
Originally Posted by
Sprung
I got up this morning, and we went out for breakfast. About 11:00 we decided to go to the same dealership where I bought my car, and we were looking around for something for my wife. Her car was still good, but starting to develop problems. So we find a red 2002 PT Cruiser. It's pretty nice and we drive it. All is going well, and although I wanted $0 down, to make the deal work, I put down $600. We traded in the Grand Prix, wich still has a balance, so they are paying it off and transferring the balance. Fair enough, I guess, it's a nice car. So we all sit down, sign papers and shake hands. Done deal. Well, about 3:00 the Finance manager rushes in and says the bank called back. They decided that 74000 miles is too much for a 2002, and they won't loan on it. Pissed? Yeah.
So, we proceed to check out the Chrysler Pacificas they have on the lot. There's 3 2004's, 2 silver with 34000 and 36000 miles, and a blue one with 64000 miles. The blue one has too many miles, so we look at one of the silver ones. We take the 36000 mile one for a spin, and liked it. We go back in, make a deal on it for the same $600 down, and at this point it's about 5:00, so they suggest we take it home and relax a bit. Ok, fine. I was already exhausted from looking at cars all day, so we did. On the way home we try the CD player, and it says ERROR and ejects the CD. I figure it doesn't like burned CD's, so when we get home, I try a real CD. Same error. So, we all hop back in and take it back. It might seem trivial, but a CD player is important to me and the wife. We get back, and they kinda 'poopoo' the broken CD player, and say "we'll fix it". I suggest we drive the 34000 mile Silver Pacifica. It's exactly the same car as the other, but the CD player works, so we go back in. I say we'll take it with the same deal as the other Pacifica with the broken CD player. All is going well, until the Finance manager suddenly realises she put in the bank information on the blue Pacifica with 64000 miles. Pissed again? Yeah. She then asks why we didn't like the blue one, and offers to fix the CD player. Now, we never drove the blue one at all, and the CD player was proken in the 36000 mile silver one. It's now about 7:30. And tired doesn't properly describe us.
She begins to try to convince us that the blue one will work better for this deal. Agitated, I again state I have no desire to buy the blue one, and my wife says to just give us the keys back to the Grand Prix and we'll go home. We start to get up and walk out, and the Finance manager says to wait, she'll sell us the silver 34000 at the blue 64000 price. I ask how she can do that, and she says she is the manager, and she can do it. At about 8:15, we start signing papers, and I check the final figures. With the actual price plus the carried over balance of the Grand Prix, the Pacifica costs us roughly $17,000. Not too bad for a 2004 with 34000 miles, so we sign off on the deal. About 9:15 they give it a nice wash and vacuum, and we are on our way.
When we got home, I pulled the Pacifica we bought up on Kelly Blue Book, and it lists for $18,500, so we really got the Grand Prix paid off completely when we traded it in, and still got the new car for less than it was supposed to bring.
At 10:30 I ate lunch.