It Felt Right – Car Shopping Part 2

 So I got up this morning excited and ready to go. Kelly and I had gotten home late from the Folk Music Night at Mackenzie Hall (which was great by they way) and I should have probably been tired. But at 8am when the alarm when off I was already awake and thinking about where to go and what to ask.

I made myself some breakfast while Kelly ate her oatmeal and reviewed some materials I had brought from the office for her to research. The plan was coming together; this would be a great day of car shopping. Dozens of potentials to look at, several test drives, hundreds of questions. Fuel economy, crash test ratings, interest rates, incentives; numbers danced in my head like sugar plums should have last week. I suppose this is what hunters feel like, or explorers. Ok maybe not. But I was pretty excited nonetheless.

Finally, around noon (ok so we took our time a bit) we left for the first dealership. Honda was our first choice. The Honda Fit our target.

From the moment we drove up, it felt wrong. First off, the handicap parking spot in front of the dealership had a large mound of snow in it. This pissed off Kelly far more than it bothered me. She asked me if it would be silly of her to walk away right now because of it. Much as I admired her principles, I was way too excited about the hunt. In we went. Mistake. It was torture. We circled the Fit in the showroom for quite some time and finally had to go ask someone to help us. “please sir, would you like to try to sell us a car” is what it felt like. I was not impressed. When we finally were able to get a test drive, the guy informed Kelly that he would have to stop for gas first.  While they were gone I wandered around the showroom. Stale coffee, old newspapers in the waiting area, a dirty rag on the back of one of the chairs, just not the look I expected from Honda. When they came back and we tried to talk numbers, it was like pulling teeth with this guy. He was slightly hard of hearing for one thing which does not work well as I am a low talker. And for whatever reason he did not use the computer on his desk. Everything was done with pen and paper and charts he had scribbled on loose papers all over his work area, which he had to riffle through every time we asked a question. He finally left us alone for what seemed like 15 minutes so he could “get some numbers from his boss” He came back with more scribbles with a lease rate that was not very good. When I asked to compare that with purchasing, he calculated it using the interest rate of 4.9 % even though the actual rate was 4.5%.  He didn’t have 4.5% on his little paper chart you see, but “just knock off a little bit, that’s ballpark what your payment would be.” Yeah. Ok. Sure buddy.

So we shook his hand and left. Kelly was completely drained and feeling like she didn’t even want to look for a car anymore. She wanted to go home. We stopped for coffee, and I asked if we could stop by the Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge dealership to see my salesman. She didn’t really want to, but she knew how excited I was about this day and reluctantly agreed.

I knew Kevin would at least show her what it’s supposed to be like. He has a computer. And a personality. And he uses them both!! 

But when we got there, Kevin had already gone home for the day. I was a bit bummed because I am a Dodge boy. I know that Kelly is not, but with my fathers discounts (he is a Chrysler retiree) plus all the incentives, I was sure the deal would be great.

We walked out and I was thinking maybe we could head to Toyota. But Kelly looked up and saw the Volkswagen dealership right next door. “Let’s go there” she said actually sounding kind of enthused. So we simply walked over.

Wow. What a difference. A friendly guy opened the door for us. “Can I help you with anything?” he asked “We’re shopping for a car” I said, realizing it was a stupid thing to say too late to stop myself.  “Well, that’s perfect, we have lots of those!” he said with a smile. 

The rest of the experience with Volkswagen was much same as this first interaction. It was fun. Lots of fun. While Kelly went for the test drive, I did my roaming around. Impeccably clean showroom, friendly staff, and a very tight run ship. I noticed a couple walking up to a car in the lot outside. They had not been there even a minute, when I heard the manager on the PA system. “Code 30 front lot”. Within 20 seconds a salesperson was out there greeting that couple and offering them assistance.

Kelly came back from the test drive very pleased. We sat with the salesman and discussed various options. He clicked away on the computer and had all the answers and calculations on the screen in seconds. It felt right. Very right. And within an hour, Kelly was the proud owner of a brand new 2008 Volkswagen Golf.