Car Buying Experience

My Wife and I recently found out that her Car needed $1500 repair job. Being more than 10 years old it makes no sense to fix it because its hardly worth the repair bill. So we decided to take the Plunge and buy a new one. I was assigned the task of going out and doing the preliminary work, so, on my only day off this week, I spent most of the day going to 3 different Dealerships around town.

I was initially apprehensive about having to deal with all the pushy Car Sales People and their high pressure tactics, but to my surprise, I came away from the experience having a brand new outlook on Car Sales Personnel and the way they ply their trade. The 3 guys I dealt with were very down to earth, and seemed genuinely willing to meet our needs and address our concerns.

Since my Wife is the one who will be driving it, we returned to the Dealership that had the Vehicle we wanted so she could test drive it, and to possibly make a decision about buying it, and that's when the hard sell began! We were instantly surrounded by 3 different Sales People who trying to push different things on us. One wanted to enter us in a draw to win a "Cash Back Rebate", another was trying to "up sell" us from the Previously owned model we were interested in to buying a new model, arguing that the payments were the same, only lasting 2 years longer, and to top it all off when we asked about the accident history on the vehicle we were looking at, we were only given the Dollar amount and not a detailed description of the damage, saying that Privacy Laws prevented them from giving us more information.

Needless to say we both came away from the whole experience feeling disappointed, and in my case a sick to my Stomach. Most of my disappointment stemmed from the fact that I fell for the whole thing, I should have known better!!

Despite the fact that my Wife's car needs the repairs it does, it can still be driven, so we can bide our time and be picky. We will take all the time we need and not be forced into buying something we don't want or we feel is inferior.

In any case it made me feel better to write about it and get it off my chest.