Saturday, September 24, 2005
I HATE buying cars!
Exercise: None - too busy with other crap
Today was the day I had planned to go into the local Mitsubishi dealer and order a nice pretty blue loaded 2006 6 speed Eclipse GT. I should have known when a thunderstorm woke me out of a dead sleep this morning, things weren't going to go smoothly.
Chi and I arrived at the dealership a little before 1pm. The minute we drove up, I could see one of the guys in there eyeing us like we were his prey. I had to laugh to myself when he walked out to us and I told him that we were there to see a particular person and his face just kind of dropped because he knew he wouldn't be making any money off us. As we were walking up to the door, the woman we were there to meet came out to greet us.
When we walked in, the first thing she asked me was whether or not I sold my car. She's been on me about the damn thing from day one and I knew the minute I had talked to her on the phone and she was willing to offer me what I was asking from interested buyers sight unseen something was up. Sure enough when I told her that I would be selling it (My boss at work decided to buy it for her kid after she had a mechanic look over it and he told her it was a pretty solid little car.), I could tell she was sorta disappointed. We walked across the showroom with her to her cubicle and things just went downhill from there. First she asked us if we wanted something to drink. I had water, Chi had coffee. It seemed to take her longer than I would have thought to fetch the items and then when she came back, she had these cups that were probably 4oz at best apologizing saying they were the biggest ones she could find. She then sat down and proceeded to print a sheet out (the four square sheet - any of you who have negotiated a car with a dealer before will know what I'm talking about). Once she went and got it off the printer, she came back and started filling the form out. One of the first things she wrote down was the quoted price of the car. When she mentioned it, I said that it was too high. She asked me what I wanted to pay and I quoted a price that was $400 under published invoice (keep in mind published invoice is actually 3% over (in this case) what was actually paid for the car) which I knew was really low but when dealing for a car, it's always better to start extremely low and work up if you want to get the best deal. She tells me there is no way that is going to happen (no surprise there) and starts in with the blah blah about not being able to come down much because they already offer such a good price. Well, I had a little trick up my sleeve. I had emailed a few other Mitsu dealers that were within a reasonable driving distance (200 miles or less) and gotten a response back from one that I was completely impressed with. Not only was the quote (which was basically a non negotiable price) $1800 less than the dealer here ($100 under published invoice), the guy who responded also told me that the deposit to order one would be half what they wanted here and if for any reason the car came in and I didn't want it or didn't like it, I could renege on the deal and all my money would be refunded. I told the woman I was dealing with about this and she starts in with the usual "salesperson spcheal" pretty much telling me that I'm off my rocker. That's when I pulled out the printed email and showed it to her. I could tell by the look on her face that she knew she was in trouble. She then offered to take the email into her manager and get the lowest possible price they would sell the car at. As usual, she took a long time. When she comes back, she tells me the best they can do is sell it to me for $500 over invoice and the invoice price she was giving was nearly $1000 over what is actually published and even that allows for about $800 profit. I told her that it was time for us to leave. That's when she started in with the "Oh you know this price doesn't include the $600 destination fee and there are other hidden charges blah blah blah blah blah blah blah". I said, "Oh, but it does include it. If you look farther down on the email you can see where I asked about any "hidden" charges and when I got the response, the guy said the only extra on top of the quote would be the usual tax, title, and license fee." She kept on trying to tell me there was something wrong about it because there was no way anyone could sell the car for that price and that she was sorry they couldn't offer me what I wanted *Rolls Eyes* I thought, "Yah, I bet you're sorry. You're the ones losing out on the purchase, not me." FOOLS!
Needless to say I came home and called the guy at the other dealership and asked him how bad he wanted to sell a car today. He told me that he'd really like to do that. LOL Unfortunately, the Mitsu system was down so he couldn't do it but he said if I called him Monday afternoon, we could get everything squared away over the phone. Oh and I asked him about the destination fee just to double check. Sure enough, it's included in the price he gave me - no funny business like the woman here was trying to imply. So anyway, Monday is the day I place my order. Wish me luck!
Actually, I talked to him about something else that really opened my eyes to just how slimey the dealer here is. Chi is thinking about getting a Mitsu Lancer Evo IX for his next car and he had asked the woman we talked to about test driving one when they hit the lots. She told us that it's policy that they don't let anyone test drive them unless they have a check in hand to buy. That was about the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I might be more likely to understand if it was a REALLY expensive car but the MSRP is under $40000. How the hell are you supposed to know if you want to buy one if you can't even get in and drive it? We were both kinda curious to see if this was actually a Mitsu policy so when I had the guy at the other dealership on the phone I asked him about it. He said they typically won't let someone who is really young (18 or 19) drive it because it attracts them but they know 99% of the time they aren't serious about buying. Basically he told me that if you are over 26 years of age with a valid license and you don't mind a sales person going with you, they are more than willing to let you take them out for a spin. According to him, in the 18 years he's been in the business there have only been two cars they wouldn't let people test drive - a Prowler and a Viper (they also sell Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep). Now these I could understand having a policy like that about.
And now for something completely different......
As I mention before Bon Jovi is coming here on November 2. Tix went on sale today. I got online the minute they went on sale to see what I could score. I had access to a presale but the tickets pulled up through that were crappy so I decided to wait until today to see what I could get.
Once again I was not amused by the events center ticketing site. For anyone who has complained about Ticket Bastard - try using this site that I had to get the BJ tix through and you will think TB is the BOMB! Anyway, I kept getting crap for tix when I finally got in and it wouldn't even secure the floor ones. Every once in awhile it would throw the more expensive tix up but they would always be lower balcony and off to the side. Sorry but I'm not paying fuckin $90 to sit in a seat like that half way back. I finally got some that were straight off to the side of the stage for the middle price range. Even though they don't seem like they would be desirable, if the concert is anything like the last one of theirs I went to, these seats should be pretty good.
Of course it gets even better....
When I got back home, TBB called me. She had been messing around on the ticket site and they had started to release the floor seats. She was extremely excited when she pulled up 16th row and decided she would buy them thinking if nothing else, she could sell one set on Ebay. As it turned out, she was almost done going through the purchase process when she got a phone call that took her attention away for a couple of minutes. This particular site only gives you 10 to make the purchase even if you have already gone to the payment screen. In the end, because of the phone call, she lost her tix. She was SO pissed off! I kept talking for a little while and got on the order site myself to see if I could help her get them back. At first I was pulling up the same garbage she was which was in the second section on the floor but then I got what we believe is the creme de la creme of seats at least when it came to ordering off this site. They were floor1 AA Row BB Seats 44 & 45. Based on the info we could get a hold of, it sounded like these were second row! If you are thinking we snagged these up, you are correct! Not going to let those little beauties slip through our fingers. LOL
Otay....I really must be off now.
Til next time.....
Knocked Off By The Fashion Diva
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