I'm bad at haggling

Yesterday I had the inspection done on the ’07 Prius. It was done by the very fine mechanics at Everybody's Auto Service, who are awesome and whom I heartily recommend (unlike the people at Bucky's Shoreline; I'm 85% sure they ripped me off last winter when fixing my Subaru's exhaust system). They found a few routine things and two big red marks on the inspection checklist, including the critical component of a Prius, the hybrid battery.

The car had been presented to me by the used car dealership as having had its hybrid battery replaced with a new one in 2021 and thus had years of life left in it. That was one of its main appeals over other cars I had been considering, and finding out it's actually either still the original battery from 2006 or just as bad as that is a deal-breaker. The car also has some suspension issues that are less critical but should be addressed sometime.

Anyway, the Everybody's guys quoted me a very good price for parts and labor, but still nearly $3,000 to remedy these problems. So I had to decide whether to keep the car or exercise my option to return it and reclaim my Subaru while I still could. But I decided to try a middle ground first and see if the seller would kick in for the repairs.

That is what happened in the end, but not before I gave myself a fair amount of unnecessary stress and anxiety.

As I said before, I have very little experience with the subspecies of humans known as car salesmen. But I know their reputation, and as much as I would like to discard any prejudicial thinking, it was there and being reinforced; I resented having been pressured into buying the car before an inspection and was irked about the misrepresentation of a new battery and was thus casting aspersions in my head on the men who sold me the car.

But I still wanted to get this whole transaction completed in a satisfactory way, so I thought about how to approach the dealer about covering repair costs. I called the dealership and left a message that the inspection wasn't satisfactory and we could negotiate further or I would negate the deal, then waited for them to respond. Meanwhile, I was arguing both sides in my head—I want this, they would counter with, well, that isn't really our responsibility; I'd say, you would have to do these repairs if I returned the car anyway, and you do want my Subaru, right? They'd say, well, we'll cover the suspension repair, the rest is usual expectations; I'd insist the hybrid battery is critical and they promised it was new, they'd say it wasn't us that promised anything of the kind, the notation of battery replacement was from before we took possession. This went on and on in my head.

I reached a conclusion—totally one-sided, mind you, with no input whatsoever from the dealer—that I could probably get them to pay for parts and beyond that would involve a tense back-and-forth that would ultimately depend on how badly they wanted the Subaru.

They didn't get back to me until around noon today, so my subconscious continued to plague me as I slept. I had dreams about telling off car dealers, about having to steal back the Subaru because they wouldn't honor their opt-out guarantee, about an endless feud of pettiness between me and the city of Monroe, where the dealership is. This was my state of mind when I heard back from them.

The actual conversation with the dealership went like this:

Me: "The inspection turned up $3,000 worth of repairs, I would not have agreed to the contract had I been made aware of these issues."

Car salesman: "I understand, that's why we offered you the opt-out."

Me: "If you guys would kick in for a good percentage of the repairs, we can call the deal sealed, otherwise I'll be back to see you in an hour to reclaim my Subaru."

Salesman: "Well, what would you want from us, what do you think is fair?"

Me (somewhat indignantly): "That you pay for replacement parts, that's about half the estimate from my mechanic."

Salesman: "OK, we can do that. We'll cut you a check."

So, I learned nothing from the trade-in conversation on Friday, when I clearly had the leverage and lowballed myself asking for just $100 more than their increased offer. I still don't think they'd have agreed to pay the whole $3k, but I might have been able to get $2k out of them? Ultimately, I'll get $1,350, which is the cost of parts, exactly what I asked them for based on nothing more than my inexperienced and uninformed self-arguments.

I'm not sure if this is a failing or not, really. I mean, I realize that negotiation strategy says to start by asking for more than you think you'll get and trade figures downward until you reach unacceptable levels, but that goes against the grain for me, especially when I'm at the contextual disadvantage. So I was straightforward in asking for what I thought was the minimally fair result in both cases (trade-in and repair), intending to end it right there if it wasn't agreed to; the other party is under no obligation of any sort to tell me if my interpretation of fair was lower than theirs. So do I think of it as integrity or playing myself for a sucker?

Right now I fee like it's both.

But ultimately I have the car. It will, after repair, have cost me an amount only slightly outside the budget I'd given myself. I still have to get the repairs done, which I have a request out to Everybody's to schedule. After that I can move on. Literally, and using less than half the gasoline as before.

Tagged Cars, Money   |   Posted on August 20, 2024 at 6:03pm   |   Permalink   |     |  

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I bought a car

I bought a car yesterday. I hadn't really intended to. I mean, I fully intended to at some point before the year was out, I just wasn't planning on doing it yesterday.

I'd been half-heartedly looking at car sites online and budgeting things in my head for a while—first after spending $3,500 on repairs to my previous car in February and then with a little more seriousness when I got a warning light on my dash some weeks ago that promised more expense to come a few months down the line—but yesterday's visit to a dealership to check out a particular listing was, I expected, just going to be a test drive and some experience with car salesmen to build upon when I'm really ready to go later on.

I think it's that lack of experience with car dealers that ultimately had me signing papers, and I'm not altogether sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, I got a good deal on the car; all told, out the door including fees, taxes, and the trade-in of my prior 25-year-old jalopy, I got a 2007 Prius with 120k miles on it and a really good 1-owner service history for $8,100. The only Priuses (Prii?) I'd found in my searching that were less expensive had good reason to be so, either with damage histories or much higher mileage. I don't regret the purchase and I'm hopeful it will work out well in the long run.

But I wanted to do things in a certain order and the dealer wasn't cooperating with my more methodical approach. That makes it sound like I was dealing with hardass high-pressure sales dudes, but if so they were really good at it and knew just the right way to charm without overtly charming, if that makes sense. I knew from the time of making the appointment that I had competition, one potential buyer at that location and a few from their primary lot in North Bend, where the car would have been taken early next week if it hadn't sold yet. (Whether the car would really have gone to North Bend in a few days I don't know, I give it a 40-60 chance that was BS, but I was reasonably sure I was competing with three others of indeterminate seriousness of intention.) Also, the dealership was not conveniently located, it was a 45 minute drive from my home; this was a Friday afternoon and anyplace I could get it inspected wouldn't be available until Monday; there was no attempt to upsell or get me to finance with them; and they offered me more than expected for my trade-in.

I just don't make big decisions impulsively. I am the Processing King of Shoreline, after all, I generally have to think things through to an extent that goes beyond usefulness. So I had a bit of anxiety at the dealership. I was about to walk away when the owner of the dealership upped the trade-in offer by $200, making it that much more than what others and websites had led me to believe I would get for trade-in value. He wanted my Subaru. So I asked for another $100 on top of that and he agreed and I felt like, OK, now I have to do it. Also, damn, maybe I should have asked for $200 more.

Still, I did insist on a window in which to get it third-party inspected with a guarantee that if the inspection turned up anything misrepresented or omitted by the dealer the contract would be nullified and I'd get my Subaru back, and they gave that in writing without any hemming and hawing at all.

So in effect I got what I wanted out of my deliberative process, I just had to get there in a more anxious way. Inspection is scheduled for Monday afternoon, I have until Thursday at close of business to exercise my "opt-out," if you will.

If they hadn't pressured me to buy it on the spot, or if they hadn't agreed to my trade-in ask, I'd likely not have gotten to go back for it later and eventually bought something else that would either have cost me more money, been a bit older, and/or been in worse condition. Or maybe not, who knows. My other leading contender had been an ’04 with about the same mileage and a lesser service history and a higher price tag by about $500. Others I was looking at had been in accidents, had been rental cars, or were more than $10k, and beyond that I'd be looking at payments and I have serious debt anxiety. I'd previously made an appointment to see another one today that's listed at $10k+ and that I was hoping I could negotiate down, but I obviously cancelled that.

Despite the residual anxiety, I'm looking at this in a positive light. When I get the inspection report I'll feel better either way—good choice, or CTRL-Z on the whole thing.

For now, though, it's a little weird; I parked it in a lot when I went into a store on the way home yesterday and when I came back out I automatically started heading for the red car parked a few spaces away before realizing that I don't have a red car anymore. Nothing is where I expect it to be on the dashboard. The split-level rear window is a bit strange. It's a little disconcerting when the gas engine stops running at stoplights. The buttons on the key fob are way too sensitive and I inadvertently set off the alarm last night. It'll take a little getting used to.

It's a used car, of course, so it's got some wear on it. The worst is a crack in the plastic bumper cover (I'd guess from backing into a post in a parking garage), which I can fix myself if I want to take the time to do it (thank you, YouTube). There's a tiny bit of paint scratching and a bit of paint wear on the rear spoiler. Again, I can touch that up if I want to, a can of matching paint and one of topcoat would cost less than $40. Even if I screw up the bumper and need a replacement, I can get one for $100 and paint/install it myself.

Now I've just got to figure out the "smart key" and how to pair the car to my phone. Sometimes it's weird, living in the future.

Tagged Cars, Money   |   Posted on August 17, 2024 at 5:54pm   |   Permalink   |     |  

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