Shopping for a new company car...

Yesterday, we went to buy a car. The company Keith previously worked for picked up his company car on Friday. Keith starts his new job on Monday. The new company offers a car allowance rather than a company car. Keith had been doing research all month narrowing it down to a few types of cars that would be dependable and get great gas mileage. He drives a lot with his job. Our search didn't start off too well. When we'd get to a place where we had seen an ad for a car at an unbelievable price, they would tell us that we just missed it. They just sold the car right before we arrived. (Bait and switch) These salesmen were so slimy in their dealings. They all said the same kinds of things, just in different ways. When I asked if the seats in a certain car were leather or pleather, a salesman said, "Well, they look leather to me." In other words, they're not! That's like saying, "Well if you want them to be leather, then they are." It was ironic, it just so happened that every place we went that day had mis-priced the very car we were interested in. Some "gal" in the shop accidently marked it too low and they were actually losing money on it. They were planning on marking it back up the next week. But since they had it marked at that price, they would stand by it, but really couldn't come down on the price. (Really, because Keith has been doing research all month and has seen that car at that price for 3 weeks in a row!). It was beginning to get sadly funny. Keith and I finally made an offer on a Toyota Camery. The guy said, "Let me let you talk to my manager" (that would be the "closer" in car talk). The "manager", obviously worked out. He came in with a huge grin and walked straight over to Keith and felt his muscles and said, "Oh, do you work out?" Once they found out the car was for Keith, they would ignore me and begin shmoozing Keith. Yuk! Then the guy said, Look I'm losing money already on this deal, I just can't afford to lose any more. We got up and said, "Okay, this was just our first stop, we have other places to go." Then the other guy said, "Oh, come on Bob, can't we do something for these nice people?" (good cop / bad cop) Then Bob squatted down and covered his face (so theatrical) and said, "Well, I guess I can come down a hundred dollars." Keith and I got up to leave, then the other guy said, "Bob, Can't we do better than that?" Then Bob said, "Your killing me Paul, whose side are you on? Let me go crunch some numbers." Bob went to "crunch numbers", leaving Paul more time to try to make the sale. Paul said, "Keith, from one baseball player to another, I'm on your side buddy". (Of coarse he had asked Keith earlier if he had played sports in college and it just so happened that they both played baseball. What are the chances they found something in common?) I didn't know whether to clap for the performance or throw up. When Bob finally came back in, he said, "Guys, I really just can't do any better. You wouldn't miss out on a great car for just a few hundred dollars would you?" I said, "You wouldn't miss out on a great sale for just a few hundred dollars would you?" And we got up and left. (In the words of Barbie Fashion Fairy-tale Secrets, Don't mess with the dress!) Finally I just prayed for God to lead us to a place where we'd find a great deal on a great car and a salesman with integrity that was just trying to earn an honest living. We actually found one! He was so nice and so not pushy. He didn't try one sales pitch. It was so refreshing. He would just hand us the keys to the cars we wanted to drive and simply answer our questions. When we asked to see the car facts for the cars we were interested in, he showed us. Car facts show you if the car has had one or more drivers. It also tells you if they have been in any accidents... We got an amazing deal on a Nissan Altima. Keith even asked him to replace the 2 back tires with new ones and he did. As you can see, the girls got bored and began throwing rocks in the parking lot. I said, "Yikes, please don't hit a car!" Kids seem to have a way of hurrying up the paper work.