While the red potatoes are boiling and the broccoli is steaming (uh, did I just hear someone fall out of their chair somewhere in Ohio?) (or was that a spit take a few miles from here?), I'll get a little further along in the tale of The Purchase.
The emails sent, now I entered a waiting period. Mind you, at this point my only physical contact with a dealership had been the test drive. I puttered around the house, watched TV, did a little work, pet the cats, played some poker... what I was NOT doing was sitting anxiously in a dealership negotiating with a car-salesman who's sole mission was to extract as much money from me as possible before handing me over a set of car-keys.
The first response I got was from an inquiry I'd made at one dealership's web-site and not from my e-mail. At first glance, it looked fantastic. However, they didn't confirm that the price they quoted was for a vehicle with the precise features I wanted. I suspected that this was a lowball to get me into the dealership, so I filed it away for the moment and continued to wait.
I then got a response from a Tulsa dealership I'd e-mailed - but their quote was for a model missing one of the features I wanted. I was pleased, though, that the quotes were very close to what I'd thought they'd be and well within negotiating range.
An Oklahoma City dealership responded with a quote for the precise model I was looking for, but with a term I wasn't sure as to its meaning. I was quoted X amount of dollars "out the door."
I went back to Google and discovered for some dealers "out the door" can mean inclusive of TTL (tax, title, license), others it means the total cost before TTL. So I e-mailed OKC back and asked for clarification. Their quote was "out the door" before TTL. This meant it included any dealer added features and the documentation fee.
The next quote came from the dealership where I took my test drive. I'd made a point of getting the salesman's card when I left and in my e-mail I stated I wanted to give him the business if possible. He e-mailed me the quote, but it was a bit strange.
The salesman first apologized for not responding right away because he'd been in the hospital for a couple of days. The tone of the rest of it was offputting and incuded, what I was soon to learn is every car-salesman's favorite phrase, "tell me how I can earn your business."
Was he serious? Could it be that easy? How can you earn my business? Sell me the car I want at the price I want to pay - that's how. Duh.
His price was higher than the OKC quote, so I shot back my first bit of negotiation. I told him I'd received a quote $Y and asked "Can you beat that?"
Mr. Tell Me What I Can Do responded:
Invoice: $xx,xxx.xx
Documentation Fee: $198.00
Dealer Trade Cost: $200.00
Doing business with Our Dealership: Priceless
Oh boy.
In the meantime, I received an e-mail from another salesman at that same dealership asking if I was still in the market for a vehicle. Ummmm... do you not talk to your colleagues??
Now I shot an e-mail to the OKC dealership and made a counter offer. I shaved a little over $300 off their quote, putting the offer a little above the dealer cost (which the spreadsheet had helped to calculate).
At this point, a little bit of frustration had crept in. My first e-mail went out on a Wednesday. We were now approaching the weekend and I'd hoped to have a deal so I could get the purchase done on the weekend. I was very tempted to contact the second dealer and take their deal. But I reigned in my impatience as the weekend rolled in.
I heard nothing on Saturday and Sunday the dealerships were closed. That was okay because the Sunday I was KO'd by the mother of all headaches and spent the day on the couch in agony.
Monday, about mid-morning, I got a response from the OKC dealership. They rejected my counter-offer and counter-counter offered a price about mid-way between my low offer and their original quote. I'd anticipated that.
I spent the morning thinking about it. I ran the figures a few more times, checked my "gut" barometer, then decided to accept the quote. I called the sales-person on her cell-phone.
"Hi, Marla, I'm the person who's been e-mailing you."
She chuckled, "We weren't sure if we were dealing with a man or a woman."
"Well, last time I checked, I was a woman," I replied. "I'm ready to buy a car from you."
I'd signed my e-mails K E Lastname on purpose. I figured they'd default to the male category regarding my identity and, frankly, that's what I wanted them to do. It was ironic that my sales person happened to be a woman - a rarity in the car business.
She explained that they would be doing a dealer trade and so it would take two to three days for my car to be transported in. I gave her the info she needed for the deposit and she told me she'd contact me as soon as it came in.
I got off the phone satisfied that I'd made a good deal. It wasn't the "look-at-me-I-got-it-for-less-than-invoice" deal much of the info from the internet touted was possible, but it was a good deal none-the-less.
I must note here that at no time did I mention I had a trade-in. I'd learned from other purchases to keep that out of the negotiations until a price for the new vehicle had be agreed upon. That would be the next step!
Stay tuned - trade in and retrospect coming next.
