March 31st, 2011 - 111th Day

I finally found a few Lincoln Navigators that looked promising.   Both of them were in Salt Lake City, so Kerry and I took a road trip on Thursday to head up to Salt Lake.  The first Navigator was at Riverton Chevrolet.  I had been in contact with Ryan, who had followed up nicely, so I figured it wouldn't be a typical car buying experience.  I was wrong!  Right when we walked in the door, Ryan said, "Hi, I'm Ryan, let me introduce you to Mike, one of our Senior, more experienced, sales associates"  At that, Ryan was gone, and Mike took over.  He said, "What car were you looking at again?"  He then told us to sit, and we watched as he went out with the jumper cables and jumped the Navigator.   After about 15 minutes, he came and got us to show us the vehicle.  Besides having to be jumped, the car was dirty, and the bottom was rusted.  When we drove it, there was a constant pinging in the glove box, and the transmission sounded like it was going to fall off on the freeway.  When we got back to the dealership, Mike said, "Let me go get you my card".   After 5 or 10 more minutes, Mike came out with Jose.   "This is my manager, Jose".  Jose then said, "What do we have to do to get you in that vehicle today?"  I said, "We're going to look at another one, and so your vehicle has to be better than the one we are going to look at."  He then said, "Well, we'll see you in 30 minutes then."  I said, "No, you won't unless you're vehicle is better than the one we're going to look at".  At this point, I was a little perturbed.  First, they knew we were coming hours before we arrived.  They hadn't even started the car, there were gum wrappers on the back seat, the car was dirty, rusty, had the pinging sound, and the transmission sounded bad.  We were handed off to different people twice.  What is it about car dealerships handing you off to different people?  If a salesperson can't show you a car, should he really be a salesperson?!

We traveled to the next dealership, Murray Auto, and it was completely different.  Simon came out, greeted us, had the car all cleaned and ready, and didn't pressure us at all.  The Navigator ran great, looked great, and Simon didn't hand me off to his manager.     Which Navigator do you think I bought?  You're right, the first one.   No, just kidding, we bought the 2nd vehicle.  We then drove back to Provo, and met up with my brother Keith, and his wife Tonya, and their kids.  We had a great conversation before Kerry and I had to travel back to Saint George.   So, today was quite the accomplishment, because I dealt with a car dealer and was still nice to them, even though they were what the rest of the world would call sleezy dirtbags.  Ok, maybe not that harsh, I would put car salespeople somewhere between sea urchins and congressmen, but that's not fair to the sea urchins. 

Things I learned today, 1st, Going car shopping can be fun, but it can also be like trying to floss the teeth of a lion (very dangerous and no fun).  2nd, Everytime I get in a bind with anyone, I am going to just call in my personal manager.  That way, he can come in and save the day, and I don't have to be accountable for anything.  So, when my wife says, "Honey, did you clean the backyard like you said you were going to?"  All I have to say is, "Talk to my manager, he's more experienced than I am".  3rd, I've now found something that is harder to deal with than crab grass--car salespeople!