I will never marry a salesman...

I had the pleasure of looking for a new(used) car recently. This was quite the educational adventure for me. Mazda is Japanese for those of you that thought it was Ford. It's not Ford. I've always been a little bit afraid of car salesmen. Being a young, single, blonde girl has a lot to do with that. I've always been told never to car shop without a guy in tow because I'll be taken advantage of. I went to the first dealership completely alone and was a little bit too enthusiastic. Apparently you have to act like you hate the car you love in order to actually buy it. It's a lot like dating come to think of it. Play hard to get. Don't be too enthusiastic. Make sure the ball is in your court at all times. Make dealers jealous of each other. Be mysterious. Yep-exactly like dating. Especially since the salesmen are always complimenting you and telling you what you want to hear even if it isn't true. "Wow-you're a really good driver! You picked up on that manual transmission switch over really fast!" I'd really like to believe that my driving skills are stellar in comparison to others-but they're really not and I know it full well.

A lot of people go into a dealership thinking the dealer is in charge. Not so. The buyer is always in charge. I like to be in charge so, as you can imagine, I was completely in my element. I went to a different dealer and played all my cards exactly right. I wasn't too enthusiastic. There were several times during the test drive that I wanted to scream and yell and cheer because I loved the car so much-but I didn't. I simply said "Ok." to everything the dealer was telling me. He tried his absolute best to crack some sort of positive response but was never successful. I also compared this particular dealer's car to the dealer's cars I had seen the previous day.

We went into his cubicle to talk about pricing. This is where it gets really tricky. It's like having a DTR (Define The Relationship) in the dating process. Everybody hates it, but it's a necessary evil. The dealer gave me his "best price," and I looked at him long and hard for at least a minute. Never underestimate the power of the pause. I knew this wasn't his best price and so did he. He was testing me. I asked the magic words "Is that REALLY the best you can do? That car just isn't worth that price to me." Mind you-a car is ONLY worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

The rest of our negotiation went something like this: I made an offer and the dealer went to talk to his boss. He came back with an answer. "Sure, we can sell it at this price. When you add on taxes, licensing fees, etc. it comes out to about the same price I gave you before." Me: "Well then that doesn't sound like a deal to me at all. No, I want the car at THIS (I pointed to my offer on the paper in case he wasn't sure) price out-the-door. Fees included." Dealer: "Are you planning on trading your car in?" Me: "I don't even have a reasonable price from you yet. Trading a car is not an option at this point." Dealer: "Let me talk to my boss." Me: "Fine." Dealer: "Ok, if you buy the car today I can give it to you at this price OTD (out the door for those you that were wondering if I was talking about some kind of disease). To which I replied: "Great. Now let's talk about my trade in." Dealer: "Oh, so you are doing a trade? (They hate this, by the way, but you can't give away all your assets at once. You've gotta hold on to the buying power). We'll give you this much for it." Me: "Fine. If you bring the price down another couple hundred dollars I'll pay cash right now (another thing-never tell a dealer how you're paying until the very last minute)." Dealer: "let me talk to my boss." Me: "Fine." Dealer: "Sign here and you've got yourself a deal." Me: "Give me a full tank of gas and I'll sign right now." Dealer: "Done." My boss gave me a lot of tips of how to wheel and deal while being completely honest. I didn't want to feel slimy or dishonest at all about my negotiation. The great thing is-I really feel proud of the way I handled it. The salesman I was dealing with (Mike) was completely thrown off by my frankness and knowledge of the car I was looking at (a Mazda 3 by-the-by). I did my homework and it really paid off. I got the car down to just about the exact price that I wanted. Also, right after I sealed the deal, a guy around my age came up to me and said he had been looking at that very same car for 3 weeks now and that he was negotiating for it with his salesman at the same time I was, but that I somehow beat him out. No wonder that other salesman kept glaring at me.

That being said, I absolutely love the car. In fact, everyone I've talked to that owns or has owned a Mazda 3 loves them. So, should you have a series of unfortunate events (much like Lemony Snicket) with your present car, I highly recommend you look into buying a Mazda 3.

Zoom-zoom.