A little car shopping story ...
Last July, I bought a new Honda Civic to replace my wife's '99 Ford Escort which I was driving for my long commute to my new job. I spent months looking at new cars and went around to kick some tires. The sales pressure was unbelievable at some of these places but I understood that it was part of the process of looking and test driving.
I was looking at some of the low end Hyundais at a dealership one afternoon and the sales rep. brought over the sales manager to go through the post-sales interaction interview. I had explained to the sales rep., not unlike all of them, that I wasn't making a decision that day, that I was just looking at models available and, in this case, taking a test drive of some models.
I wasn't really impressed with the Hyundai sedan. The mileage was OK but it was white and seemed very plasticy. It was the only one they had with a stick shift. I liked the three-door coupe model, which was sportier, but they didn't have it in a stick. So, I wasn't going to buy the thing. But, the sales rep. seemed cool and I was willing to sit down and go through the motions of the interview.
So the sales manager starts prying me about what I was doing. I told him what I was doing. He said, Yeah, but you're going to buy today. I said, No, I'm leaving in a few minutes, I have another appointment. I'm sitting here because your rep. wanted me to meet you and make sure he did an OK job, which he did. Well, why won't you buy the car today? he asked. I said, I have others to look at. But, if you want to give me your best price, I will write it down and be on my way. He said, Name your price. I said, Name my price? That's not realistic. Just tell me what the best price is. He said, You name it. I said, OK, I gotta go. I thanked the sales rep. for his time and started to get up. The manager said, Wait, I'm serious. How much money am I going to have to lose to get your business today?
I was pretty shocked. Way to stand by your product buddy. Way to have some pride in your work. Are you that desperate to get rid of this car? Wow. I looked at him and said, OK, tell you what. Take my Escort and $3,000 cash and I'll take the car. That's my price. This would have meant he would have lost about $9,000. He looked at me stunned and silent.
I said, See, you weren't serious about naming my own price and I'm not serious about buying the car today. Thanks for your time. I'll scratch Hyundai off my list. I got up and walked out.
I'm sure we all have horror stories about car dealers. But I gotta tell you, the haggling crap doesn't do anyone any good. The Honda dealer went through some haggling but I was able to get a really good price for the car compared to some Honda dealers who won't budge at all on price.
