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Cars, cars, cars, cars.
We went car shopping today, with a pretty firm list of what we wanted. It boiled down to either a particular Jetta, or a Toyota Corolla. VW got the first chance at us, because they were a half mile closer.
And they blew it. Bigtime. This is Herzog-Meier and they will not get my business again, I don't think. Nor do I recommend giving them yours. The salesguy who helped us was very pleasant to talk to, very helpful, but they didn't have anything that met our needs and was in our budget. They were having a stock reduction sale, though, and he said he'd try to work us a deal.
So he heads back to do that, and we know that it may not happen. In fact, I think the salesguy was a lot more optimistic about this than I was. But the next thing I know, after a few back and forths, we have a (the?) sales manager talking to us.
This man is slime on two feet. Extremely pushy slime. First he explained why he couldn't give it to us affordably, and I shrugged and said that was fine, but I didn't think we could work out a deal in that case, thank you for your time. Would he let it go at that? Oh, no. No, no, no. He had to go into detail about why the car should cost so much and how much everyone wants them (if everyone wants them that much, how come you have at least two overpriced specimens on your used-car lot, plus at least one new one?). Then he started talking about how they keep a high resale value.
If I want an investment I will find one. I want a car to drive, not for high resale value. I'm glad it has the traits that lead to high resale value, in some cases, but that. Is. It.
At this point they hauled out the other used one, an older one, and this guy all the while is trying to explain how great it is (at still way more than we wanted to pay) and it has leather seats (this is before the car is brought around, our original salesguy is doing that as we walk out). I balk immediately. I don't like leather seats. I state this and he basically tells me I should like them, and goes on and on about it.
We left. I felt bad, being so rude, because our first salesguy was there and he was okay. But the dealership shouldn't let the sales-slime-manager near customers. The man sucks, and he's rude and annoying, and he ought to be fired, or at the very least restricted to a back office and only let out when it's dark and the customers are gone.
I'm sorry I was that polite, really. The correct thing would have been to state my feelings within 10 seconds of his arrival at the table where we were discussing the first car. However, I didn't find the words until I'd calmed down - well after we'd left. Those words would be, "Sir, do you want your dealership to have any chance of selling us a car? If so, go away. Get up and leave us alone. Because if you don't leave, we will."
Which is what happened, anyway. I could have shortened the torture of dealing with him, though. I'd say I could have made a point, but he wasn't listening, only talking. Only the salesguy might have gotten it.
We then went on to Beaverton Toyota, where they were very happy to show us what we wanted to see, listened (and responded) to what we said we wanted, and steered us into a used '03 Corolla (a year's use and only 16,000 miles on it). It's tan, with tan interior (or beige or whatever they're calling it). Not the prettiest car ever (that goes to the Echo that was sitting next to it...) but fairly attractive, quite driveable, and has enough space for hauling stuff around when we want to.
We'd thought of getting a wagon or a truck to haul stuff, but ended up not fond of the truck idea (and Toyota didn't have any wagons, though the sales-slime's place did). However, unlike our last couple cars, we can fold the back seats down in this, and carry larger stuff like that.
I'm pretty darned pleased. I like me my car. We spent $8k less than what the VW place wanted to charge us (okay, $6k less if we'd settled for the older car with the annoying leather seats) and got about the same car (the dash is even similar in some ways). It's true this has less options, but some I don't care about and one I'm actively glad of.
No power locks - mildly annoying, not bad. No power windows - HALLELUJAH. I have come to hate power windows, mostly because of gas stations. Either roll it down and leave it down 'til you leave (since you would have to turn the car on to roll it up) or get out of your car to hand over your credit card. Nothankyou. It does have A/C. And a CD player, which we weren't looking for, but it sort of wandered into the picture, so....
We did manage one mistake, we realized. We left the garage-door opener in the old car when cleaning it out! We haven't handed the title over yet, so Scott is going to try to get access to it to get that back out.... If not, we'll live, but I feel rather dumb about that. Neither of us remembered it. Oopsy.
And they blew it. Bigtime. This is Herzog-Meier and they will not get my business again, I don't think. Nor do I recommend giving them yours. The salesguy who helped us was very pleasant to talk to, very helpful, but they didn't have anything that met our needs and was in our budget. They were having a stock reduction sale, though, and he said he'd try to work us a deal.
So he heads back to do that, and we know that it may not happen. In fact, I think the salesguy was a lot more optimistic about this than I was. But the next thing I know, after a few back and forths, we have a (the?) sales manager talking to us.
This man is slime on two feet. Extremely pushy slime. First he explained why he couldn't give it to us affordably, and I shrugged and said that was fine, but I didn't think we could work out a deal in that case, thank you for your time. Would he let it go at that? Oh, no. No, no, no. He had to go into detail about why the car should cost so much and how much everyone wants them (if everyone wants them that much, how come you have at least two overpriced specimens on your used-car lot, plus at least one new one?). Then he started talking about how they keep a high resale value.
If I want an investment I will find one. I want a car to drive, not for high resale value. I'm glad it has the traits that lead to high resale value, in some cases, but that. Is. It.
At this point they hauled out the other used one, an older one, and this guy all the while is trying to explain how great it is (at still way more than we wanted to pay) and it has leather seats (this is before the car is brought around, our original salesguy is doing that as we walk out). I balk immediately. I don't like leather seats. I state this and he basically tells me I should like them, and goes on and on about it.
We left. I felt bad, being so rude, because our first salesguy was there and he was okay. But the dealership shouldn't let the sales-slime-manager near customers. The man sucks, and he's rude and annoying, and he ought to be fired, or at the very least restricted to a back office and only let out when it's dark and the customers are gone.
I'm sorry I was that polite, really. The correct thing would have been to state my feelings within 10 seconds of his arrival at the table where we were discussing the first car. However, I didn't find the words until I'd calmed down - well after we'd left. Those words would be, "Sir, do you want your dealership to have any chance of selling us a car? If so, go away. Get up and leave us alone. Because if you don't leave, we will."
Which is what happened, anyway. I could have shortened the torture of dealing with him, though. I'd say I could have made a point, but he wasn't listening, only talking. Only the salesguy might have gotten it.
We then went on to Beaverton Toyota, where they were very happy to show us what we wanted to see, listened (and responded) to what we said we wanted, and steered us into a used '03 Corolla (a year's use and only 16,000 miles on it). It's tan, with tan interior (or beige or whatever they're calling it). Not the prettiest car ever (that goes to the Echo that was sitting next to it...) but fairly attractive, quite driveable, and has enough space for hauling stuff around when we want to.
We'd thought of getting a wagon or a truck to haul stuff, but ended up not fond of the truck idea (and Toyota didn't have any wagons, though the sales-slime's place did). However, unlike our last couple cars, we can fold the back seats down in this, and carry larger stuff like that.
I'm pretty darned pleased. I like me my car. We spent $8k less than what the VW place wanted to charge us (okay, $6k less if we'd settled for the older car with the annoying leather seats) and got about the same car (the dash is even similar in some ways). It's true this has less options, but some I don't care about and one I'm actively glad of.
No power locks - mildly annoying, not bad. No power windows - HALLELUJAH. I have come to hate power windows, mostly because of gas stations. Either roll it down and leave it down 'til you leave (since you would have to turn the car on to roll it up) or get out of your car to hand over your credit card. Nothankyou. It does have A/C. And a CD player, which we weren't looking for, but it sort of wandered into the picture, so....
We did manage one mistake, we realized. We left the garage-door opener in the old car when cleaning it out! We haven't handed the title over yet, so Scott is going to try to get access to it to get that back out.... If not, we'll live, but I feel rather dumb about that. Neither of us remembered it. Oopsy.
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I'm being mocked by my folks because we saw an Honda Element today (none of us had seen one before), and I loved it! they think it looks ugly. I LIKE it.
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http://www.hondacars.com/models/model_overview.asp?ModelName=Element&bhcp=1&BrowserDetected=True
I want the 4WD EX in Galapagos Green!
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At any rate, thank you - now I have seen it. I don't really like it, but I'm glad you do. (I don't like anything in that class of cars, so... *g*)
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Have you thought about sending an extract of your posting to Herzog-Meier?
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Re:
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