New Car Coming

It appears that we will bring one of these foreign cars home tomorrow. Amazingly enough, I can drive this. I am 6'7" tall and have difficulty with many vehicles. I could not find a US made version that would come close on mileage. I have owned a couple of foreign jobs on the past. One was an Audi S90 that was fun, comfortable, and was broken more in 5 years than all other cars combined. The other was a Buick/Opal that was not so comfortable but OK. I am disappointed in that I could not find a US equivalent. 269HP, 240 ft/lb, and 22/29 MPG. What is wrong with the big three to let themselves get completely outdone in this market?

Now for the fun part. Don't you love car shopping? There are two Toyota dealers in Tucson. Both seem to feel that the MSRP is the lowest price available to you and do not budge from it. The first place I went to test it out had one that was close to what I wanted. The salesman did not how the middle seat belt worked for the rear seat. Nor did the next salesman who 's help was requested. My wife asked if anyone thought it might be a good idea to look at the owner's manual. While salesman #1 is off looking for another more intelligent knowledge source, we look over the vehicle for the manual which was not to be found. This was finally solved after about 10 minutes. Now the salesman can proceed to educated on how to work an automatic transmission. D is for drive! I am serious. I did not know whether to laugh or get really insulted. This was a real zoo. The Primeval portion of my blog name is partially true. Most of my classmates are grandparents. This guy listened to absolutely nothing that was said to him. He was either deaf or the perfect salesman. Next he started with quoting payments instead of bottom line. Wrong tactic. He wanted to know what he could do to sell me this car. I was vaguely interested but did not want all the options on it so money talks. They did not budge and we left.

The following day I spoke with the competition (Dealer #2) who did not have what I was looking for either but had another shipment coming in, could do a five state search, and could order one if I wanted. This all sounded hopeful but was not. Two weeks went by and calls went unreturned. Yesterday, I called twice and upon leaving the second message told the operator that I would not be calling again. Hours went by. They must be sitting pretty to ignore people who are trying to buy something from them.

I know that some of the dealers in the Phoenix area have large inventories. I called one of the big boys. Two minutes on the phone and he is faxing me the sheet on the vehicle. I call back and give him a deposit. The price of a fully loaded Sport version was less than that of a Basic in Tucson. They mark up $500 from their invoice (not MSRP) and go from there. Their price was right in line with Edmunds. Hopefully all holds firm tomorrow.

A man I do not know from dealer #2 calls back towards the end of the day. Says the original guy is hungover, jk indisposed, and he is responding in his place. I told him that I had given up on them and went on to a Phoenix dealer. Now they want to earn my business. I told him it was simple, here is a description of the vehicle and the price, all you have to do is beat the price. He seemed to be choking on the price but said he would get back to me. I have yet to hear anything and am not holding my breath!