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| Buying a New Car |
So I bought my first car the other day. And honestly, the actual act of buying the car is a lot less painful than the pre-buying stage when you’re researching and car-fax-ing, and pricing, and all the other “responsible” things one does before buying a car.
So - if you’re looking to buy a car, here’s the process through which I went, and hopefully, it will help.
1 – NEW OR USED?
This decision was a lot harder that it actually should have been. Living in LA, people have nice cars. There are more high-end cars here per capita than anywhere else I’ve lived. Also, since I work at a certain large company, we’ll call the place “Hell”, I get a discount on many types of new cars (Nissan, Infiniti, Mercedes, Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, and Mitsubishi). Now when I say “discount,” please don’t imagine driving out of a Mercedes dealership with a brand-new C-class in exchange for a poor-man’s version of Shirley Temple’s “On the Good Ship Lollipop” – even if I you add MC Skat Kat’s crazy tap from “Opposites Attract.” I tried it. It doesn’t work. Maybe I needed Paula there with me. But then there’s the problem of figuring-out which psychotropic drugs she’s currently on so that I can counter it with another drug just long enough for us to do the routine . . . too much work.
Ultimately, since I had set my budget to live without a car payment and didn’t feel the need to be an A-List gay (read: living beyond my means), I opted for used. Not as exciting, I know, and fraught with possible pit-falls, but no car payment. You can’t beat that.
2 – SPECIAL REQUESTS?
Do you have a certain kind of car in mind? Any particular features required?
I had originally thought of buying-back Elaine (see previous blogs if you’re confused as to who (or what) Elaine is), but my friend JV convinced me, though, to get a car that I would enjoy driving. Now it’s been a while since I enjoyed driving. I recall enjoying it growing-up and even in college. But it all changed when I moved to LA. I don’t know if it’s the traffic, the bad drivers (sorry – but can we Asians PLEASE make concerted efforts to drive better? The stereotype already exists - FIGHT IT! Signal when you’re changing lanes, and for God’s sakes, please LOOK before you do! If the speed limit is 45, please don’t go 30, and the left lane on the freeway is for FAST cars. If you’re not going to drive fast, don't even think about it. But I digress), or the sad fact that if you piss someone off they can and have been known, in LA, to just shoot you and go about their day (it happened just over the weekend). But whatever it is, my enjoyment of driving has dissipated, and I was unsure as to whether driving a car other than reliable Elaine would re-instill my joie de piloter.
Since I live in southern California, and since the weather here is generally amazing, I opted for a convertible. After a lengthy search, I settled on an older Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder or a Jeep Wrangler. I know what you’re thinking . . . “a Wrangler? Is there a gayer car?” The answer is “no, there isn’t.” In my defense, (A) Since I was a kid I’ve always wanted a Jeep. A hot neighbor in Maryland, Jeff, had one back in the 80’s, and my admiration for the boy translated to an admiration for the car, and (B) I’m gay. So there.
3 – PRICE RANGE?
This will further limit your search. Now keep this in mind: If you’ve got about $6K to spend, look for cars up to $5K. Taxes, tags, title, etcetera will bump that number ultimately up to your $6K max. Also note that I’m Filipino. Born there, and moved here. Translation: I’m cheap. And being around my fancy friends that make a lot of money doesn’t help. But when it comes to throwing down thousands of dollars on one purchase – Oh, I can stay within my budget.
So, with help from my car guru JV (having one of these is highly recommended), we went on-line to almost every used-car site in existence and looked at the cars, the costs, and the locales. JV also sent-me some articles about the cars at which I was looking so that I could be on notice about the good and bad aspects of each car (again, a friend like this is HIGHLY recommended) (AND there’s SO much more on-line than porn. Who knew?).
We then proceeded to do a car-fax check on the cars to make sure any prospective purchases were accident-free (or at least salvage free). This narrowed the field to a mere handful.
4 – GO SEE
We then set a route to visit each car over the weekend. I brought along JV as we took the trip around the LA should have taken just a few hours. Instead, it took all day. Among others, we saw a jeep that looked great from the outside but was completely stripped on the inside. We managed, though, to discover the best deal – a white wrangler with a tan interior. Not avant garde colors by any means, but it ran well, was reasonably priced, and had the right look and feel. Now when you get a jeep, you can’t keep the stock tires. My friend JB calls them training wheels. They’re just too small. I’m not saying that you have to get a crazy lift and grave-digger-style tires, but just get them bigger than stock. You'll thank me when the other jeep owners aren't laughing at you. Also, you don’t want to look like you’re driving a box on pin-wheels. That is, unless you’re a clown and expect to park in the center of a 3-ring circus with you and 20 of your closest friends piling out of it. In THAT case, please. Keep the little tires.
5 – NEGOTIATING
While I lived in Mexico City, the capital of haggling, I just never quite acquired the skill of haggling. In my mind, if the price is too high, it’s just too high. There’s no need to ask for less. And if it’s a reasonable price, why ask for less? It’s reasonable. Pay it. But apparently, that’s not how car shopping is done. This is why JV was there with me.
A key to negotiating is not falling in love. As I looked at the car, I thought of all the bad things about the car so that I wouldn’t want it immediately. It's white and tan. There's no radio. I think that's it. Another key is not looking desperate. I still had Chuck to drive if this deal fell through. I didn’t NEED the jeep.
Armed with these keys, the negotiations began. The smartest thing I did was to just shut my trap and let JV do all the talking. That seemed to be the most effective route. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), since the time I looked on-line, the dealership added a new top onto the jeep, and subsequently added another $1K to the price as well. So the new top looked great, but the new price didn’t. In fact, if it WAS listed at the current price, I wouldn’t have even found the jeep. As my search topped-out about a thousand under what he was asking. Keeping in mind that I’m not in love with the jeep and that I don’t need it right away (or so I kept telling myself), I was willing to walk away (which I did). While waiting in the car for JV, he came back and let me know that he got the guy down to about $100 over my max.
Me: So should I get it?
JV: That’s not my decision to make.
Me: If you were me, would you get it?
JV: That’s a bad question. Remember – I have 3 cars. I’ll buy any car.
Me: So should I get it?
JV: I can’t answer that for you.
Me: Do you think this is a good deal?
JV: I think it’s a good deal.
Me: So should I get it?
JV: You have to decide what you want to do.
Me: Is there any reason I shouldn’t get it?
JV: I can’t think of any.
Me: So should I get it?
JV: (exasperated) Yes. Just get it (I think he was just tired of the same question over and over).
Me: Okay.
Now. If he could have just said that at the start, we would have saved a lot of time.
6 – BUYER’S REMORSE
Any big purchase isn’t really a successful purchase without buyer’s remorse. This I immediately had, and, to some lesser degree, still have every day. I’m bringing him to my mechanic tomorrow to make sure everything’s okay (although I think he may be leaking oil).
Finally, against JV’s advice, I have named him Noah. Why? I don’t know. The license plates are NOH, and the temporary name seems to fit.
Now to customize him . . .
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Posted by osulaw2 on 2008-04-01 13:10:00 | Rating: | Views: 125
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