Just my little rant on stupidity

[Brittney]

So I'm looking for a new car after my last one got totaled. I have a 3K budget which limits me to buying from a private party seller. I called a guy yesterday about a truck he is selling for $2,800. We set up a time and he agreed to meet at his house at 12. We got there 15 min early and there was no one at the house, no truck, and there was a For Rent sign out front. I called him 3 times and it went straight into voicemail. Left him a message each time. 12:45 rolled around and still no call back and still no one showed. We went home. He called me back as soon as I pulled into my driveway and told me "Hi, I just got out of church, I told you I was moving and wouldn't be available until after 12" Umm, sorry dude, you told me meet at your house at 12, and I did, you weren't here, so I left. He explained that he is in the process of moving and is using the truck to haul things. So, therefore, he was willing to take our money today, but not give us the truck today, which makes absolutely no since. He proceeded to argue with me when I told him I was already home. He asked me how far away I lived from him and I said a good 45 minutes or more. He got an attitude and demanded that I explain how I'm already home if I live 45 minutes away, when I called him 30 minutes ago. Umm well if you looked at your phone and listened to your messages, I did call you 30 minutes ago, and left you a message saying that I have been waiting a while and had enough and I was going home. I told him if he really wanted to sell it, we would meet him half way. He declined and said no, that we would have to come back and meet him at his place, but he still wasn't ready to sell the car. I said no thanks and I got cussed out and hung up on. God, I can't stand stupid! :hair:

Also, yesterday, I called a person who was selling a very nice truck for cheap. I left a message and they called me back. They said "Hi, you called about my truck” I said yes, and they laughed for a good minute and said "How old are you?!?! 12? and you want a truck?!" I replied, "Umm, I'm 20, previously owned a truck, I'm pretty sure I'm old enough and capable enough to own a truck” She or he (couldn't really tell) said "Well, it has some mechanical problems, I wouldn't sell it to you because of your age and because of the problems." I stopped them there and just said no thanks, I'll save my money.

Uhg, car shopping is stressful! Especially when dealing with stupid people who don't think things through.

 

[Dragonflye]

QOQ, sounds like fun!

 

[Essentia]

I hate dealing with people.

On a side note, you can get a car/truck from a major dealership with $3,000. My husband got his first car for $2,000 and it was a great car. I don't remember what it was, but it had brand new tires, and a whatever point inspection. It was listed for $2,800 but with cash were able to bring them down to the $2,000. Cash speaks louder than anything else. So does you being willing to leave if they don't give you what you want. It took us a good 4 hours to haggle that low, but it worked. That said, you could also be looking at cars up to around $4,000 at a major dealership and probably get the price down where you need it to be.

Ours was purchased at a Saturn dealership, though the car wasn't a Saturn. We had just went around to a few places to see what they had and every one of the places had at least a few vehicles for around that price. With the economy being crap, they probably have even more to choose from right now.

 

[Brittney]

I hate dealing with people.

On a side note, you can get a car/truck from a major dealership with $3,000. My husband got his first car for $2,000 and it was a great car. I don't remember what it was, but it had brand new tires, and a whatever point inspection. It was listed for $2,800 but with cash were able to bring them down to the $2,000. Cash speaks louder than anything else. So does you being willing to leave if they don't give you what you want. It took us a good 4 hours to haggle that low, but it worked. That said, you could also be looking at cars up to around $4,000 at a major dealership and probably get the price down where you need it to be.

Ours was purchased at a Saturn dealership, though the car wasn't a Saturn. We had just went around to a few places to see what they had and every one of the places had at least a few vehicles for around that price. With the economy being crap, they probably have even more to choose from right now.

We tried the major dealerships. Witht he cash for clunkers program, it messed everything up. They don't have many used ones in our area because they are doing some wierd program in addition to the C4C. It's difficult to explain. We tried, they told us straight up that it wouldnt happen right now due to C4C.

 

[AZChins]

Britteny...are you serious? Someone asked if you were 12? Geez.

If I had a decent truck, I'd sell one to you. All I have right now is a truck that's a trillion years old and has bullet holes in it...not to mention that it's painted with flat house paint courtesy of the previous owner. LOL You'd love that one! We use it to pull out stumps and move rock and stuff like that, poor thing.

You can find something. Things are bad and people are desperate to sell things. It's just too bad that these people are so stupid. 12:45 is wayyyyy after 12 noon. The guy should have been there. People are such jerks. I deal with them all the time. They lie to me constantly about things. They stand me up, they rip me off for tiny sums of money, they yell at me all the time...and you know what, they always end up looking so stupid. You never yell or cuss at people because that's like telling them that they have won. Brit, you've won! You got the guy to cuss at you, congratulations!

 

[mishellyshel]

We own a small used dealership in NJ and we also do in house financing. With 2800 you could get something decent. You could either use the 2800 and have no payments or get something a little nicer with small payments. We have a program that we put a device in some of our customers with questionable credit that if they dont make their payment by a certain day, their car will not start and we hold the title. I wouldnt rule out the smaller used dealerships. not sure what is available in your area. Dealing with some people is very scary! People can be strange!

 

[Rickman]

Just imagine how P.O.'d you'd be if he did show up, and after your test drive and negotations, [hopefully without money changing hands!] he told you you couldn't have it until he was done moving!! I'da killed him!
Keep looking - You'll find something you like, soon!

 

[AZChins]

Michelle,

The smaller dealerships in Phoenix are very hard to trust. I don't know what it is about that town, but they pull all sorts of tricks on people. I've had them charge me $10 to $20 for the gas thing or have me put gas in the stupid car. I don't trust them, a lot of them fake that they do not speak English to make people feel uncomfortable so that they will agree to anything. It's just so hard up there. Tucson's a little easier, which is strange because Tucson is so much more wild west than Phoenix... LOL

I think it's great that you can shut off their car for not making a payment. I would think that running a used car business would be hard for sure. I don't like people well enough to have to deal with their crap.

 

[Brittney]

The smaller dealerships in Phoenix are very hard to trust. I don't know what it is about that town, but they pull all sorts of tricks on people. I've had them charge me $10 to $20 for the gas thing or have me put gas in the stupid car. I don't trust them, a lot of them fake that they do not speak English to make people feel uncomfortable so that they will agree to anything. It's just so hard up there. Tucson's a little easier, which is strange because Tucson is so much more wild west than Phoenix... LOL.

That's exactly what they wanted us to do yesterday. They gave us a car to drive on empty and told us that it would be $10 to fill it up. My mom also heard some people over talking. Apparently the places in Phoenix buy used cars on craigslist for a cheap price, then turn around and sell them as is for a higher price. It's just not right. We couldn't even find a CARFAX report on some of the VINS we pulled off, which isn't good.

 

[AZChins]

They buy them cheap at all sorts of auctions, too. You should always be able to pull a carfax report for a car! It's crazy that some of them didn't have VINs you could find on there. But, that's Arizona for you.

The BEST place to buy a car from is someone in Sun Lakes or Sun City. Elderly people getting rid of their cars are often the best people to buy from because they maintain their cars and normally they have low mileage. Look on www.autotrader.com for what you want, that will probably be a better place than stupid Craig's List.

 

[AZChins]

How about something like this?

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.j...ion=&max_price=3000&cardist=23&standard=false

Can you drive a stick? Those get pretty good gas mileage...even if a 4 cyl isn't much fun to drive!

 

[PetProductsByNature]

We bought a good Dodge van off of Autotrader from someone in Apache Junction.Then when we were looking for a Dodge truck we went to a small dealership in Tucson and they gave us one to test drive that was on empty and called my cell phone 5 minutes later to make sure we were all right...duh! We're sitting in a gas station! We finally got the truck we wanted and now if I go inside to pay, 2 out of 5 times they'll ask me if I'm sure I want deisel? I'm 52! It isn't an age thing Brittney, it's a girl thing...and they think we're stupid?!? Anyway we found our truck on AutoTrader too (and the individual gave us the CarFax report) Both vehicles were exactly what we were looking for and there were no surpises (other than we didn't feel like we got ripped off) Once you look you can always save your preferences and look at just the new listings. Good luck Brittney

 

[mishellyshel]

wow! i have never heard of making people put gas in the car just to test drive!! all our cars have gas in them and if they are low we make sure there is enough for test driving and at least getting to a gas station! geez. where i live is between New York & Philly so there are tons of dealers and many of them are shady but we also own a business that the car lot is on, so we really can't pull those shananigans!!!

 

[Brittney]

Can you drive a stick? Those get pretty good gas mileage...even if a 4 cyl isn't much fun to drive!

Yep, I can drive stick. My parents basically forced me to learn haha

I've started looking at things other than trucks. Like Mountaineers, Grand Ams and Cavaliers.

 

[AZChins]

There you go! For some reason the trucks are always a fortune here, but little cars are very cheap most of the time.

When you do a search on Auto Trader search up to like $4500 because most people are OBO in their asking prices. It's like everyone expects you to offer much less, so they just start you out at a high price.

 

[AZChins]

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.j...sion=&max_price=3500&cardist=7&standard=false

That's a super cheap car with good gas mileage...

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.j...ion=&max_price=3500&cardist=16&standard=false

$1500 for a Mercedes wagon...those things have pretty good hauling capacity.

 

[Brittney]

That's true, everyone is OBO. I just hate dealing with people. :nah:

 

[AZChins]

I know...the having to negotiate thing is just awful. Just never feel guilty about it, but don't be a jerk about it either. I'm awesome at buying cars, but I think it's because people can't figure out if I am a really nice person or just plain scary.

 

[Brittney]

Well, my stepdad refuses to call people, and apparently I sound like a 12 year old, so I get walked all over. uhg.

 

[AZChins]

You don't sound like a 12 year old though! You really don't.

If you want, send me the phone numbers and what you want me to ask...I'll call them for you.