HOW TO PURCHASE A NEW CAR (JUNE 26, 21)

The Retirement Coach by Mike Keenan

 

HOW TO PURCHASE A NEW CAR (JUNE 26, 21)

           

Climbing Mount Everest without a Sherpa guide to lead the way? That’s a piece of cake in comparison to purchasing a new car on a fixed income! The latter is an achievement, and the secret is all about networking.

The first obstacle for seniors is psychological. My father purchased our home in Toronto’s Beaches area in the 1950's for $10,900. So it’s difficult to think about buying a car nowadays that’s actually equal in value to the collective cost of your dad’s home and that of his two neighbours! It seems that prices have advanced upward like the aforementioned mountain climber.

Nevertheless, accompanied by my wife for emotional support and left brain logic, we began. I would never venture alone because I’m right brain oriented, geared to imagination, holistic thinking, intuition, the arts, rhythm, nonverbal cues, feelings and visualization,  daydreaming about peanut butter.

My wife’s left brain offsets all of this fanciful stuff because she is oriented to logic, sequencing, linear thinking, mathematics, facts, thinking in words and ice cream. Together, we are a powerful team, blessed with a whole brain - left and right.

It took two full months; however, we learned a few tricks! This basic research is necessary to be ready to talk with car dealers. You must study “Consumers’ Reports” and “Lemon Aid.” Dealers will conveniently feign ignorance whenever you quote these authorities. “Consumer’s Reports,” they will say.  I don’t think I‘m familiar with that.” Or they might try to acknowledge that it’s only one person’s opinion or refer you to their own convenient in-house data, always stacked in their favour.

Nevertheless, you will quickly develop a reliable short list of car models and become acquainted with dealer costs, margins, fair trade-in prices, the pros and cons of leasing and the hidden costs of finance.

We encountered every conceivable type of salesperson - young, old, male, female, novice, experienced and one guy who actually quit during the process. I like to think that we did him in. He went on and on. Wouldn’t stop talking until, as a last resort, I desperately asked if the model came in either fuchsia or tangerine. That dampened his spirit.

We had all of the sales games played upon us, particularly a version of the classic low-ball technique. Our seemingly sincere salesman drew up three columns of pricing figures, each progressively more attractive by $500. Which proposal do you like best, he rhetorically asked? I was tempted to plead that we should pay $1000 more. He intimated that the middle column amount was easily achieved, but we urged him to go for the whole enchilada.

Three days later, with a check in our hands to pay for the car, he adroitly maneuvered the three shells such that each time that we picked, the hidden pea had disappeared. The sales manager confirmed that the original pricing was too low. This is “the good cop, bad cop” technique. The salesman-good cop quotes you a cheap price, and then has to check with his boss. The bad cop boss storms into the office like he has been bitten by a rabid raccoon, and exclaims that the good cop-salesman is delirious. At that price, he will be ruined, forced to sell the dealership, divorce his third wife, pull their son out of private school, and sell season tickets to the ‘Leafs.

A time-honoured trick. Inevitably, whenever you are close to a price on a new car or your trade-in, the salesperson will leave you to squirm in his office while there is a mandatory conference with the sales manager and/or service manager. In hockey, it’s similar to a team gaining momentum, so the opposition coach calls a time-out. These guys then enjoy a casual coffee and doughnut, and they relax, watching CNN News for fifteen minutes. In the interim, someone arrives and chats you up about their wonderful model and preferred colour. The salesperson returns on cue with a gloomy look from watching depressing CNN News, and returns your trade-in car keys like they are infected with the plague. The high-ball game is afoot as Sherlock Holmes might say.

We surfed the Internet, and compared prices with friends. They always seemed to mysteriously have obtained a far better deal than us! We then phoned a larger, more competitive urban market.

Meanwhile, solicitous dealers phoned daily to measure our purchasing temperature. Cards, letters, e-mail worthy of political Christmas cards from our M.P. arrived with us in their thoughts. My wife and I were getting annoyed. We zeroed in on three different makes from dealers, any of which we would gladly purchase with the best price. Each time that we navigated through rough waters towards a fair deal, a rug was pulled from under our feet.

Finally, we tried a family-run business, some distance away. One phone call, one visit, one fair price later, we negotiated a deal. At that juncture, we didn’t even discuss cars. Instead, we talked about more important things with this dealer - families, children and history. His son had been the fortunate recipient of numerous wilderness canoe and camping trips under my supervision.

In the final analysis, good business is all about networking. Solid networking takes time, sometimes a lifetime! It’s unfair for me to identify the successful dealer in this case; however, I did teach for many years in Fort Erie. That might help.