I Hate Buying Cars
After the ordeal last week with our Dodge Colt, we decided to go out and buy a new car so that I don’t need to freeze as I ride my scooter in colder weather. I hate buying cars. Every car that I’ve ever bought from a private party has had problems within the first month that took hundreds of dollars to repair and going to dealerships usually involves a feeling of being severely ripped off.
I started looking at cars on a few different websites Wednesday morning and found one that I thought would work for us. Holly picked me up from work that night and we drove to check it out at a place called Totally Awesome Cars. That name in and of itself is very funny because there was absolutely nothing that was “totally awesome” about any of their cars.
We test drove a Saturn SC2 with really low miles and a great exterior. The interior left a lot to be desired however. There were holes cut in the doors and rips all over the seats. We also test drove a Chevy Cavalier while we were there but it wasn’t much better. To say the least, I couldn’t wait to get out of there and go wash my hands.
We were ready to call it a night when we came across a relatively new dealership called Auction Direct in Clearfield. It’s a nice looking dealership but it doesn’t look so nice that you know you’re going to be ripped off. We pulled in to take a look at their inventory. We started talking to a sales guy who, after telling him what we were looking for, showed us a 2002 Nissan Maxima that we decided to test drive.
The car drove really well. It seemed to run well and it was definitely nicer than any car I’ve ever owned. There were some cosmetic issues with it but those could be easily fixed. There was a crack in one of the tail light covers as well as one of the head light covers. One of the fog light covers was also broken. Holly and I talked things over and decided that we would make an offer contingent on the problems being fixed.
Well, we made our offer and told the sales guy about everything that we wanted fixed. He left the room to get approval but I’m guessing that he was really playing Halo 3 in the employee lounge. He eventually came back into the room with a number that was $400 more than our offer. Holly immediately said “It’s too much. Let’s go.” Man, I love her. The sales guy then asked for us to wait while he went to finish killing the covenant. He eventually returned and told us that everything was good and that the car was ours. I was happy because we had won the negotiations. Despite the fact that he lost, he still sold a car so the sales guy was happy too.
Do you remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry goes to buy a car from Puddy? Puddy is going to give him an “insider’s deal” but then he and Elaine break up. All of a sudden, Jerry no longer gets the “insider’s deal” and has to go through what everybody else goes through when buying a car. I couldn’t find a clip of this but here is the dialog.
JERRY: (Sees Elaine leaving) Hey! Wh-where are you..?
(She exits. Puddy sits down at his desk - disturbed)
PUDDY: Let’s finish this up.
JERRY: Did you two break up?
PUDDY: (While punching up numbers on a calculator) That chick’s whacked. We’re history. (Back to the transaction) I just left out a couple of things:
rust-proofing..
JERRY: “Rust-proofing”?
PUDDY: (Reading off what he’s adding up on the calculator) Transport charge, storage surcharge, additional overcharge, finder’s fee
JERRY: “Finder’s fee”? It was on the lot!
PUDDY: Yeah, that’s right. (Continues reading off) Floor mats, keys..
JERRY: “Keys”?!
PUDDY: How ya gonna start it?
The whole time we were filling out the paperwork, that scene kept running through my mind. Then we found out what the bottom line was and I was convinced that the Seinfeld episode was closer to the truth than anybody would like to imagine.
The total price of the car was $1100 higher than the agreed upon price. Holly and I questioned this and, surprisingly, the additional overcharge dropped by $400. I understand that auto dealers need to make money and I also understand that they are crooked so paying $700 for registration, licensing, and keys was about what I expected. We had financing lined up but it would take a couple of days for us to get time to sign the papers. The dealer insisted that we take the car and bring the money in as soon as we had it which I thought was weird but whatever. That was their mistake.
The next morning I took the car to work. As I was driving, the check engine light came on. In my experience with cars, this is never a good thing. I needed to get a new battery for the keyless entry remote so I swung by Auto Zone and had them check the error codes. The security system and oxygen sensor were apparently bad. That would explain why the keyless entry didn’t work even with a new battery. I called the sales guy at the dealership and told him what was going on and that we wouldn’t be purchasing the car unless the problems were fixed. He said that they’d be taken care of and to bring the car in the next day so that they could “clear things up.”
In my research, I discovered that it’s fairly easy to clear a car’s error codes. It involves disconnecting the battery for a few minutes. However, if the error is still present, the code will return. I’ll come back to this thought in a few minutes.
After taking the car to the dealer to have the error codes checked, Holly mentioned how there were two big oil stains in the driveway where the Maxima had been parked. In addition to all of the problems that we knew about, the car was also leaking oil. Neither one of us wanted to deal with an oil leak in a new car. I had to leave the car with the dealer overnight so we decided that we’d just let them keep it and we wouldn’t bring in a check. In fact, if things went right, they would never see us again. Holly called and told them what was up and we went looking for a different car.
As I was looking for cars online I had noticed a 2000 Saturn SL1 at Liberty Auto in Kaysville. We decided to go test drive it and liked it so much that we made an offer. The dealer accepted the offer and then included the standard overcharging in the agreed upon price of the car. It was amazing! He was so honest and straight forward that I thought that the Earth as we know it had ceased to exist. We like the car and have no regrets about purchasing it.
Now back to the error codes… As I was talking with a friend, he was fairly confident that Auction Direct will clear the codes by unhooking the battery and then stick it back out on the lot for some poor schmuck to buy. As he said this, I recalled that none of the radio stations in the car were programmed. It was almost as if the battery had been disconnected. To think, I could have been that poor schmuck. They never should have insisted we took the car without paying for it.
Cars, Cavalier, Clearfield, dealership, Dodge Colt, employee, Holly, Kaysville, Maxima, Saturn, Seinfeld, test drive
September 14, 2008 8:55 pm | 
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If you were looking for an honest dealer, Rob Secor of Secor Motors in Roy has treated us very well. We’ve purchased three cars from him.