Car Sales

So this 2003 Acura CL has been sitting on the driveway for a long time, now it’s the time to get rid of it since nobody in the household really drives it. I understand that when I tried to sell it to the dealership or mechanics, they want to make some money out of it, but one of the mechanics offered a really low price that made me lose my respect for him. I guess since it’s been there for months, I am not in a hurry to sell it immediately.

On Friday, I spent a good one hour cleaning the car to make it look decent enough to show, because all the leaves and dirt accumulated so much on top of it. When it comes to car sales, sometimes it can be a nightmare. It’s especially true when you are pushed into making big decisions by some of those salesmen. I was shocked how manipulative and ruthless they can be at one of the dealerships in Louisville yesterday. At the end of the day, all they cared about was the numbers that can be put into their system to have a good commission, although they all emphasized that they don’t care if the customers would buy the car or not. For a while I thought I probably had to pay them some money in order to walk out of the door. They are masters of psychological wars and mind controlling. They try to make you feel they are your “friends” by giving all the options to you and thinking for you.  Then you feel guilty about not buying a car in the end because they spent hours with you. Indirectly, you feel you have the obiligation to buy a car because they are your “friends”. I know what they are doing and I understand that’s their jobs. But when I tried to play nice and said it’s out of the budget, they didn’t let go and continued to offer various deals that are still of the budget. I was quite disappointed that when I said we cannot afford it, the sales manager told me it’s not his problem. We spent 9 hours at the dealership yesterday, simply because they were constantly pushing and pushing, not letting us leave. The sales manager even said, “we are not letting you guys walk out of the door empty handed.” But why? Is it because I was sending out some signal that’s indecisive or is it because that’s how they interact with customers? If that’s the way they are, I would wonder how many of the customers regret making that big purchase eventually. Yes, I would like to get a car, but not this time. I want a nice car when I can afford. I am not getting one because you can give me the “best” deal ONLY today. I was quite upset when I came back. With this bad taste in my mouth, I am not sure if I would go to a dealership again to deal with the crap like that.