I’ve been driving a ’13 Acura TL for about 8 years. I leased it to start and then did a 60 month finance. I owned it for about 6 months without having to make any car payments. I took it in and it needed new brakes. Decision time. I could replace the brakes and ride it for a few more years, or trade it in and get a new car. I made an appointment with the dealership 2 Saturday’s ago and was ready to wheel and deal.
I get there and am greeted by Omar. He takes my car keys to inspect my current car and make sure I can’t run out, and sits me down at a table. These dealerships must be told to make the customer wait a while to help them calm down as I sat there for 10 minutes purposely sitting perfectly still not looking at my phone. He comes back and says we can check out the lot.
He brings me to a row of about 8 sedans in various colors, mostly ’19 and ’20 models. I told him I didn’t necessarily care if it was a brand new car. My old impression used to be you can get any car and color you want, but this is only half true as they want you to drive off with a car on their lot. So he’s showing me a few cars and I don’t want a white car so I nix 3 of the 5. The 4th is an ugly red which I decline and we come to a ’20 TSX with 2k miles previously used as a loaner. It’s retail was 28k which was about 6k cheaper than other TSX’s because it was a V4. Was a V6 worth 6k to me? Not really. I’m not drag racing.
So we go test it in their lot and it handles fine. He’s showing me some moronic feature where you don’t have to put your foot on the brake and how the car steers for you. I was not impressed. So we return the car and he comes back with a monthly fee using a 3.5% APR. I say, “why are you using this APR, run my credit.” He comes back with a .99% rate. Now we’re talking.
Then I ran his numbers using the 28k asking price, 5k for my old car trade in, 4k down payment, and the taxes…and our numbers were not matching up. I was coming up with a price of around $360 a month and his was $380. I told him his calculator was broken and the one on cars.com wouldn’t lie like his. We sat there for about 10 minutes with me saying why isn’t it this price and he kept defending his number. The difference was my misunderstanding as he added in an option called a Low Jack which I didn’t even know what it was. We settled on his number because i’m a pussy and now I have some $800 piece of shit that finds my car when someone steals it. How about for that money it actually prevents them from stealing it?
So now I have a new vehicle and am getting used to not having to take my key out of my pocket to use the car. I also know it’s going to get dinged up in the city so who even cares if it’s kept pristine? They also didn’t get my PA tags yet so I’ve been accumulating parking tickets by these asshole PPA who KNOW that I have the 30 day temporary permit. Total bullshit. I like the car though and the experience was moderately painless. I could have argued more against the dealership form fees but I’m not as good as CK4. C’est la vie.