Adventures in Car Buying

This is a post I'd previously left in comment form on Stephs blog. But I figured, since I'm using my old blog now, that I'd move it here. I only made a few changes, and updated a couple things, but it's mostly unchanged. Anyways here it is:

As some of you may know, I've been in the market for a good used car for the past few weeks. I did finally find one--a 2002 Chevy Prizm, which I've already nicknamed the Asian Anonymous (eh, Dennis and Jo?) bcz it's actually just a Toyota Corolla with a GM label--pretty literally. But before finally finding the perfect car (it's even Asian American like me!), I had to put up with crappy cars, creepy salesman, and even getting trapped inside a hot broken car with the windows rolled up!

It all starts with a little black Toyota Corolla that we test drove a few weeks ago. This was the first car I went to go see and would probably have bought it--that is, if the engine hadn't been shaking and the check engine light flashing . . .

When I asked the car salesman about the light, he just goes, "oh! that's normal!"

us: *skeptical look*

dealer: "come on! it's a Toyota! they last forever!"

Which as a general rule is pretty, true. However, all bets are off when the engine is shaking, wouldn't you say? And the check engine light flashing is normal? Sure buddy. If I ever decide I want a $7000 vibrator that doesn't get me off as much as it makes me fear for my life, I'll let you know.

Luckily we had another car to see that day so the 40 mile trip wasn't a total bust. This one was a Toyota Camry for sale by private seller, and man was it a nice car. We checked it out pretty thoroughly; opened and closed all the doors, got in and out, looked in the trunk and under the hood. Everything looked great! So we took it for a test drive, and all the while kept asking the guy questions. “So, has this car ever given you any problems? How often did you get the oil changed? How often did you have to get it serviced?

Said he: “oh no, no problems. It’s a good car.”

Me: “Did you ever have anything fixed or replaced?”

He: “no, just the tail lights . . .”

Andy and I: *sigh of relief*

He: “ . . . and the engine.”

Us: " . . . "

Needless to say, we never called him back. Still, we had one more dealership to visit before going back home for the day. When we arrived, there was NO ONE on the lot. But the minute we got out of the car and started walking towards the showroom, like 5 guys in dress shirts and casual slacks came pouring out the door to shake our hands. Slow day, I guess.

Luckily we had an appointment with the least threatening of them, so when I asked for him, the other 4 guys slumped back inside with their heads down. He showed us around the lot and we test drove 2 cars, neither of which were any good, and finally it was time to try and get us to buy. So in comes the "closer"--a term which refers to the guy they pass you to when they know you don't want to buy just yet. This is the super-high pressure salesguy, in this case, the manager.

So he comes up to us in his blue silk shirt and offers us his hand. And he's all, "I'm the manager, and I'm desperate to sell you this car! It's been a really slow day, so I'm ready to offer you a really great deal on this car! So this is it guys, you know, I'm dropping my pants here. Are you ready?"

Us: "uhhh . . ."

Him: "Well here goes: $8300!!! come on! Whaddya say?!"

Turns out I had written down the model name and fair market value price, and this guys "fabulous" deal was actually $300 above the car's true value. Poor salesman. Wanted to drop his pants and bend us over his knee for a spanking; we wanted him to grab his ankles.

So it was back to work. I searched out a couple more private sellers, and found one that sounded really good: it was a 2002 Corolla with only 62,000 miles for $6500. Everything was right about this car, and when the time came I made an offer to buy it, so long as I had a chance to take it to a mechanic and make sure it was in good condition.

Well, we did take it to that mechanic, and it's a damn good thing we did. Turns out the car had been in an accident; the front passenger wheel came from a junkyard, and the alignment was way off. But even worse than that was that there was NO OIL IN THE ENGINE!!! "Oh, they must've shortchanged me when i got my last oil change!" said he. "This car is a good car! It doesn't burn oil!"

I don't think he realized that burning oil wasn't the biggest problem w/ having no oil. Remember the Camry I just told you about? You know, the one where he had to replace the engine? Yeah, that's because he didn't have oil in it. Not having oil in the engine of your car can seriously damage it, taking 100k or more miles off it's life, if not completely destroying it as in the case of Camry guy.

The mechanic set us back an extra $75, but it did save us a lot of money and headaches in the long run, so it was money well spent.

After that, it was "back to the drawing board," as my dad would say. I looked up some more cars on Auto Trader.com, made some more phone calls and set up a few appointments, most of which I didn't show for. I got a couple calls from some of these dealers, and had at least 2 of them ask me if they needed to talk to my mom first (i guess i sound really young). But one call stands out from all the rest. It went a little something like this:

dealer: "Hello Jessica! You sent me an email about a 2000 Corrolla?"

me: "yes."

dealer: "well, it's still available."

me: "great! Um, I'm at lunch right now and can't write down--"

dealer: "Do you have a phone number I can reach you at?"

me: "well, I'd prefer you contacted me by email so I can get all the information--"

dealer: "Why, Jessica!!! I'm a married man!!!"

me: " . . . ?"

dealer: "I'm not going to call you for a date, we just keep it in our records in case we sell the car or find something else to your liking . . ."

me: " . . . "

Yeah, that's one of the ones i DIDN'T go see. What a creep . . .

One of the ones I did go to see (and now wish I hadn't) was on a dinky little lot next to the freeway with spare parts strewn here and there and a glorified toolshed for an office. There was probably about 20 cars max, and literally NO ONE outside on the lot. I spotted the car I was interested in and checked it out from the outside, making sure it hadn't been in an accident or anything (ha, i'd learned that lesson all too well) and it looked fine, but still no salesman.

Finally I went up to the toolshed to see if i could find him, and there he was, on the phone and totally oblivious to me or anything going on with his cars. Without getting off the phone, he handed me the key to the car and told me he'd be right out. So I go over, open the door, and get inside.

Now, as you may already know, I'm in southern California. Southern California is hot. Really really hot. If there weren't ppl here to water their plants, SoCal would all be desert. Anyways, you get the idea. It's hot. And inside the car, well, it's really really hot. All the same, I get in the car bcz i want to make sure the air conditioning starts working right away.

So, i'm in the car. I turn the key.

Nothing happens.

I turn the key again.

Still nothing. Not even a sound that says the key is in the ignition.

So, i think, what the fuck? Would this guy really show a car that doesn't even start? Let's see what happens when I close the door and then try starting it.

Bad idea.

Not only does the car not start, none of the power is working. And the windows are power windows!

I open the door to get out,but it doesn't open.

Holy crap, the handle's busted!!!

Did I mention that it's REALLY FUCKING HOT in Southern California??! Well, it's even hotter when you're trapped inside a hot car in the parking lot of a dealership while the only dealer is inside his toolshed on the phone!

I ACTUALLY HAD TO CRAWL OUT THE PASSENGER SIDE! Totally unbelievable.

Meanwhile, the guy is still in his toolshed on the phone . . . and it's not till a good 5 minutes later that the guy fiiiinally comes out, still on the phone.

says me: "um, your car won't start."

dealer: "oh, well, it must be a safety feature . . . " and he gives me a reassuring wink and proceeds to turn the headlight switch on and off, and move the blinker back and forth. "umm, just a minute."He gets out of the car and returns shortly with a battery jumper. He hooks it up and this time it starts. "Well," he says, "i don't know how I overlooked that. Well, I'd be happy to put in a new battery; cover my bases an all."

says me: "um, the door handle's broken too."

dealer: "oh. huh. that must've happened when i showed the car the last time. I've only had this car for a week . . . well I'll order that part right now . . ."

says me: "yeah, I couldn't get out."

dealer: "ohh . . . well, i'll go ahead and fix this battery. feel free to look around and let me know if you see something else you like . . ."

me: " . . . "

When I got back, I made sure to draw a very big angry face >:( on the listing I'd printed out for this car. Andy found it later and thought it was really funny. We had a good laugh.


I don't think I came across anything quite as bad as that last car, but I did show up to test drive one car that the guy had said he was in the process of fixing the headlight on--only to find that he'd also removed all the upholstery on the ceiling and the visors and rearview mirror. "I was hoping to get this all done before you got here, heh heh."

I guess the upholstery had come loose and was sagging in front, and also the car had cigarrette burns in the seats, and the screws that keep the inside of the trunk from flopping over to reveal the tail lights were missing.

dealer: "the screws probably got stolen at the auction. You know, when i buy these cars they sometimes have minor work that needs to be done . . . "

me: "are you gonna replace them?"

dealer: "well, it's no big deal . . . doesn't affect anything . . ." so in other words, no.

I test-drove the car anyways, since he promised to get all the other stuff fixed (except the stereo; it was missing pieces and thus didn't work, "but that's why i didn't advertise it as having one . . ." *sigh*, whatever buddy).

It drove ok and was really cheap, so I did consider buying it, but I decided to look at a few more cars.

I went to one more pretty typical high-pressure dealership. Turns out they'd already sold the car I came to look at, but they had me run around looking at several of their other cars for a few hrs anyway. They had me look at one that they knew was out of my price range, but I test drove it anyway, and it did seem like a nice car. Anways, they tried to sell it to me for like $10,000 and i was like, "actually, i'm looking for something closer to $7000 . . ."

They passed me between 5 different dealers, each one trying to get me to buy their stupid car, and eventually they offered it to me for an out-the-door price of $8500, at which point i said "thanks anyway, i'll think about it." and I could just feel the alarm bells going off in their heads: *don't lose the customer! don't lose the customer!*

"Well," they said, "let us show you a different car . . ." and were gonna start the process all over again, but luckily the "different" car had already been sold, and I was able to escape.


In any case, I did end up buying a car at a different dealer. He seemed pretty cool and didn't fuck around wasting my time on what we both knew were bad deals. So I felt good buying from him, and overall I'm pretty happy with my purchase, tho I did have to spend an extra $400 right off the bat for routine maintenance and get a wheel cylinder leak fixed (but luckily that was covered by the dealer) and don't get me started on insurance out here-- i mean, $900 for one measly car for 6 months?! What kinda bullshit is that?!

But that's enough of that. The best part now is all the dealerships that have still been calling me since I bought the car. Most of them were just like, "oh, well great! Good luck!" *grumble grumble*. But remember married guy? Well, he called me back and the conversation went something like this:

dealer: "Jeeeesssica! It's me from Blehgiljbajgleh (i don't remember) Toyota!"

me: "oh hi. I bought a car already."

dealer: "EEEEEEEK!!! JESSICA!!! You didn't come see me!!" *sounds hurt*

me: "sorry!" *puts hand over mouthpiece and busts up*

dealer: "well, next time you or a friend are in the market for a car, make sure you come here first."

Ahhh. Sure I will, married guy, sure i will.