Today I experienced yet another version of the ultimate adversarial relationship--trying to buy a car at a car dealership. I have experienced this relationship many times in the past and have never considered it fun, easy, or even neutral. I hate it each and every time I choose to do it.
I guess part of my problem is that I detest feeling that I have been ripped off. Buying a car is an experience in which you are almost guaranteed to be ripped off at one end of the deal or the other. You will either pay too much up front for the car, get stuck with hundreds of dollars in "document fees" read: added dealer markup, get a low-ball amount for your trade in and then watch as the dealer tacks on thousands of dollars when he puts your old car out on his lot to re-sell, or you will find out after the sale that the dealer has a fat cash incentive coming his way from the manufacturer that you were not aware of at the time of the sale. GRRRRR. I am breaking out into a mild sweat just thinking about it.
My latest version of car shopping started a few months ago. I am trying to downsize from my Mommy-mobile, (minivan) to a sedan. This is a strange thing to me to start out with. I am tired of being a boat captain. My van is very large and we have an SUV already so we need one smaller car.
With all of this in mind, I had decided to try to buy a used 2008 Acura TL this time around instead of a new sedan. I had not found any new sedans that rated high enough in reliability and safety to fit my needs and I really like the looks of the 2008 TL. The TL changed in 2009 and looks like it is smiling at you from the front. The 2008 is the last model year when it was not smiling. I have been to several Acura dealers over the last few weeks. I definitely want a white TL with under 30,000 miles on it. I have seen a few. We went out of state 2 weeks ago to see one white TL. It was called "pristine" on the internet and had 17 thousand miles on it. Pristine did not come to mind during the test drive. The dog slobber on the back of the front headrests along with the torn leather on the door and the grease stain on the pillar really made me wonder what goes into a "Certified Pre Owned" inspection. Apparently cleaning and repairing is not part of that. That car was out. Then I saw one that was not white, it was dark blue. The inside was pristine but the outside had several prominent scratches on it and it was not white. Not my car.
I also need for any new car I buy not to have been a smoker's car. I have had asthma since I was a young child and any smoke, even old smoke smell bothers me. Every time I have inquired about a TL, I have asked if it were a smoker's car.
This morning, I called Bernardi Acura of Boston to ask if the White 2008 TL they had listed was a smoker's car. The salesman said he would go outside and check and call us back. He called back a few minutes later and said there was no smoke smell, it was not a smoker's car. So, off we went to Boston (50 minutes away from home). We got to the dealership and saw the car from the outside. It was perfect. It even had a spoiler on the back and a cool pinstripe. Hooooahhhhh! Let's take this baby for a spin. The salesman went to get the keys to open it and bring it around front. He brought it around, opened it up, I stuck my head in to look at the interior and guess what? I was assaulted by the smell of smoke!! The liar!! We had driven all that way to find that yes, this was a smoker's car. The salesman either thought I would not notice the smell, or care that much about the smell, or they thought maybe they could get me there and then sell me something else; the old bait and switch. They have NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE DEALING WITH!!
I hate car salesmen. I hate car salesmen. I hate car salesmen. In case you have not guessed, this is my new mantra --really just my old mantra that I have not had to use since 2005-the last time I bought a car!!
We decided, as we left Acura of Boston, to test drive a new Honda Accord, since we were making no headway with used TL's. We went to a Honda dealer on the way home. We test drove a 2011 Honda Accord EXL-V6 and I did not care for it as much as the used TL. The inside was not nice and the dash and other interior parts felt kind of cheaply made. During the test drive of the Accord, my husband got a call on his cell from an Acura Dealer that had been looking for a car for us for a couple of months. He was calling to say he had my perfect car and it had just been turned in this morning. It was a white 2008 TL with 16 thousand miles on it. We were close to where this dealership is so decided to leave Honda after the mandatory "check out with the Honda manager." This is a new development at car dealerships. Every time you even inquire about any car with a salesperson, you get this BS. They have to bring their manager over to find out if the salesperson "answered all your questions." Translated this means the manager is coming over to try to strong arm you into test driving, purchasing, giving your contact info or giving up your first born. This is a new and very annoying change that I really don't dig. If I want to leave, let me leave for heaven's sake. I don't like to wait and be manhandled if I am not interested in what you are selling.
We headed over to Prime Acura of Walpole. As we arrived, our "friend", the car salesman we had been dealing with approached us and told us, oops, this was not a 2008 white TL, it was in fact a 2007 white TL with 16 thousand miles on it. Although I was not philosophically opposed to a 2007, the body style is the same, I had not considered that there would be one with such low mileage. The price should be lower because insurance wise, if you crash and total it, a 2007 will fetch you less that a 2008 will. There is also less time left on the warranty, etc. OK, we will take a look. So we looked. It was very nice. Clean in and out, but had not been gone over yet, since it had just been traded today. We were happy enough to consider this one if the price was right.
By then it was 1:30 PM and we were starving. We told the salesman we needed to eat and we would discuss the 2007 over lunch and then be back to test drive. We ate next door and while dining, used the Blackberry to try to ascertain the Kelly Blue Book value of a 2007 TL, the Edmunds True Market Value price and what other dealers were asking for a 2007 TL with low miles. We came up with a figure that was reasonable and we were ready to deal and buy this car.
We came back from lunch with a plan: test drive the car, look at the Carfax and then make a deal for this car. We were planning to buy it as long as the price was fair for a 2007. To be fair, it had to be priced lower than all of the 2008 we had been looking at. We did take the 16k miles into account but even that level of low mileage it doesn't add more than about $1,200 to the value of the car. They had not even put this through the Certification process yet.
We offered our price and our "friend" made a funny face. He went to our other "friend" (NOT) the manager with our offer. The manager came out and told us we were way below what he had planned to ask for the car. Prime Acura had another 2007 TL on their lot and it was priced at 21,888. It had 45k miles on it. When you add the extra $1200 that Edmunds gives you for low mileage, we were in fact exactly in that ballpark. The manager informed us he planned to ask $25k or $26K because it would be Certified. When I asked what they would do to Certify this car. He replied ,"not much!!" All they would do is change the oil and fluids because of the low mileage. And they were expecting to get an extra $2,000 for the car because they slap that "Certified" tag on it. We were clearly at an impasse. Our 2 "friends" walked away for a moment.
I suggested to my husband that maybe we should try to buy it without them Certifying it. After all, he always changes the oil in our cars and we have our own mechanic if we needed to change any other fluids we couldn't do ourselves. According to Edmund's if the car was not Certified, it's True Market Value was $22,800. That is approximately what we offered them when we said we would take it without the Certification. They did not go for that either. They would sell it Uncertified but not at Edmunds True Market Value even though they had used Edmunds to show us how much it would cost with the Certification -$24,800.
It was at this point that I read between the lines. They wanted to slap the Certification on the car as an added dealer markup. They would spend MAYBE $100 on changing the fluids and would pass along a $2,000 premium for doing so!!
Certification would only extend the warranty 1 year on a car that only had 6 months left on it's original warranty. So for an extra $2,000 that was not worth it. As I mentioned that for insurance purposes if I drove it off the lot and crashed and totaled it, I would only get $17-19k for it, an asking price of $24K or $25K sounded pretty inflated for a 2007. The manager tried to tell us that if it was Certified insurance would give you more for it if you crashed it. I thought sounded wrong and kind of stupid. Certification is an intangible thing. Insurance does not CARE about that; they want to give you as little as they possibly can because they are out to screw you too!
I even called my experts in the insurance field who confirmed my suspicions that insurance companies don't offer any higher compensation for a car that was totaled and had been Certified. Another lying car salesman.
To put an end to this miserable process, we left Prime Acura after that negotiation ended. The manager told us he was sure he would sell it and quick for $24K or $25k. Meanwhile, there are several 2008 TL's out on the internet in our area that are listed for between $23 and $25. Most have mileage between 17k and 25k. But, I think there is a 50% chance I will hear from this dealer again. If the car does not sell in a few weeks, our "friends " will be barking up a different tree. This tree will be tipping a little more in our direction, however.
I loathe the idea of having to go through this again in this car buying cycle. The whole process of buying a car could be fun but instead is one of the worst forms of business dealings we humans have to endure. These are people working on commission that will tell you anything to sell you anything. There is almost no other example of purchasing that we regularly engage in (except for maybe buying a house) that is more frustrating, and aggravating. After you make your deal, they still try to get more money from you. They try to add on a bunch of crap you don't want or need....VIN etching, seal coating, extra warranties, and on and on. They put you through the wringer over and over until you cry UNCLE.
Yet, still we buy new cars every few years! Under these harsh sales circumstances it really takes 4 or 5 years to store up enough energy to go into this battle again.
I would love to be able to walk into a dealership, try out a car, like it, offer a reasonable price, get a reasonable price for my trade and walk out with a smile instead of a grimace and a headache.
If such a car salesman exists and has a non smoker's white 2008Acura TL with less than 30k miles on it and is willing to make a fast deal, please contact me! I am waiting to change my mind about your ilk!! Until then, I will continue to despise most of you and the process.
