*Tom S.* · 12-08-2008, 01:34 PM

Let me preface this by saying I know absolutely nothing about Canadian laws.

Having said that, would it be possible to come to the US and buy it? They are giving the damn things away here. I don't know if the exchange rate would kill the deal, but unless you are looking at cars made in Canada, you are most likely paying that anyway. You could go online and do all the haggling before driving over.

*Mallee Boy* · 12-08-2008, 02:11 PM

Hi George,
I am surprised to hear what you are experiencing, I am with you on the thought that car dealers would be very happy to have someone in their showroom at the moment.

My latest experience with buying a car ( a few weeks ago) leads me to offer you this advice.
If you have narrowed it down to 4 options, then get the specs right and ask the dealers to fax or email you a quote.

I found a few of them absolutely hated this approach, not getting a chance to use their sales pitch crap. The best quote came from a dealer who accepted this as a matter of course and was very helpful.

Loving our Ford Escape by the way.

Merry Christmas to the family.

PS: by the look of the photo your daughter does not trust the little bloke's driving. lol

Grant

*tranq78* · 12-08-2008, 09:42 PM

Originally Posted by Tom S.

Let me preface this by saying I know absolutely nothing about Canadian laws.

Having said that, would it be possible to come to the US and buy it? They are giving the damn things away here. I don't know if the exchange rate would kill the deal, but unless you are looking at cars made in Canada, you are most likely paying that anyway. You could go online and do all the haggling before driving over.

Thanks for the idea and it is something that I am investigating.

There are 2 things that make this difficult. Firstly, the greenback is quite a big stronger, it's rallied about 20% against the Canadian loonie in the past +/- 6 months alone. Secondly, the finance rate is quite a bit higher for a U.S. purchase. In Canada finance rates are either 0% or low single digits as the auto companies will self-finance at these low rates. For a U.S. purchase I'd have to go to a bank and they will at the very least charge me high single digits.

To buy a car I would normally save up as much money beforehand as possible since I hate debt. Obviously circumstances dictate otherwise so at the very least I'll need to finance part of the purchase.

*tranq78* · 12-08-2008, 10:13 PM

Hi Grant,

I was also surprised at the aggressive tactics.

But upon reflection maybe I should keep an open mind about what happened. Perhaps I just had a string of bad luck. I know some people in the car business and every one of them is a decent and honest individual. Unfortunately none of them sell the make/models we are interested in.

Your advice is quite good. I'll definitely be using it when I buy something. I didn't mention that I don't need to buy something right away. I am borrowing a car from a family member. They don't need their car so I can borrow it for an indefinite period of time.

Merry Christmas to you, Anne & the rest of the clan as well.

**Damn Brit** · 12-08-2008, 10:26 PM

Another problem at the moment is that there are too may dealers (in the US anyway), demand for cars has dropped as both a consequence of the financial situation and reduction in demand due to the high gas prices this summer. Even if people need a car, some of them can't get credit. Other people are just changing their habits.
It doesn't excuse their behaviour (sounds like it was apathy) but some of these guys probably have given up caring and are just waiting for the chop.

*reeftool* · 12-09-2008, 09:51 AM

While demand for cars is down, certain models are selling well and you won't be able to dicker on prices much. Honda Civics and Fits are selling fast in this area. I bought a new Civic in the summer. They only had 2 in stock and were taking orders for 09's. They had no Fits. They still have a waiting list for Fits and Civics are selling fast also. I paid sticker price, couldn't get the price down at all. I did get 1.9 financing which in the end is a better deal than talking the sales guys down a few hundred on the price. The dealer I went to has a very good reputation, one of the best service and parts depts around. I stopped in on the way to work, test drove the car and and did the paperwork and was done in a half hour. Thats the way I like to buy cars! However, there is a local Chevy dealer who is selling full sized 1/2 ton pickups for 13,000. A guy I work with just bought one. Depends on what you buy I guess.

cmv · 12-09-2008, 04:06 PM

Don't you have autobytel or something similar up there? It doesn't seem like they can get as low as those that want to play hard ball but at least you'll cut out all that sitting around and waiting.

*Sailor* · 12-09-2008, 04:57 PM

Pretty surprising given how the soft the market is - at least in the US.

A lot of folks hate buying a new car, but I've never found it that traumatic. My approach is I don't talk money until I've test driven all of the candidates, until I've researched the invoice price and "give back" (not hard to learn), and until I've decided the model I prefer. Then I simply offer the dealer what I'm willing to pay, taking into account rebates etc. In the Houston area, about invoice or a little above - less any rebate - will usually do it, unless a car is in exceptional demand. Not many fit that category now - a Toyota dealer quoted in the Houston Chronicle a few days ago mentioned that during the summer, you couldn't find a Prius for love nor money, but they've got 'em on the lot now looking for buyers.

Jer