We've been looking for a car for my little brother for a month or so now. We've checked every dealer in town, and can't find any good deals, or decent cars. Apparently 5 year old or newer foreign cars cannot be purchased in this area for less than $12,000. We found a couple 2003 Tauruses and a 2002 Escort ZX2 at the Ford dealer, the Tauri for $11,980 each and the ZX2 for $8990 (those prices are after the $2000 minimum trade-in). Yes I tried to talk my mother out of both cars, but she argued that since Ford has sold so many Tauri, they can't be a bad car. Cold, calculating, undebatable logic, wouldn't you say?
She doesn't remember our 97 Sable bing in the shop every couple months.
So last week, we get this letter in the mail from the dealer, with a coupon for $3180 off any used car on the lot. We've gotten these from them before, and I've always figured they were too good to be true, but since we were considering buying one of these cars, $3000 off the above price would at least be a fair deal for those cars. With that thought in mind, we went to the sale (hereafter refered to as 'the circus') that Friday.
We get there to find a circus tent, with tables set up all under the tent. The old prices the cars were advertised for were replaced with signs hanging from their rear view mirrors, with monthly payments that were all about $100 higher than they would have been under the old prices. Salesmen were inside a makeshift room in the tent, and a long line of toothless rednecks coming to claim their prizes, and not buy a car. All were given two scratch and win cards, where you have to get 6 of a kind to win. Pretty sure nobody won. So we waited in line for our salesman, a greasy little older guy named Kain with a slight New York accent.
We proceeded to tell him we were interested in the Escort. the price in the window was $251 a month. We complained about the bumper hanging off, and he suggested it had been backed into a pole and repainted (the bumper was not properly attached to the car, and all along it except at the corners, you could fit your hand in the gap. No other ZX2 around town had this ailment). So he takes us to look at the black Taurus, the window price is $317 a month. We've seen and looked at all these cars before, so we ask for the
actual prices of the cars. So he takes us back to the tent, sits us at a table, and goes to talk to someone to find the prices of the cars. Five minutes later, he returns and gives us the price of the Taurus. $11,640 Well after $3000 that would bring it down to around $8000, which would be about fair for a base-model no-option car with 50,000 miles. But then I thought to ask him, "Is that before or after the $3000 coupon?" "After" he casually stated. Whoa, hold on, the price of the car had actually jumped $1000 right before the sale? My mother got out her pen and paper and wrote down
Before Sale:
$11980
+2000
= $13980
At sale:
$11640
+3180
=$14820
Everyone else understands this math, right? Well he pretended he didn't and we were 'overthinking it' and we were actually getting a better deal. We were getting a better deal in that we were saving $400. Oooh, we could save a whole $400! Whoopty freaking doo! So we argued with him about it, and he absolutely would not budge on the price. He offered to lower it to $11,000, IF we drove away with it RIGHT now. Sign the papers, no test drive. Get real.
So we asked him for the price of the Escort. While he was gone, I told my mother and little brother we should walk away right now, but she wanted to see the numbers on the Escort. He comes back, price is $9,550. Even worse than before! Just to satisfy our curiosity, we asked to take the Escort for a test drive. According to Carfax, this car was at another dealer lot downstate since January, sold at auction, and has been here since May. The reason why would soon become obvious. So go to the car, and hop in, and he insists on coming with us. Every other dealer had no problem handing us the keys and saying 'see ya in 15 minutes' but I could understand them not wanting someone driving off with it. So I drive, salesman in the passenger seat, brother and mother in the back. Start the car, and there's this moderate vibration at idle, even worse than my Fiero (my Fiero idles between 500-600 rpm's in drive after warming up, and it causes the dash to shake). Being a hot day, we turn on the AC, and the vibration gets 10X worse! The pedal is vibrating so bad I think my foot is going to fall asleep! And the vibration doesn't go away while driving it's still there. The salesman chalks it up to the car being a 4 cylinder, and all 4-cyls do that. Funny, the THREE we have at home don't. So during the drive, the car handles and otherwise rides fine, but the vibration is so horrible.
We come back in, and he still tries to sell it to us. We tell him we'll think about it, and we'll probably be back tomorrow (the last day of the 'sale'). Needless to say, we didn't go back. I went back to the dealer yesterday on my lunch hour, and all the cars we looked at were still there, no prices in the windows.
On the way home, we discussed what a snake he was, how we couldn't believe a sale could be such a non-sale, and how stupid he must have thought we were. I don't think there's any chance we'll b egoing back to that dealer.
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1984 Fiero SE
