Pink – Glitter In The Air
February 8th, 2010
From the 2010 Grammy Awards. I don’t care what you say, this was pretty awesome. I doubt that it’ll live on YouTube very long…
The New Wheels
February 6th, 2010
After the Thomas incident I figure that the easiest was to get a car is to jack one. Walk up to some hipster doofus in Yaletown and knock them over the head with a sockfull of pennies. I’ve played a lot of Grand Theft Auto; should be a piece of cake. If we were looking for a Prius or maybe a Mini, I totally would have done it…
Anyway, we had decided to shelve the car thing for a bit. The Olympics are coming and you can’t drive anywhere anyway. “If something good comes along, we’ll move on it.” That was our plan; do nothing and see what happens.
I kept browsing the various sites and wasn’t seeing much activity. The same cars, week after week but nothing new. Just a bunch of Ricky’s asking a lot of money for high mileage cars.
I did go back and forth with a (seemingly) nice guy over a 2009 Mazda 3. It was pretty much everything we were looking for except that there was no sunroof and he was on the Island. I was going to take a trip over there but when I contacted him again, ‘a buyer was arranging financing’.
I wasn’t too put out. It was more than we wanted to spend and I really wanted the sunroof. Eventually, said car with a sunroof appeared.
That was all I needed to see as I was determined to not have another one slip away. I left work at noon and got on the bus to go have a look at the car. It was nice and the sales guy didn’t seem to be greasy at all.
Leather wouldn’t be my first choice but whatever; they’re heated and that was a must to prevent interior temperature related disagreements.
A test drive was taken followed by negotiations where we negotiated with each other over the price. After some back and forth, we agreed on a price. How novel…
So the non-greasy sales guy goes to do some paperwork while I hang out in the car. He’s gone quite a while and by now I’ve played with all the buttons and sat in all the seats. My coffee empty, I get out and am admiring the car from the outside. “Sweet…”
A semi-sketchy woman who was washing the cars on the lot comes up to me:
Semi-sketchy car washer: “Is that a manual? Never driven a Mazda with a manual before”
Me: “Nope, semi-automatic. It’s a nice car to drive.”
Semi-sketchy car washer: “Hmmph. Zoom-zoom. More like 0 – 60 in 1.4 minutes”
Me: *WTF*
At this point the the non-greasy sales guy came up with an arm full of paperwork and told me that he was ready to take me into the Sales Managers office. I turned around to look for the Semi-sketchy car washer to ask her to do a good job washing the car but she had disappeared to the furthest recesses of the lot. Turns out that she was capable of 0 – 60 in something less than 1.4 minutes…
Now maybe it’s just me but if I’m washing used cars and I see a guy eyeing up a ‘76 Pinto, I’ll either say something nice about the car or steer clear of him entirely. Perhaps there’s a reason why she’s washing used cars…
Anyway, the car is awesome and we are super happy with our new purchase. We’ve had it over a week and *touch wood* it hasn’t been broken into and/or stolen. Of course I haven’t been down in a few days to check…
Buying a Car 3
January 31st, 2010
I found Thomas on Craigslist and spent four days trying to get him to meet with me so that I could look at his car. By now, I’m prepared to move if the car is right as I’ve come to realize that shopping for a car is like shopping for a new cell phone but thousands of times more painful.
Now Thomas always sounded a bit ‘off’ whenever I talked to him on the phone. I would describe him as being self-absorbed and dripping with moist sensitivity. Sort of like a new grad who thinks the work he’s doing in social networking and new media actually is changing the world.
Eventually, I managed to get Thomas and his wife came to my office so that I could take the car for a quick test drive. Not before he insists on emailing me a photo of a faint scrape on the fender “in the interests of full disclosure…” I think this odd at the time but now realize he was hoping I would find this turn of events unacceptable and bail.
I go out to meet them and watch as they circle the block twice, oblivious to my waving at them from the sidewalk. They head down the alley and Thomas hops out while she goes around the block a third time. When Thomas and I finally see each other, he shakes my hand and then runs blindly out onto Melville to direct his wife to one of the half dozen empty spots on the street.
This results in the wife missing him by inches as she doesn’t agree with his choice in parking spots and drives off to park way down the block… Without a word of exaggeration, she came within inches of driving over her husband.
They seemed unfazed by this near miss as we exchange pleasantries on the sidewalk. I slip into the driver seat and we set off down Melville as Thomas begins… “I hope you don’t think we are wasting your time.”
I think to myself that whatever Thomas is about to say, I don’t want to hear it. This idiot is about to tell me that he’s wasting my time and I haven’t driven the car 20 feet. “There is another person interested in the car and he’s arranging financing now.”
I’m not sure of how to respond so I stare straight ahead as I contemplate rear ending the cab in front of us. I decide it’s best to not to give any indication that this is the last f***ing straw and I’m at the end of my rope with him. I do allow myself to briefly fantasize about hitting him square in the face with a dried up ball of play-doh.
Regaining my composure, I realize that this could just be a ploy to get me to offer more money or maybe Thomas really is an idiot and thinks the other guy is a certainty to close. In any event, I don’t have a dried up ball of play-doh handy…
I take the first available right and spin around the block completing the worlds shortest test drive. I park the car in front of the office and look at him; “I have cash, let me know how it turns out with the other guy.” With that, I got out of the car and went back to work figuring that I’ll never hear from Thomas again.
thomas ✆ to Mark 01/08/10
Mark,
I just spoke with the other buyer and he has finalized the deal so I guess it is going to proceed with him. Thank you for your interest and again, I hope we didn’t waste your time.
cheers, thomas
Mark ✆ to thomas 01/08/10
Thomas,
Thank you for letting me know. I get that you just wanted to sell your car. I will no doubt find another car as a Mazda 3 is neither rare, nor difficult to find.
I am however, frustrated that I have spent since Sunday trying to arrange a meeting with you only to find that you were well down the road with another purchaser.
Should I ever find myself needing to define ‘wasting someone’s time’, I will recall this experience.
Mark
thomas ✆ to Mark 01/08/10 (Actual response, edited for brevity)
Mark,
My sincere apologies. …In the future, I will definitely be more forthright… …I guess I had become cynical and lost faith in people, which I will try not to do in the future. Again, that is my fault. Good luck on finding another car…
thomas
Buying a Car 2b
January 27th, 2010
After we test drove the co-workers car, we decided to go to Metrotown to look at another car. The car was at a dealer of well known Japanese cars, not some shady front for a money laundering operation. It’s mid-December so we figure they’ll be motivated to move another car this close to Christmas.
The car was a 2008 and had a few more features than the co-workers but nothing special. It was however, a few thousand dollars more expensive than some other comparables we had seen.
We arrive and begin to walk the lot before a salesman approaches us. I told him which car we were here to see and he took us over to it. The car seemed nice enough and he asked if we’d like to take it for a drive.
Me: “Yeah sure”
Greasy used car salesman: “Let me photocopy your license, we’ll go for a drive and then write it up!”
Me: “…”
We go for a drive over some of the worst roads in South Burnaby (his choice) and he guides us back to the dealership. Not wanting to give Mihwa and I anytime to talk, he drags us into his office and starts writing up the invoice. We sit there and don’t say anything; might as well see where this goes.
Said agreement is written for the asking price and includes a $590 documentation fee.
Me: “What is this documentation fee?”
Greasy used car salesman: “See? Right here…” He points helpfully at the word Documentation on the invoice.
Me: “We’re not paying you $600 to fill out a transfer form”
He ignores my protests and asks what we would like to pay.
Me: “What is your best cash price?”
Greasy used car salesman: “You give me a number and we’ll see what we can do”
Me: “I take it you don’t want to go first…”
Greasy used car salesman: “What do you think it’s worth?”
Me: “Alright. Christmas is in just over a week and you’re coming up to your month, quarter and year end. If you don’t want to negotiate, we’re going to lowball you to get this going.”
Greasy used car salesman: “OK”
We lob the lowball knowing it’s too low but feeling it’s within a realistic range to start negotiations. The greasy used car salesman goes to ‘talk to the manager’. For a few moments we actually allowed ourselves to worry that they might accept it. He returns with a counter offer $200 less than the asking price. My jaw dropped and Mihwa laughed out loud.
The greasy sales manager now shows up and says that he can’t take us seriously. I told him that I didn’t expect him to accept it but to counter with something he felt more realistic. I believe it’s called negotiation…
Me: “Dropping the price $200 is insulting.” At that point we got up and left the dealership. The greasy salesman followed us out the door, clearly not ready to see us go yet.
Greasy used car salesman: “It’s hard for him to take your offer seriously but he might drop it another $200″
Me: “Thanks but we aren’t interested in doing business with you”
Greasy used car salesman: “Here’s my card”
Within fours days, they had dropped the asking price $1000. That would have been in the ballpark…
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