01/10/07 - 19:57Jing bought a car
Jing wanted to look at a second old car at Nissan Dealer Shop. So we went to the shop this afternoon at about 12:40pm. It is a 1997 Toyota Camry LE. The mileage was nearly 140K, which was higher than I like it to be
The car looked old, and it was not clean inside. I did not like the car much, and Jing said she did not want to buy it either but like to try it John was the person in the shop who worked with us.
John started the car with the remote starter (I like the remote starter very much
, and drove us onto the road. Then I started driving. I'm not professional to check cars. I can just feel a little bit. I drove around and felt good about the car. It runs very well with the new timing belts and brakes.
After coming back, Jing asked for the price. John said it was about 5,000 dollars. "It is expensive", I said. John explained that it is Toyota and a good deal and blabla. We went with him to his office. Jing said she needed to think about it, but John seemed really want to set this car today. He got the price from Kelley Blue for us, but only with "excellent" condition which was $5,500. I asked if he could get the price for "fair" condition. He said he could not at that time. I said we could go back to check it, then he asked how much we wanted to spend on the car. From then on, the negotiation started!
Actually, I really wanted to leave. I did not expect the dealer would cut the price down much. I guessed the price with "fair" was probably around $4,000 to $4,500. And my price for that car was $3,000. So every time John gave a price offer (he needed to go out to call the owner of the car), I would say it was expensive. But Jing was attracted by the lowering down price. The price was down from $5,500 to $4,600 to $4,200 to $3,600. Finally, it came down to $3,400 whole sale including TTL (title, tax, license).
The price was really attractive then, but I was amazed by the cutting down. I'm not professional to check cars. Although John said they had mechanical to check the car, and they would not sell it if there were problems. But I know dealers can cover some problems perfectly so that ordinary people like me cannot find them easily. Although I felt the car driving well, but there might be some problems that I cannot feel. So I planned to take the car to a mechanical shop to do a thorough check. If some problems are found, we can drive the car back to argue with them if the 30-day warranty was there. The original price $5,500 included the 30-day warranty. The final wholesale price, however, did not have any warranty.
I was really concerned about the warranty. So we argued sometime. John said their reputation was the warranty. Even if we buy from a private seller, we do not have warranty either. "But private seller generally does not cover the problems well", I thought in my heart only. I asked Jing if she really wanted to buy it at this price without warranty. And she really wanted it. So finally we made the deal.
Then Jing signed some documents, and the car was taken into the working shop to clean up. After waiting for sometime (not a short time), the car was finally ready. And it looked very good after cleaning. Jing liked it. The title will be ready in a few days, and John will call her when it is ready. Then we drove to buy the insurance. Then we drove Walmart to buy some stuff. Then we drove back to Tower, picked up Fan, then drove back to the dealer shop. Then Fan drove Jing back to Tower, and I drove my car back home.
P.S. After cooking for dinner, Xi came for a problem of Norton Antivirus. After solving his problem, while eating, Jian came for a problem of activation of his network at home. After solving his problem and finished dinner, it was almost 8:30pm. And I went to Tower at 8:50pm as planned, to go to the MCI airport with Kan to pick up Wen and a new student, using Fan's car since it is larger than mine. Fan came with us, and I let her drive since she got her Driver's License today. We came back at 12:20am, and Kan and Wen were helping the new student. Then I came back home.
It was a busy day.
(Last Edited at: 01/11/07 - 11:35)
Leave comments: