Used Car Shopping

We knew we would have to replace my husband's much loved Toyota Avalon this year. It has served him very well for the past 8 years, but with it being 11 years old and having 315,000 miles on it, it was time to let it go.

This is the story of a recent Saturday adventure, driving to Chicago (about 3 hours from our house) to look at a loaded 2008 Avalon with 20,000 miles on it for $23,995. My husband saw this car on line at a Toyota dealership a bit south of Chicago. Yes, it was a drive but the car looked good on line and the price was in our budget. 

We arrived about 9:30 a.m. (10:30 our time), the dealership screamed high pressure sales. We were greeted by "Mary" who was happy to show us the car, but first she and hubby took his car for a test spin, since he was interested in possibly trading his in.

Finally she brings around the car we are there to see , she walks us through all the features of the car, engine to trunk. Then we get in to take it for a test drive, she gets behind the wheel. She has to be the one to drive the car off the lot, then she and hubby could switch places once we turned onto a side road. Interesting...

When we get back to the dealership, "Mary" gives us a tour of the service department (like we are going to drive 3 hours one way for service), the customer waiting area, parts department, etc. Then the fun begins, "Mary" has all the paper work; car fax, their service inspection, and the numbers sheet. Hubby had been given an internet price of $22,800, which he had told "Mary", the numbers sheet says $23,995 and only $500 for his car.  A personal insult to hubby! Mainly "Mary" wanted to know what payment plan we wanted at 14.99% interest. Ah NONE! Negotiations back and forth between hubby and "Mary" and then poof "Mary" is gone and out comes her Manager.

More negotiations with the Manager and we have about had it. It is now 11:00 (noon our time) and we are getting hungry, so we tell Manager we are going to go to lunch and discuss it and then we will be back. Now here is where it gets good. Manager says "Why don't you take the Avalon to lunch?" What happened to they have to drive it off the lot? Now we can drive it to lunch a few miles away and have it sit in a parking lot for an hour while we eat lunch. Weird...

We decided at lunch this car wasn't quite it. We went back to the dealership, told them no to that car. Then they started pulling out every Avalon they had, for us to drive. By the last one I was so done with it all. Thankfully College Daughter called then and saved me. We got back to the dealership and I went and sat in our car giving hubby the perfect out to get us out of there. As hubby is walking back to our car the manager says "what about the car you came here to see, what about $21,500?"

So sorry, too little, too late. Quite the adventure though.