Day 114

So I am a proud new owner of a 2006 Black Nissan Pathfinder SE. Am I happy about this - absolutely. It is such a smooth ride and has everything I want in the car (including and most importantly Sirius radio). That is the good news. The bad news is that I walked into the dealership at 5:15 and walked out at 11:20! I have to tell all of my readers why buying a new car may be exciting at first, but turns into a horrid experience.

So I walk into Star Nissan on Touhy at 5:15 and Leah is going to meet me a few minutes later. I am approached by a ultra-cheesed out young guy named Ted. He was wearing a tie and a beat up old leather jacket, was up to my chin, and had a bad goatee. I tell him that I am interested in looking at the 06 Pathfinder SE, preferably in Black, and that I would like to take one for a test drive and get the scoop on the features of the car. Now I have done my research online, knew what I wanted in the car, how much the MSRP was, etc. I just wanted to test drive it, and work out the numbers. "No Problem" Ted told me, he just needed to check on a few things and he would get right back to me. About 10 minutes later, he came back and said he needs to drive me out back to the lot to see what they have available. That process took another 10 minutes or so until we found a Black 4X4 SE. He wrote down the number on the sticker and we drove back to the dealership and Leah was waiting for me there. Leah and I asked him a few more questions and he said he had two more customers he was working on, so he would have to have another guy take us on the test drive. So we waited another 30 minutes before the other guy finally got us the car from the back lot and we went on a test drive. The test drive was a 15 minute deal, Leah and I both drove the car and liked it. So back to the dealership we went to talk numbers. Or so we thought.

We get back in and Leah starts to talk to this second salesman, Matt, about the LE, which is essentially the Leather version of the SE which is about $4500 more than the LE. I knew we were already at the top end of what we wanted to spend as a monthly payment based on the research I did, but we figured it was worth it to price out anyways. At this point its probably 7:00. They put us in an office and Ted comes back and says "So, you loved the LE right? Lets see what we can get done for you, I'll talk to my sales manager. It will be a few more minutes." Keep in mind that they have had my Jeep for 2 hours at this point and still hadn't given me a trade-in figure. Of course, in typical car salesman fashion, they got us all excited about the LE, thinking we can maybe get this done. We wait another 30 minutes. Now we are both starting to get hungry. Ted comes back and starts talking about leasing and how its more bang for your buck and we can get your price under a lease no problem, etc etc. Keep in mind we had told him an hour earlier that we already had one leased car and didn't want to have two, so leasing was not an option. He still didn't have the pricing from his sales manager. So we had to wait again. Another 20 minutes go by before he comes back. He comes back telling us he has the price we need under a lease, but the price for financing couldn't get done for the LE. We told him no, thanks for the time, we had already been there more than 3 hours and we were leaving. He grabbed his sales manager, who tried to give us his bullshit and I told him we were done. He was ready to let us walked, but Ted begged us to stay and said "please, just give me 15 more minutes to see if I can get you in the SE.(the car we came in for at 5:15)" I told him I was done, put my coat on and he literally grabbed me and said "just give me 5 more minutes to earn your business, 5 minutes." I looked at Leah and she said "fine, 5 more minutes."

We talked it over and I told her to go home and that I had it handled. We had our set price that we wouldn't budge from and unless they could meet that price, I would leave. So of course that 5 minutes turned into 40. Ted came back with a monthly payment $30 a month higher than I could afford and I said "nope, i'm done, i've been here close to 4 hours. Either get me the price I want right now and I will sign or I am leaving." He then went to what I was told was "the deal maker of all deal makers" sales manager, who came back to me and gave me monthly figure if I would sign right then. I agreed. It is now 9:15.

To get it done, the added $1000 to the trade in value that they had already quoted me amongst other shady deals I don't care to know about. So now I have to wait for the finance department. Of course they were short staffed so I was in line. I am waiting in an office talking to my brother on my cell phone. Another 30 minutes go by. Ted takes me to talk to a woman who I thought was going to be in finance. She wasn't. I got another 30-40 minute hard sell about Rust-proofing, under-carriage treatments, remote start up, and paint coating protection. It was too expensive and I was already at my monthly payment limit I had set. I told the woman this 4 times and she obviously didn't get the memo. The only point in this exercise was that she set up my Sirius radio for the car. Other than that, it was a huge waste of time. I then moved into another waiting room for another half hour. Finally, I got to do the financing, which took only 20 minutes. I had already reached the end of my rope at this point, so I was past the anger and moved onto laughter. When I finished, I waited another 10 minutes for them to pull my new car and my old car side by side so I could clean out the Jeep. Like I couldn't have done this while I was waiting the previous hour. By the time I got in my car and finally got home, it was 11:40! I had been at the dealership for 5 hours.

To sum up - the car business is the scumiest business I have ever seen. Being a part of that whole process is gut-wrenching, annoying, frustrating, and exciting all in one. I didn't eat dinner, they never let me even leave to go to McDonalds to get anything because they were afraid I'd leave. They kept my Jeep keys away from me and my car hidden. Even when I tried to leave I couldn't get to my car. That is one job I could never do. You really have to be a special type of person for that gig. My father in law loves the car negotiation process - why, I have no idea. Leah and I were ready to kill someone last night. Bottom line and I happy? Absolutely. I have the car I've wanted since I was 16 and it is really exciting to purchase something that you wanted for that long with the hard earned cash I have made on my own.

Song of the Day: "Picture Me Rollin" by 2Pac