Drove an hour back to the Acura dealership to try out the automatic 160hp cheapie model. First off, it was the most hideous shade of bright blue I have ever seen. Yuck. The car itself was lackluster, and reminded me too much of the Toyota I am looking to unload.
Mr. I’m Just Here to Support You, Right? showed up and I explained the base model wasn’t good enough. Also, it was a 2006. I thought it was going to be a 2005 left over from another dealership. No negotiating leverage there. So I ask about the orange one in the window, the one I really wanted all along. It now has a ‘sold’ hangtag dangling from the mirror.
A) they put it there because I tipped my hand the last time I was in and had admitted I liked the orange one, and nothing creates interest like perceived unavailability, or
B) it was actually sold
I asked Skippy to find out if they could locate another orange one. (Now on the net I had read of dealers that were too lazy to import the car a buyer wanted and figured they’d just take what was on the lot. The buyer drove six hours to get the car and felt it was worth it.)
He came back and said they could sell me the orange one; the buyer had failed to materialize.
A) they were calling my bluff, or
B) they knew there were five other orange ones in the area and should I buy one, they could have another sent in overnight
I took another test drive of the RSX S-Type and did like it better than the automatic. It’s far from perfect, but I really need to give up on the ‘perfect’ concept here, or I’ll be selling cocaine with John DeLorian to finance my own marques soon.
Unfortunately the last time I drove the WRX was like last October so that test drive was not fresh in my mind for comparison, but I really need to make a decision here. Car was sticker priced at $24K and change, and Skippy ran off to get an estimate of trade in value for my car.
I insisted on having my car keys back before negotiations began. He asked if I just wanted to know what my car was worth. No, I assured him, I want to know how much the RSX will cost. They offered the same insultingly low price as Subaru (they must have the same Big Book of Dealer Rip-offs to Consult – brought to you by the same folks who do college text-book buybacks).
He came a whopping $975 off of list price and had some outrageous add-ons – like $495 for floor mats and mud flaps. Give me a break. Here’s where my version and Mr. Right Like I Remember It’s diverge.
He says Skippy was willing to come down about $1600. I say Skippy made no promises, wrote nothing down, and said things like ‘maybe’ and ‘perhaps’. His figures varied widely. He never once said I can give you $ more for your trade, or anything like that. He wanted to argue they didn’t have that much profit in the car, etc. I shut him down.
(Don’t waste my time, I think. Your numbers are imaginary. I’m not that dumb. Also, it’s the end of the month, this is a 2005 car and I see you are getting the 2006’s in. There’s way more you could do.)
So we end up sitting in silence for five minutes. The one who breaks the silence loses, so I don’t know what to do next. Mr. Right helps out by saying he thinks they could do $1500 better. (I think they could do $2K better). No, I say, they could do way better. I offer him $4K less than his asking price. He says no, he can’t do it. Ok, I say, and we leave.
Mr. Right says he thought I didn’t want the car. I say I did, I just thought that if I made a real low offer we would dicker back and forth and meet in the middle, $2K less. He says I didn’t give Skippy a chance to negotiate, I made it impossible. I say I never felt that, I felt he let me walk away. At any rate, it was a great moment in poor communication skills. Nothing like an impatient negotiator meeting up with a crappy sales person. I wasn’t listening; he wasn’t trying to find out my true demands. Oh well, win some, lose some.
Bet Skippy calls tomorrow.
