In early 2009, I was in a car accident while
driving one of our family’s vehicles.
Thankfully, I was okay but our car was not. The Dodge Stratus my wife owned since before we were
married was totaled. The car was
from the 2000 model year, which meant that the insurance settlement was far
short of the amount of money we needed to buy another reliable vehicle. We were considering beginning to have
kids, so we knew we needed a family friendly car for the future. We didn’t have a lot of options so we
started looking for a great deal….
The first secret we discovered in looking for
a great deal was Deciding On
Necessary Preferences. We
knew we needed a family vehicle from a reliable brand. We wanted lower mileage, a strong
safety rating, and clean interior.
These were our essential preferences. Beyond that - everything else was secondary. Color, model, interior, stereo were not
as important as the BIG preferences.
This was a little difficult for me, but parting with some of my personal
preferences so that we could get the major things was an essential step to
getting the deal.
After we determined our necessary preferences
we started pouring over the newspaper, Internet, and any other sources we could
find to get the car we needed. We
quickly learned the second secret: Patience. There were a number of times that we
saw a car that fit our preferences, but not our budget. We thought about giving up, biting the
bullet and going into debt to get a car.
However, we knew it would be hard to assume the financial
responsibility. Therefore, we had
to be patient. Since we needed two
cars to function between jobs, we borrowed a car from a friend for a period of
time to make things work. It took
us weeks of calling, visiting, and negotiating to finally get the deal that we
needed.
Finally, after spending hours upon hours
searching we found a deal. There
was an SUV we had our eye on which fit our necessary preferences, but always
seemed to be priced too high for our budget when we factored in total mileage. However, there was a dealership in our
area advertising it for $5,000 less than we had seen it anywhere else. We jumped into our remaining car and
hoped the car would still be there when we arrived.
The dealership was better described as a used
car lot. A guy named Tony (which
he pronounced as “Tone-AAA”) came out to greet us. When we showed him the print out of the vehicle he guided us
to the car. It beat our
expectations. We test-drove it and
it felt right. Then we inquired about
the price listed online. Tony
quickly disappeared into a back office and brought out his manager,
Schlambo. Schlambo (or Schlammy
for short) explained that it was mispriced online, but he would cut off $500
for our trouble if we still wanted the car. This was still out of our price range.
This is the moment that we discovered the
final secret to the getting the deal: We
Walked Away. We expressed
how much we liked the car. We told
him we would be happy to buy it at the advertised price. However, if it was going to be
thousands of dollars more than we expected, we couldn’t do it. So, we walked out the door. We had done this before. Sometimes the dealer would call and
make another offer. Most of the
time we just had to keep looking.
On this particular day, as we drove home we didn’t expect to hear
anything. However, before we
pulled into our driveway, we got the call we were looking for. Schlambo explained that times were
tough and he was under the gun to sell… He would give me the care for the price
originally advertised online. We
turned around, make sure the Vehicle History Report checked out, and signed for
the car.
Necessary Preferences guided our
process. Patience kept us from making a foolish decision. Willingness to Walk Away gave us the negotiating edge we needed. These three secrets got us into the
vehicle I drive today at a price that we never imagined possible. When you are making a large purchase at
a negotiable price keep these things in mind. It could be the difference between the price you want and
the price you pay.
No comments:
Post a Comment