Car shopping under the cover of darkness
Most would agree that research is key when shopping for a new car. You’ve got to make yourself aware of what’s out there and have things narrowed down to a few select choices before you ever reveal your thoughts to the car-selling world. I spent weeks reading consumer reviews, top ten lists and Reddit threads on at least a dozen models. I asked friends, neighbors and even total strangers about their rides and how they decided upon them.
I carefully stalked car dealer websites, purposely avoiding pop-up chat boxes and refusing always to give them my name, enter my email or, heaven forbid, reveal my phone number. Kristin and I spent more than a couple of date nights skulking around car lots under the cover of darkness lest our intentions be revealed.
While it took most of forever for us to figure out what we needed, the very last thing either of us wanted was to be discovered and approached by sales staff. We knew ourselves well enough as hopeless people pleasers that we might easily sucker to a friendly smile and flattering comments about our 20-year-old time bomb.
“Why that’s a really well cared for Honda you’re driving there,” they’d say. “You know there’s a very high demand for automobiles like yours right now, and we could offer you top dollar on a trade.”
Their top-dollar offer would ring as hollow as the faux flattery of our bruised and battered family SUV — a vehicle that had seen its best days when our salesman was still pushing Matchbox cars through his sandbox in a diaper.
Finally, after weeks of stealth shopping, the time had come to reveal ourselves to the world, and with one simple inquiry into the true value of our faded and failing car, the whole world of automobile commerce came knocking. My phone pinged constantly with pitches and offers, and my email inbox filled up like the “Letters to Santa” drop at Macy’s. For a moment, everyone was our friend and the whole world wanted to make a deal.
The key takeaway from week one of “active” car shopping was that it is absolutely astonishing how much less a trade-in is worth in person versus its value on the phone! It was almost as if the dealerships were inviting us to their place only for a cup of free coffee! We drank a lot of it!
Kristin and I did have fun with the process, though, and we took our time. It is no exaggeration when I say that we spent infinitely longer deciding on a new car than we did in buying our house for which we’d made an offer within five minutes of walking through the door. That was nearly 36 years ago, and we have yet to experience even a moment of buyer’s remorse!
Once we finally decided on our new ride, the only thing left was to ice a trade-in deal on its predecessor. Our dog, Frankie, had traveled the car-buying circuit with us from the get-go, and while his dirty-pawed, fur-shedding carcass remained behind each time we test-drove the new ones, there was literally no place for him to go when the guy from the dealership jumped into the front seat of our old Honda, turned the key and revved the engine. Frank just sat quietly in the back seat as if he were part of the deal. Maybe that’s why this fellow offered us the best deal yet. He must have figured the mutt came right along with the car!
Kristin and John Lorson would love to hear from you. Write Drawing Laughter, P.O. Box 170, Fredericksburg, OH 44627, or email John at jlorson@alonovus.com.