ufcrusher

The lease on my wifes car is just about to end (beginning of April). Originally, we had planned on buying it out as the residual was low and mathematically it was in our favor. Unfortunately, after having the car for three years, several issues have developed which call our previous plan into question.

The "problems" with the car are as follows:
1) Its a stick and I can no longer drive a stick due to my ankle problems.
2) Its a coupe....and coupes and babies dont mix.
3) The car is slightly showing its age, with the convertible top showing the early signs of possibly needing to be replaced, gas mileage isnt as good as it should be, and there is a repair that should be done which doesnt effect anything but the ride quality that the dealer had told us to ignore.
4) My wife wants a new car. As she points out, I have had 2 brand new cars during the time she has had this one......and 2 other brand new cars prior to that.

Unfortunately, my wife has developed a severe hatred for car dealers. Its absolute hell to go buy cars with her because she is so miserable during the process. Accordingly, she consistently puts off going car shopping until its too late to use time to your benefit.

Thus....we are sitting here with a car that we had planned to buy, but realistically need to get rid of. The car dealers are as usual a bunch of scummy crooks in what they are willing to give for a car. (I.e. - a car with a residual of X that books out for Y, they want to give us a few grand behind X!) On top of that, they were either blatantly lying about pricing or have no clue what their companies own ads say.

We went to one dealership on Saturday....in the rain.....and the guy came back with insanely high prices. He didnt even want to try and deal so we left. On sunday we went to another dealership, where we got the last car, which was having its annual sales drive. The dealership has been in contact with us multiple times during the past few months, informing us that we had double loyalty incentives on top of any sales prices. (Brand and Dealer loyalty) After requesting the individual who we were told we HAD to deal with, and being pawned off onto 2 other sales people, we finally ended up where we had tried to start.

Four or so hours later, after negotiating him down by approximately $250/month but still not being where the car should have been. We ended up walking because I am not going to pay more money for less car, especially when I I know the ad price and what is being offered arent even close! There is no way I am going to pay $600+/mo on a 3 series, especially when the 2006 model is less than 2 months off.

At this point, we were sitting there with a registration that expires in 2 days, a lease that ends in two weeks, and no new car picked out. We could buy out our old car but obviously there would be the residual plus tax, plus the repairs that need to be done. I figured that we could put the car in brand new condition for less than $3k including performance enhancements, less than $2k if we just go with the same performance. But the car would be out of warranty with major services in the foreseeable future.)

The lease end manager told me that if we pre-ordered the new 3, our lease would be extended. On an offbeat chance that they would let us extend the lease without ordering the new car sight-unseen, I called them today.

Sure enough, BMW let us extend the lease until the new 3 arrives. If we order the new 3, then they will just keep it extended until our new car is delviered. If not, well then we can do whatever we like, either buying our car out or turning it in.

__________________
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine...Where have you been? It's alright we know where you've been....

gear02

Ahhhh....car dealerships. Just one rung about drug dealers.

I've been reading this for the last 5 minutes and I just can't imagine why no one can create a dealership that's almost as simple as going to best buy and buying a tv (minus the retarded monkeys they call employees who peddle stupid warranties). I mean just price a car at, say, $2000 above invoice and just have people pick and check out. No fuss, no hassle.

psycho-

Damn rich BMW drivers

__________________
Victor

ufcrusher

Whatcha talking about? One is not necessarily rich to drive a BMW.

If I was talking about buying my SL65AMG or an SLR.....well then, you might be able to make that complaint. But I'm not talking about that...nor do I have that car....yet.

Plus, if memory serves, you are one to talk. And no, I am not taking offense to your comment.

dsuds

Yeah, I got this kinda response growing up because my family bought a Mercedes 220D and later a 240D (both 4 cyl diesels). What people didn't understand was that we drove both of those cars for several years (and more than 300K miles combined) at a time when the American cars we owned were completely worn out at 2 years old and 60k miles. Between the longevity of the Mercedes and the better gas mileage, they were actually MUCH cheaper to own.

I don't know if that would hold true today though.

Merlin

Have you figured out what car your wife actually wants to drive? Once you know what she wants it might be a little easier to drill down on it.

Post up the specs and we might be able to help you out a little.

Oh and when I got my BMW they were pretty easy to deal with.

__________________

DarkFury

And yet you took her with you anyway when you were shopping for your "Mustang" replacement...

Personally, based on what you've previously commented on about her and her "car opinions" (regarding a certain line of pickup trucks) I'd go as far to say that her opinions on vehicles is way off base anyways.

Well good luck anyways... Talk about a nightmare situation.

Honda and Saturn dealers already do this for the most part.

"No haggling... just pay the price on the window or not".

Honestly, BMW is a premium line not generally accessible to the "common middle class" (or at least reasonably priced for them to consider it a viable option...)

Pretty much, any car manufacturer who's "base model" price is $30K or more falls into this category, and yes... BMW is there.

__________________


DarkFury's Pimptopia - Don't Hate the Playa, Hate the Game!
Home of the Original OG Pimp (accept NO imitations)

brain

Honda lets you deal. I paid $500 under invoice on a Honda Accord coupe. On both of the MBs I've picked up in the last year, I paid $3500 under invoice on one of them and $4500 under invoice on the other.

WhiskeyPapa

One of my most valuable (in an economic sense) friendships is with the owner of one of our local Dodge dealerships. He's a straight-up guy and a good friend. Whenever I'm looking for a car, I go to him first. I don't always buy from him, because honestly, I don't always want a Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler. But I know if I do, I'm getting the best possible price he can offer.

__________________

Nija

I need you in about a month to help my g/f buy a new honda.... please *begs*

__________________

"Nija is the dark soul of gotapex. We don't like to talk about him." - LPMiller

Maarchk

why not go onilne? get it off the intraweb? i did well, and got my rsx for under 20

__________________
"The girl is crafty like ice is cold."

"I left my heart in san francisco... And my liver at Moe's Tavern."

A real friend is one who listens to you as much as they talk to you.

brainsmile

Hmmm.... I get mine at dealer cost plus $100 for commission

__________________
**********************************
DCM #1 (Founder)





"Nobody beats Vitus Gerulaitis 18 times in a row." - Vitus Gerulaitis on beating Jimmy Connors after 17 failed attempts.

ufcrusher

My wife wants to get a 330i with premium/sport pkgs, but is willing to settle for a similarly equipped 325i. As she loves to point out, if money wasnt a concern, she would go for a X5, but for the moment its not in the cards.

As for the dealerships, for whatever reason the BMW dealers in SD region are not so easy to deal with. BMW of SD was bought out by United Auto something and at that point the dealership changed. Brecht BMW seems to go with the wind. At times, they can be really accomodating, but other times it seems like they just dont care.



My wife is the one who gets us the employee discounts and has to be there for all negotiations and purchase. Plus, I need to make sure that she is happy with anything I pick out. While she wont stop me from getting a vehicle she doesnt completely love, I end up paying the price as she lets me know about it after the fact. The Mustang is a perfect example, although I dont remember her saying she didnt like it prior to the purchase, afterwards I never heard the end of the complaints about its "roughness" compared to her car. She liked the speed and power, but didnt care for the color, the drive, etc. To this day, she still occassionally mentions it!

Secondly, as to your wounded pride about the Ram Hemi....just because she didnt like the looks of it doesnt mean that her opinion is way off base. I am sure you will be pleased to know that she has said that its beginning to look a little better. Jeez.

brain

I'll see if my connections are still working at the dealership.

Jeffbx

Car dealerships are one thing that could disappear from the face of the earth, and I would be a happy camper.

Why the heck would I want to deal with a person whose job is to get as much money from me as possible??

I say use the dealers to get hands on, drive the car, etc. & then make the purchase over the internet.

thresher

You guys in Cali are lucky you don't have to deal with Gulf States dealers. Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida ALL have the same "partnership" read 'control' with Toyota and Honda. If you want one of either, there is NO bargaining. There is their price (at any dealership) or nadda. Price fixing at its finest. Unbelievable that they can get away with it actually, but since it's multiple brands the states say it's not price fixing since there is competition. I say it's BS. Grrrr.


*Forgot Lousianna. They're in it too before any gets all geographical on me.

__________________
Wait a second... you're telling me Sixpac Shakur is a CHICK?

faither

I had that experience recently when attempting to purchase a new Toyota Prius. Any Tampa-area Toyota dealer wanted $2500 - $4000 OVER MSRP, plus SE dealers add on about $900 in crap (undercoating, sealer, etc.) and a higher destination fee.

I wound up buying from a dealership in MD and having the car shipped down to me. A bit of a hassle, but with the MD dealer selling for $500 BELOW MSRP shipping wasn't that big an impact. When you factor the lack of add-ons and smaller destination charge, shipping more than paid for itself.

DarkFury

Guess it depends on the dealership then...

Here... they didn't haggle. They were like... "There's the price".

A woman with a grudge eh... I feels for ya man...

As far as the Hemi goes... You could put the flashlight in her face and she still wouldn't see the light. One point five years later, I'm still VERY happy with it.

As for you... It's ok to be "whupped"... I'm sure that helps ya to avoid a bunch of arguments that the rest of us would have to just deal with.

ufcrusher

I guess it depends where in Florida you go. I had no problem making a deal on the last car I bought in Florida....the problem was after the fact. Then again, I wasnt looking at Toyotas or Hondas as they are designed for small/short people.


I wouldnt say its a grudge, she just hated the car. The longer we had it the more she disliked it.

As for your claim that I am "whupped".......I think you are barking up the wrong tree. I already said that all of the employee discounts were the result of my wife and she had to be there. If taking into consideration my wife's opinons on cars/trucks makes me "whupped" then so be it. Its not like she would ever stop me from getting a car/truck that I really wanted, even if she hated it. Hell, the last time around with her car, it came down between two cars (m3 and a covertible) that I really liked and we ended up getting the one we did because I really wanted a convertible.

DarkFury

I can't hear ya... there's too many "whipping sounds" in the background.

ufcrusher

You might want to tell your woman to stop cracking the whip, because those sounds arent coming from here.

DarkFury

Heh... deny all you want.

Whuppin' boy.

welfareloser

df be fonnnayyyyyy!!

seriously... owning crappy old cars kinda sucks, but i am glad i've never been to a car dealership for anything other than repairs. prm got a spankin new saturn in 97... and it was truly hassle-free. but you have to be willing to drive a saturn... it's still running just fine... i've been really impressed with how trouble-free a $12,000 car has been for 8 years and counting. cept for that time we had to replace the engine cuz my ex put sugar in the gas tank... yep, loads of fun, that.

__________________
Find the person who will love you because of your differences and not in spite of them and you have found a lover for life. ~ Leo Buscaglia
http://www.welfareloser.com
http://gotapexblogs.net/users/welfareloser/

Merlin

Now how do you fit that whole church o' kids you have in one itty bitty Saturn?

Markel

I would guess there's a lineup of 3 car seats in the back. And a supply of valium for the driver in the glove box.

__________________
stay low... keep moving...