Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

28firefighter

I asked. The sport package comes with the cutouts and part of the equipment, but it’s not active. 

tjc78

@28firefighter

Wow... what an awesome deal.  Nice looking car too !

28firefighter

So the dealer lost the second key and had to order one from the mother ship. $600 in parts and labor supposedly. Ouch - luckily not my problem. 

fintail

Weird, but not beyond belief.

How was the purchase and dealing process? I bought/leased 2 cars from that dealer when they were Barrier, and my latest just as they had changed hands. I had no issues, but I know not everyone loves AutoNation. Since my last purchase, many sales people including management have left - the only one there I routinely recognize now is the receptionist, a gracious older woman who always remembers my name. I dealt with the same salesman on my first two details, and the same manager on all 3 - he's now gone too. I don't know if it will be the same when the term is up on my current car.

28firefighter said:

I asked. The sport package comes with the cutouts and part of the equipment, but it’s not active. 

rayainsw

"..bat mobile" indeed.
Congratulations !
- Ray
Nice looking car...

tjc78

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/esh/6324690044.html

Had to post this one...

tbirdmarco

@28firefighter glad they are doing the rite thing and getting an new secant keey fob for you!

28firefighter

fintail said:

Weird, but not beyond belief. How was the purchase and dealing process? [...]

Perfect opportunity to give some additional detail about the experience.  You all know I had been looking for something more family friendly, and possibly a step up if I could swing it.  Caution - long post ahead.

I started watching AutoNation dealerships nationally because I noticed that they would periodically post blow out prices on former loaners across BMW and Mercedes, and not all were stripped.  There seemed to be no method to the madness, but the prices were there, and they were always before incentives.  AutoNation is generally a no-haggle experience on the used side of the house.  Over time, they will drop prices if it sits long enough.

When this car popped up, I was skeptical it would go anywhere, knowing what I know about AutoNation.  Despite that, I sent the request anyway figuring I had nothing to lose.  Figured the price was wrong, options were wrong - something.  Happy to be proven wrong.

Surprisingly I actually loved the experience.  My sales guy was VERY green (<2 months) and because of the type of deal I was asking for (fighting on MF, security deposits etc) I quickly was handed off to one of the Senior Sales Managers who handled the details. He was awesome to deal with and like I said before, was more excited to see me get the car at the price I did than anyone - said point blank if everyone understood leasing and the software this well, his job would be significantly easier because it ultimately saves time.

My sales guy handled delivery and knew the car inside and out - had it pulled into the indoor service area so I could look at it.  We also took it for a test drive while they were finalizing the deal paperwork.  He was very bright and a car guy - I actually fear the Bellevue market might eat him alive.  Too nice.

We had issues in finance, just due to it being a transaction they typically don’t do. The trade, the MSDs, etc.  They were super apologetic and I helped them resolve the issue in their system by suggesting we re-arrange the transaction. The F&I woman has been there for 7 years and commented that she had never had a customer fix an issue in their system that they couldn’t.  She also commented that it’s been a big change with the new ownership. I explained I only wanted it this way because I did not want to have to come back and re-sign.

When all was said and done, I spent about 3 hours at the dealership - which is about 50% longer than I typically spend closing a deal.  Did I get a true MB buying experience?  I think it was close.  I intentionally went on Friday evening when they said it'd be quiet so I wasn't keeping them from more profitable transactions and when the place would be quieter.  Even with that, there were 2 others behind me waiting for Finance when I left at 9pm - an S550 and an E300.

I'll make two comments: some of the sales staff there I noticed were a lot more "typical" car sales - high pressure, using closing tactics, etc.  I would have expected MB would be a bit different, but maybe I'm wrong.  Then again, some of these customers were some of the worst buyers I've ever seen, so maybe its necessary.  The second comment, is that when I stopped by today to pick up my owner's manual, the place was PACKED - like they were giving cars away.  They must be doing something right.

Very happy with how things shook out.  And, best of all, our monster car seat fits beautifully with plenty of room for a front seat passenger.

stickguy

good job. and yeah, once you go off the normal path with these things, you run the risk that the computer won't cooperate. And once that happens, deer in the headlights time!

qbrozen

tjc78 said:

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/esh/6324690044.html Had to post this one...

That's funny.
Dude is also an idiot who did not do his homework first.

fintail

Sounds like you had a good experience, and you definitely did your homework. I've never been so prepared - in my prior deals, I have a number I am willing to spend today, a monthly payment I want, and for the rest, they can make it work. I won't grind over every dollar or one hundredth of an interest rate percentage, but it will be a no-go if my initial outlay and monthly payment aren't met.

I've noticed the place is always packed on weekends, too. I stop by every month or two to see if I can find anything weird, and sometimes it is to the point where I have parked in the back, or over at Porsche. I don't know if the customer base here actually likes the "fixed price" setup (I like a little negotiation), or if the prices are indeed so good, people just shop it. I know Barrier had a lot of repeat business, and I wonder if they are sticking around now. The salesman I worked with in the first two deals was an older guy I think is now at MB Seattle - very low pressure, as he understood I already knew the car very well. Third deal was a green guy the long-time manager sent my way, but the deal was mostly finalized by then.

It gets me thinking of what will happen on my lease. The residual is wildly inflated, and I know it is tough to negotiate that. I like the car a lot, but I won't pay what will probably be like 8K over retail for it, and one reason I started leasing was to not become (too) emotionally attached to a daily driver car. Sadly, with no diesel in the current lineup, I don't know what I would want - but I do like the new E in diamond silver with pano, beige or brown interior, P2, and a few other features. Always something to look forward to, that's why we do this.

28firefighter said:

Perfect opportunity to give some additional detail about the experience. The second comment, is that when I stopped by today to pick up my owner's manual, the place was PACKED - like they were giving cars away.  They must be doing something right.

Very happy with how things shook out.  And, best of all, our monster car seat fits beautifully with plenty of room for a front seat passenger.

stickguy

I managed to get both cars cleaned up after last weeks snow. Probably the cleanest set of cars in town. The car wash has been hopping for weeks. Today got the RDX done again (2nd time in a week, since the wife had to drive Wednesday in the last snow). And the Elantra yesterday. Only use the spray it yourself bay, since I refuse to run it through the slap it with brushes and straps.

even took the all weather mats out and washed them too. They have big clips to hang those on and spray off. Not bad for $3.

had a rare warm day so pulled out the shopvac and vacuumed them both out. Elantra really needed that at this point.

28firefighter

@fintail your approach would have made sense if I was willing to pay in the upper 300s for it. I wanted to be sub-300, which no one was going to just offer or accept without logic behind it. Had to walk them into it. 

fintail

Did the MSD cause confusion? I've heard MB does it, but it is never proactively offered. Maybe if I lease again, I will go that route. Maybe I'll need to bring you along

28firefighter said:

@fintail your approach would have made sense if I was willing to pay in the upper 300s for it. I wanted to be sub-300, which no one was going to just offer or accept without logic behind it. Had to walk them into it. 

28firefighter

fintail said:

Did the MSD cause confusion? I've heard MB does it, but it is never proactively offered. Maybe if I lease again, I will go that route. Maybe I'll need to bring you along

@fintail your approach would have made sense if I was willing to pay in the upper 300s for it. I wanted to be sub-300, which no one was going to just offer or accept without logic behind it. Had to walk them into it. 

Yup. As did my fleet rebate and my knowledge of the base buy rate. 

tifighter

Congrats @28firefighter ! Smart deal, and avoiding Bellevue on a weekend is even smarter still. Post up a pic in daylight sometime when you get a chance.

tbirdmarco

 28 fire fighter nice write up on your lease deal you are a pro at this you want to come to New York in a few months and assist me and my mom ha ha Ha it’s time to get a Nother car for her that’s another story which one not sure how a few brands in mind to look at short list could take a road trip over here or fly Ha ha ha anyway enjoy the beautiful car 

imidazol97

28firefighter said:

Caution - long post ahead.
.

LOL. It's been interesting reading posts about your purchase experience.

Long post is better than "--to be continued" at the bottom.

stickguy

what exactly is the "fleet rebate"? Something from your employer?

28firefighter

stickguy said:

what exactly is the "fleet rebate"? Something from your employer?

Basically. A number of employers but it’s also available to a large swath of the general public through associations - PenFed, USAA, ABA, AMA, and United Airlines Premier Members. 

carnaught

@28firefighter, big congrats on the nearly new C300! The car is awesome; love the looks of the C’s. I loved mine.

fintail

Funny, they had no problem when I used the fleet rebate, but my MBCA discount was puzzling.

When the time comes, I am going to look more into the MSDs.

28firefighter said:

Yup. As did my fleet rebate and my knowledge of the base buy rate. 

28firefighter

fintail said:

Funny, they had no problem when I used the fleet rebate, but my MBCA discount was puzzling. When the time comes, I am going to look more into the MSDs.

Yup. As did my fleet rebate and my knowledge of the base buy rate. 

How much longer is left on the lease?

fintail

About 14 months

But I am here, so I am thinking of the future. If I can get a deal I might just buy it out, but if not, there will be options. My last pull forward was 8 months in advance, as they wanted to get rid of a leftover, not sure what will happen this time.

28firefighter said:

How much longer is left on the lease?

28firefighter

fintail said:

About 14 months But I am here, so I am thinking of the future. If I can get a deal I might just buy it out, but if not, there will be options. My last pull forward was 8 months in advance, as they wanted to get rid of a leftover, not sure what will happen this time.

How much longer is left on the lease?

Haha. They started talking to me about pull ahead last night. My immediate response was “I haven’t even signed for this one yet.”

Mr_Shiftright

tjc78 said:

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/esh/6324690044.html

Had to post this one...

Priceless! And yes, he's right. Maserati makes pretty bad cars. Not like the old days, when at least you got your money's worth and a car with real character.

fintail

3 months or 6 months?

I need to find my paperwork to see the residual - I was looking at cars on Autotrader last night (found no Bluetecs I'd want more than mine), and it appears the residual I remember is about the asking price for cars now - 14 months before lease end. Not a good sign.

28firefighter said:

Haha. They started talking to me about pull ahead last night. My immediate response was “I haven’t even signed for this one yet.”

corvette

"Fleet rebate," I'm a PenFed member and need to look into that. I doubt a Merc will be my next purchase, but if other makes offer something similar, I'd be very interested when the time comes. Edit: Looks like it's Mercedes only.

The XM radio on the Tahoe randomly decided to stop working this morning.

stickguy

wonder if you can work out a deal to have dealer buy the car out, and sell it back to you? Just going that route anyway if you turn it back. I think it varies brand to brand if dealers can call dibs on a car they take in, or if they all have to go to auction.

corvette

stickguy said:

wonder if you can work out a deal to have dealer buy the car out, and sell it back to you? Just going that route anyway if you turn it back. I think it varies brand to brand if dealers can call dibs on a car they take in, or if they all have to go to auction.

BMW dealers used to be able to take a car back on lease return, CPO it, and sell it back to the original lessee. I think they could also CPO a non-CPO car that was in their used inventory if the buyer wanted it. Corporate pulled the plug on that several years back.

fintail

Yeah, they want you to lease again - I suspect MB doesn't have a program to call dibs on a lease return, but I haven't asked around yet.

I started leasing to not be attached to a car, so maybe it is best - there's just nothing out there that I like as much as this car, unless I happened upon a very specifically optioned car, and even then, I like this powertrain more.

nyccarguy

@28firefighter - congrats!  Welcome to "the dark side."  You have much to learn young Skywalker.

We got back from an almost 700 mile road trip up to Waterville Valley, NH for my 11 year old son's hockey tournament.  They lost game 1 on Friday night, wiped the floor with the other team yesterday AM, & lost a heartbreaker this AM (only 1 ref showed up, the other team plays at a higher level than us, and we had 2 goals disallowed).  We got some great skiing in as well as some bonding time with other teammates and their families.  We packed the Pilot to the gills.  Loaded the skis on the roof.  It performed great on the trip.  The White Mountains in NH are so beautiful.  Think it needs a wash?

Michaell

nyccarguy said:

@28firefighter - congrats!  Welcome to "the dark side."  You have much to learn young Skywalker.

We got back from an almost 700 mile road trip up to Waterville Valley, NH for my 11 year old son's hockey tournament.  They lost game 1 on Friday night, wiped the floor with the other team yesterday AM, & lost a heartbreaker this AM (only 1 ref showed up, the other team plays at a higher level than us, and we had 2 goals disallowed).  We got some great skiing in as well as some bonding time with other teammates and their families.  We packed the Pilot to the gills.  Loaded the skis on the roof.  It performed great on the trip.  The White Mountains in NH are so beautiful.  Think it needs a wash?

Eh, not that dirty.

stickguy

sensing you are glad to have taken the plunge, instead of trying to stretch out the old buggy. I approve.

to me, a big difference between a primary family car that does a lot of heavy lifting like this, vs. a spare/2nd/commuter/local car, where you can cut some corners.

nyccarguy

stickguy said:

sensing you are glad to have taken the plunge, instead of trying to stretch out the old buggy. I approve. to me, a big difference between a primary family car that does a lot of heavy lifting like this, vs. a spare/2nd/commuter/local car, where you can cut some corners.

I'm very happy I took the plunge.  I'm also happy I bought instead of leasing.  Tomorrow marks 1 month and we've got over 1,900 miles on it.

It seems like the trip odometer is a little gracious with its figures by about 2 mpg.  I calculated 20.25 from one of the fill ups.  Still not bad considering there were 5 of us, plus a lot of luggage & skis on the roof.

tbirdmarco

 New York car guy glad you and the family and awesome trip to New Hampshire wow you’re racking up the miles on that pilot very nice have a good night and upcoming week do you and your family 

tbirdmarco

 New York coral guy sorry to hear about your son‘s hockey team winning any games 

pensfan83

That is definitely not too dirty...or maybe it's just because my car is white but has looked gray for the past month. Temps went into the low 50's today so I gave both cars a bath, cycling through 3 buckets each of wash and rinse water. They look much better now.

tbirdmarco

 That poor guy with that Maza Roddy that he’s selling you got a bad one man crazy if the car was that problematic hope you sold along time before spending $11,000 on repairs I know it’s an expensive car but come on ha ha Ha crazy 

iluvmysephia1

nyccarguy, man, I can't believe you've had the new Pilot a month now. It's gotta be the Quickening like Art Bell used ta describe it. The march of time seems ta be quickening its pace somewhat.

stickguy

lots of miles. I am a few days short of 3 months, and just cracked 1,200 miles. So I guess that is going to be around 6K miles/year at the same pace, which is not much less than the Sonata did.

Michaell

stickguy said:

lots of miles. I am a few days short of 3 months, and just cracked 1,200 miles. So I guess that is going to be around 6K miles/year at the same pace, which is not much less than the Sonata did.

About the same pace I'm putting miles on the Jetta. Just cracked 8K over the weekend - 17 months.

My spreadsheet says I should be at somewhere around 17K.

stickguy

the Sonata was just a tick under 21K at 3 years when it went back, so 7K/year seems about right. That car took a few longer trips (NC at least once, a bunch of times up to NY) that the Elantra has not had a chance to do yet. Not sure if it really will get a lot of those though. But we shall see.

suydam

I guess I don’t feel too bad then that we just turned 8000 on the Volt odo after 13 months.

qbrozen

I was right on track with the Ford up until my layoff. Now it is getting a break for a while. What happens next is up in the air. I have my eye on a couple of remote jobs, so it could be the miles will go to waste. Good thing it is only a 24-mo lease.

rayainsw

'...up until my layoff.'
Did I miss a post - do not recall reading about this ?
Unexpected ?
Trust you will be OK !
- Ray
Laid off a few times over 45+ year career ...

tbirdmarco

 Rosen I hope you do too short we were off you find a new job real soon and everything works out for you and the family 

graphicguy

nyccarguy said:

stickguy said:

sensing you are glad to have taken the plunge, instead of trying to stretch out the old buggy. I approve.

to me, a big difference between a primary family car that does a lot of heavy lifting like this, vs. a spare/2nd/commuter/local car, where you can cut some corners.

I'm very happy I took the plunge.  I'm also happy I bought instead of leasing.  Tomorrow marks 1 month and we've got over 1,900 miles on it.

It seems like the trip odometer is a little gracious with its figures by about 2 mpg.  I calculated 20.25 from one of the fill ups.  Still not bad considering there were 5 of us, plus a lot of luggage & skis on the roof.




Nitpicking, but my TLX’s computer is consistently about 5% high on reporting MPG. Must be a Honda thing. That’s a bit surprising given how Honda and Acura are so meticulous about how the rest of the car is engineered, built and operates.

stickguy

Most likely designed this way on purpose.

nyccarguy

@graphicguy - this is definitely done on purpose.  Our 2011 Pilot's trip computer was "dead on balls accurate."