Car Buying Memories-A Wheeler Dealer

Back in the day, fall meant a lot of things. Apple picking, cooler weather, hay rides and the premier showing of the new cars.

New cars you ask? What’s the big deal about that? Well when I was a little kid growing up not everybody had a car. My mother was the first one in the family who got one. It was a ‘49 ford. Blue I think. She bought it so she could drive me to school and I didn’t have to walk so far.

My parents were “ahead of the curve.” We were the first of our relatives to get a black-and-white TV. We were not wealthy by any means but my mom knew how to save and she believed in paying cash for everything. The family would gather at our house on Friday and Saturday nights to watch Lawrence Welk, the Texaco Star Theatre and Dinah Shore.

I can hear it now,  “See the USA in your Chevrolet”, and Dinah would give us a big kiss. Dinah was considered a goody two shoes because she was so squeaky clean. Well she fell from grace a little later because she had a relationship with hunky Burt Reynolds who posed nude in Cosmopolitan magazine. I thought she was one lucky lady myself. Who wouldn’t want to have a relationship with Burt Reynolds back in the day, simply everybody I knew.

Chevrolet was considered at the time as American as apple pie and all good things.

Back to my mom, when she found out in later years that we actually had to borrow money from the bank to buy a car she became hysterical. People don’t do that she said and you can afford to do without.

Back then people didn’t get new cars every year.  Not even every three or five years. They drove their automobile until it fell apart. So mom paid cash for her next car, a ‘57 Ford.

By the time I got married everybody had cars.  Some families had more than one. It was a big deal to my husband and every year we went around town to see what the new cars looked like. We didn’t buy one, we just liked to sneak onto the parking lot and see what they looked like.

One of us figured out that the cars had to be shipped and prepped before they appeared in the showroom.  They had to be placed on a lot in order to get cleaned-up for that year’s new car launch. We wanted to see what they looked like. In order not to be noticed, we waited until dark and trudged over to a few dealer lots.

We went to the Chevy dealer then the Ford dealer. We visited the back lot and walked around with a flashlight looking at all the new cars. Of course they were locked. Some had prices on them, some didn’t but it was always a thrill to see the new car designs. In most years we even took the kids with us.

Some years later they started putting fences around the back lots. I guess they didn’t want the nosy public getting in ahead of the preview. And then, to add insult to injury, like we were going to climb the fence, they enlisted big barking dogs to stand watch and growl at you. That ended that.

I remember how much fun it used to be to actually buy a car. There weren’t numerous dealerships like today. You could go from dealer to dealer, see what was out there, and take a test drive with the sales person. Everybody at the dealership was very nice. They were thrilled to have a customer. The sale went fairly smoothly. And should there be a problem, they were happy to take care of it right away.

Sometime in the ‘80s, car shopping became a nerve wracking game of negotiation. I don’t like to haggle on the cost. Just give me the damn price and I’ll be on my way.

But the car dealers wanted you to haggle. The salesman were taught how to negotiate and the customer always got screwed, no matter what. They would take out a piece of paper and write a price, fully expecting you to come back with another one… a little lower.

You went back-and-forth, with each negotiator writing down a price on a piece of paper with a pencil. You kept going until the difference got down to around $25. By this time I was ready to pull my hair out

The salesman put you in an “office” the size of a bathroom. It was stuffy as hell.

Then after you somehow agreed on a price, and you were no doubt getting screwed, he would say,” I have to go and ask my boss.” If that wasn’t the biggest scam of all time I don’t know what was.

The salesman would sachet down the hall to the boss’ office and he would be gone for some 15 minutes. They acted like they were negotiating the sale of the Taj Mahal. We were crammed in the hot sweaty little room pacing, waiting to find out if we got the new car. By the time he came back we probably would’ve agreed to anything just to get the hell out of that place.

Some years ago we bought a Saturn because they advertised there no negotiations. You just paid the asking price and bought the car. They were popular for a while.  Of course I got a lemon and we put a lot of money into it. So much money it is painful to discuss here. They’ve since gone out of business, so much for no negotiation.

At least I never had a poison Pinto. Those exploded.

Car shopping today has gotten more complicated. The last time I went with my husband to the dealer they wanted $100 down just to give us a price. That’s when I walked out and decided my husband could buy the car. He could do the negotiating and leave me at home. Before I left I gave that sales guy a piece of my mind and a good one. I told him we had our own business and if all of our clients had to pay us $100 down before we would talk to them we wouldn’t have any clients.

So the task of negotiating falls squarely on my husband. I pick out the make and model and he does the rest. He loves to negotiate. Even when we go to Mexico when the poor kids are trying to sell things on the street, he wants to haggle back-and-forth with them. Not me.  Just give them the damn money and leave them alone. This way it’s good for my blood pressure.

I haven’t been to a dealer lately and don’t know if they still do the back and forth dance with the pencil deal. Unsure if you have to give $100 down. I don’t even want to hear about it.

So last night, watching TV while sitting in my easy chair, here comes a commercial on how you can buy a car from your TV set. I laughed my head off and thought this is not a bad idea at all. You go on your computer, take a virtual tour of the car, gather all the specs and get a price.  I’m not sure how you negotiate. You can simply purchase the car online and it arrives the next day. They drop it in front of your house and even pick-up your trade-in.

That brings up a great idea. Maybe they’re doing this because computer game players, like my grandson, get to drive all kinds of stuff with a joystick. It’s a lot of fun but you really have to be careful otherwise you’ll end up in the ocean. The couple times I played with him I always ended up in the water. He said I was the worst driver he’s ever seen. My other son has backed up his opinion in real life.

Long story short, this company selling cars online should really figure out a way how you would look and feel behind the wheel. You could superimpose your picture at the steering wheel while you’re driving it. Now that’s really a good idea. Hell my Friday and Saturday nights in the fall could come back in a good way.  I could just get online, see the new cars, get in them and drive them around, all while trying not to veer in the ocean. How much fun is that?