So we bought a car. Not just one car- 2 cars! All in a 24 hour period. Can I just tell you all how glad I am that it is ALL over? I was definitely convicted by God and Dan that I needed a better attitude throughout the process. I think the fact that Dan and I were sharing one car didn't help, too. We spent last week literally going to work, leaving at 6, going out to eat because we hadn't had time to go to the grocery store, heading to a car dealership, then heading home to make lunches and get ready for the next day. Then we did it all over again.
Then, at every dealership we went to there was so much pressure to buy a car that day. I don't want to hear anytime soon the following phrase again: "Let me ask you something, if we can bring the price down for you can we earn your business today?" And, I can't tell you how many times the salesman showed us a brand new car, even after we told them our budget and how we had to buy 2 cars. No we do not want to buy your Jeep Cherokee for $20,000 thank you very much. And no we don't care about the interest rate that you just lowered by .1% for us. Nonetheless, I am thankful that we are in a place financially where we can purchase two cars that will prayerfully last us the next 10 years! I really am happy that we took our time, looked at our options and did our research, because now we have two cars that we got for great deals, and that we like driving! (Dan and his Pontiac G6, and my Hyundai Tucson!) But, I figured I should share our car wisdom with the rest of you who someday may be looking for a car.
1. Everything is negotiable. My dad told me that until they say "no" they can keep going lower on the price- which we found to be true! 2. Don't be intimidated when the "manager" comes over to talk to you. This one manager asked to meet us "half way" in the price we were asking and we told him we would have to walk away if we didn't get our price. What did he say? "You're seriously going to walk away from this car over $500?" We told him we would. What did he to? He came down to our price and we got the car.
2. Be patient. Literally- be willing to walk away from ANY car. We kindly told one dealership that we appreciated how much they brought the price down, but it still wasn't in our price range so we walked. What happened? 3 hours later we got a call from that dealership. Too bad we had just bought our second car lol
3. Stay focused on the total cost. They will try to ask you what you want to pay monthly and convince you that $50 more per month isn't that bad. Stick to focusing on the bottom line.
4. Don't be pressured to spend a couple extra "thousand dollars." I know this sounds absurd, but in the heat of the moment and when you're looking at these cars that are "fully loaded," it is easy to lose sight of the goal/budget and think that a couple extra thousand won't matter (especially when you're spending so much already!)
Let's just say when we make our next car purchase, It will go MUCH smoother. And who knew that I can actually be a pretty hard nosed negotiator? Dan was surprised lol
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