Yesterday was the day I drove up to Lafayette, IN to talk to the guys up there. Unfortunately, when I got there, I was informed that they didn’t have the car yet. I was quite bummed about that, especially with the prospect that I’d have to drive back up there to get it later. While I was there though, they checked out my truck to see how much the’d be willing to offer me. They seemed much more competent about figuring out the trade in value. Here in town, the first value they gave me, they didn’t even enter the car, the guy just walked around it. Then, the second time, he drove it around the lot. Well, up at Mike Raisor Imports, they actually took it into the mechanic and did a once over on it. Of course, they found out that, yes, the cars as A/C, but in fact it doesn’t work. It really hasn’t worked that well since the car was new, but oh well. Mike Auth (the salesman I delt with), was straight up with me. He said that they’d probably be able to get $1500 for it the way it is (broken windshield, a/c not working, etc). However, since I was given a trade-in value here in town of $2330, it was obvious he didn’t want to just give me $1500. In fact, after talking with his boss, he’s giving me a trade-in of $2500. Plus, he can give me the car for less than sticker price. This is the point, I’m thinking there’s no way I can go wrong.
So, I wait a bit to talk to the money people. Actually, it was quite awhile, but that’s ok because Mike sat around and talked with me to pass the time. Since I had talked to Mike earlier and given him all my info, they had already gotten me approved at various banks. That definitely saved some time. However, when I started talking to Jaquie, she was quoting me prices starting at over $400! That was over $100 more than what I was going to pay here. Granted, that was with all the extra slapped on, but even the base price of the car, without any extras, was still quite a bit higher than what I was told here. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why either. I mean, the car was cheaper, the trade-in was for more, and the taxes were a quarter of a percent lower. Well, it turns out she was using quotes from the local banks there, and their apr was 7.9%! Obviously this was quite a bit higher than the 3.9% that I was given here in town. Needless to say, I ask her why I wasn’t given quotes with the 3.9% that VW was offering. Well, for what ever reason it required more paperwork, so she hadn’t even gone through that. Well, I was very frank with her, if she couldn’t get it to the price that the place in town was, there was no way I was going to purchase from them. Especially since by buying it out of state, I’d have to do more legwork after the purchase; I’d have to go to the DMV, and get setup and pay for the title, license, and pay the extra quarter percent of tax.
Needless to say, she wanted me to buy the car. So, she priced it out with 4.9%, apparantly the best she could do, since I wanted 72 months (that way I didn’t have to worry about high payments, but can always pay more which I plan on doing). She got the price below that of what was offered here, and then threw in some extras (like the extended warranty) to make up for the fact I have to stand in line at the DMV and pay extra then. At that point, I really couldn’t say no. The people there were way to nice, and they had beaten the price, which is what I wanted.
Unfortunately, like I said earlier, they didn’t have the car on the lot, so I couldn’t drive it home. Instead, they are going to deliver it to me. Actually, we’re going to meet half-way, because I’m such a nice guy 🙂 With everything that I delt with here in Champaign, I’m so glad that I happened to have called up there and talked to Mike Auth. Talk about a great guy to deal with. Heck, everybody that I talked to at Mike Raisor was great. Unfortunately not all dealerships are like that, but as far as I’m concerned, they should be. I’m almost tempted to have my service work (if I ever need any), done up there. So, sometime this week, I’ll be driving a Spice Red Jetta GLS TDI. I can’t wait!
awsome to find a car dealership that seems to have figured out that good service will get your business. new car, here you come!