Best Of

I've only bought three new cars in my life, and they were all on the lot. However, one common denominator in them all, is that my uncle was with me when I bought them.

Back in November 1999, my uncle asked me to give him a ride to the Chevy/Dodge/Isuzu dealer to pick up his '97 Silverado, which was having transmission work. I was actually planning that day, to go look at a '95 supercharged Riviera, in black I think, that was for sale at a Mazda dealer. Well, I give my uncle a ride down there, and after he pays for his truck, he says, while we're here, let's go over and look at the new cars. First I drove an Isuzu Hombre. Hated it. Then a Dodge Ram, regular cab, 8-foot bed. 3.9 V6 (a sawed-off 318). Didn't really care for it, either...that engine was kind of a dog. When the salesman mentioned they were offering 0.9% on the Intrepid, I drove one. I think in lieu of the financing they offered cash back...forget how much, but back then I remember interest rates were around 7%, so the 0.9% seemed the way to go. I also looked at the new '00 Impalas, but didn't really care for them. Plus, they only had fully-loaded ones that were like $25-26K, and that seemed out of reach for me. I also looked at a couple Malibus. I think they were only around $16-17K, but because of the financing, really weren't that much cheaper than the Intrepid. And they just seemed too much like, well, settling. I remember they also had a black Dodge Stratus, pretty fully-loaded...2.5 V6, sunroof, leather, and I think it was around $21K MSRP. But, they weren't offering the low financing on it. And the Intrepid was bigger, and a newer design. So I ended up doing the mental mathematical gymnastics to justify it, and ended up bringing it home that night. My uncle even lent me $2K for the down payment! I liked that Intrepid, but sometimes I wonder if I would have bought that '95 Riviera, otherwise?

Then, in September of 2012, I was thinking about getting a new truck, and found this 2012 Ram Hemi, fairly basic but good enough for what I wanted, listed for something like $17,500. My uncle went with me, so that if I bought the truck, he could drive my Park Avenue back. Well, when we got there, it turns out that $17,500 was the price with every rebate imaginable applied. Plus shipping. Oh, and in the state of Maryland (probably other states as well) they tax rebates. After all that extra crap, I was starting to lose interest, and in private with my uncle, mentioned I was seriously having second thoughts. He said that it's still an awfully good deal. He also asked me if I liked the truck, and I said yeah. But, when I asked him if HE liked it, he said don't worry about that, do YOU like it? So, we got them to throw in a sliding rear window and a third key fob, and for around $20,750 out the door, it was mine. On this one, he ended up letting me use his '97 Silverado as a down payment, which we went back and got. It was pretty much on its last legs, so we only got $1300 in trade. So basically, his truck plus $19,450. Oh, and it turned out later, he really DIDN'T care for the truck! He said it was too hard to get in and out of, and too cumbersome to park. I forget the third thing...maybe the fuel economy? His Silverado had the 4.3, and it was great on gas. The 5.7 Hemi isn't bad for what it is, I guess, but still not as economical as a 4.3. Plus, it requires 89 octane.

The final one was September 2023, when I bought the Charger. The dealer was about 50 miles away. I was driving up in the '03 Regal I inherited from my Dad, and it was knocking at death's door by that time. I figured it would be just my luck, that it would break down on the way up there, so I had my uncle follow me in his Colorado. Well, the Charger was listed online for something like $46K. It had an MSRP of around $54K. It was another one of those stories, where they threw every rebate known to man at it, and stripped out the freight, to get to that $46K. I couldn't get them to budge on the price. And they offered me $250 for the Regal. I was about ready to walk, but then my uncle pulled his, "well, do you LIKE the car?" spiel again. He also threw in "you KNOW you can afford it" and I think he even added a "Well, you're not getting any younger, so why don't you just treat yourself for once!" So, I was able to get them to come up to $500 for the Regal. I know I could've gotten more for it trying to sell on my own, but I just wanted it gone. I also let them talk me into an extended warranty. Ordinarily I wouldn't have, until the sales lady said that if the touch screen goes bad, even that's $3,000+ these days. So, I figured what the hell. Anyway, that car with the $54K MSRP sticker ended up costing about $54K, out the door.

About two weeks after I bought the Charger, my uncle ended up having to go into the emergency room. He'd had kidney issues all his life, and as he got older, there were other problems (bad heart, etc). And, after about a month, he died. It should be awhile now, before I need another car, but I do kinda wonder...with my uncle gone, who am I gonna have around, to talk me INTO buying another new car!