Car shoping

[haypops]

This last weekend I went shoping with daughter #4 for her first new car. Like most people in her postion (and mine) money is important. My plan was to get a Chevy Cobalt LS with automatic transmission utilizing the almost $3000 GM card rebate. The test drive was ok, perhaps a lttile underwhelming to me. My daughter didn't like it all saying that it seemed like a rental car. I have no idea where she learned that expression. Things got worse as the nice, industrious young man who was helping us (3.5 weeks on the job) introduced us to his sales manager. Oh my God! What an obnoxious slimey, iley character he was. Slight of build and full of the strangest facial expressions. He slowly and emphatically declared that they were THE-LARGEST-CHEROLET-HUMMER-HYUNDAI dealer in the San gabriel Valley. It must have taken two minutes for him to emphasize each and every syable of this claim. You may have guessed that they are the only Chevy-Hummer-Hyundai dealer in the San Gabriel Valley. Next he tried to convice me to buy the car by claiming that they have been in business for 35 years. The building has been there 35 years, I have been there for 35 years, neither he nor the present owner have been. All of these lies and facial gestures, ticks, etc which he took as a sign of honesty and likableness, took just hours and hours. As we were leaving he offered that they had a 5 door Hyundai on the roof that was there last. This was a car my daughter had thought she wanted at one time. Even though it was now dark and late and I was exhausted from the expereinces we took a short test drive. Although there was some strange brake noise, the car wasn't too bad and more appealing than the Cobalt. When we returned to the dealership the sales manager offered to give us a price in 10 minutes. I said make it 5. He said "no can do". I left withut any idea of what the transaction price would be.

My daugeter and I took the next day off. On super bowl Sunday we set out shopping again. We went to the Chrysler dealer. My daughter has always thought she might like a PT cruiser and they have been advertised with some really good prices ($12000). The salesman let us sit in one and showed us some of the features. My daughter was very much taken by this car. We went for a test drive. This is my third in a row experience with Chrylser cars in recent years. Really I don't know how they stay in business. The engine was noisy, the ride was choppy, and the transmission shifted abruptly and irradicaly. My daughter was of course not turned off by these slight imperfections. We dickered over price. Although they advertised the car at 13000 in the paper, they offered it to us at $14000. When I double checked the printout, they had changed the price of the car to $16000. We walked.

My daughter wanted to look some more. She offered either Pontiac or Saturn. I was physically tired from all the crap of the weekend's shoing but knew that Saturn would offer an easy time of it for my aching feet and bruised warrior nature.

After a short introduction into the qualities of Saturn (the salesman kicked in the side of the car with no lasting damage) my daughter picked an unusual green colored car to test. It had a nice tan interior, automatic transmission, power door locks, on star, and a sterio with Ipod input. In short everything my daugher wanted but nothing she couldn't afford. She is a new and unsure driver. She was hesitant to look at Saturn becuase of the center mounted instuement cluster. As she declared how much easier it made driving, I noticed that her driving had improved. I also noticed that the Saturn rode more comfortably, shifted more smoothly, and was quieter than the other makes of cars we had tried. Of course the sales ecperience is as advertised. We bought the car, they washed it, filled it with gas and sent us on our way.

[CARBIZ]

Great read. Many, many times I am ashamed to be in the car business when I hear the horror stories that are still out there.

I am glad the Saturn experience was a good one. Chock one up for GM!

[haypops]

I have a pretty positive opinion of car sales people; prhaps this is something I could have seen myself doing when I was younger. The experiences this weekend were aberations, I hope.

[trinacriabob]

This last weekend I went shoping with daughter #4 for her first new car.  Like most people in her postion (and mine) money is important.  My plan was to get a Chevy Cobalt LS with automatic transmission utilizing the almost $3000 GM card rebate. 

Haypops, shopping has 2 p's. :AH-HA_wink:

Which GM Card do you have that has a redemption allowance of $ 3000 on a reasonably priced car? Or did you get one of those "tack on a little" offers in the mail?

Which Chevy dealer? I think El Monte has some big dealers. That's where Longo Toyota is.

[trinacriabob]

  I am glad the Saturn experience was a good one.  Chock one up for GM!

The Saturn experience is supposed to be a good experience. But, unfortunately, there are a lot of slimey salespeople out there -- some are hardly different from those pushy ones who sell gym memberships. (My motto: If you push me, you don't get my commission. Period).

Well, I'm glad it ended well. Wishing you many years of happy and safe motoring!

[trinacriabob]

  I am glad the Saturn experience was a good one.  Chock one up for GM!

The Saturn experience is supposed to be a good experience. But, unfortunately, there are a lot of slimey salespeople out there -- some are hardly different from those pushy ones who sell gym memberships. (My motto: If you push me, you don't get my commission. Period).

Well, I'm glad it ended well. Wishing you many years of happy and safe motoring!

[haypops]

Haypops, shopping has 2 p's. :AH-HA_wink:

Which GM Card do you have that has a redemption allowance of $ 3000 on a reasonably priced car?  Or did you get one of those "tack on a little" offers in the mail?

Which Chevy dealer?  I think El Monte has some big dealers.  That's where Longo Toyota is.

The dealer was Team Chevrolet in Pasadena, CA. The GM card is the old gold one. I also have a blue one that GM has offered to round up from $90 rebate to $2000. That offer exempts the Cobalt. By the way the dealer had 3 HHR that i remeber. They are very impressive in person. Nice interior also. Too bad it was out of our price range.

[PurdueGuy]

I assume it was an Ion that you purchased? Sedan?

[daves87rs]

I assume it was an Ion that you purchased?  Sedan?

That's what I'm thinking too...

The new Ions are growing on me...

I was thinking of buying a used Ion coupe to replace my wagon.....

[haypops]

I assume it was an Ion that you purchased?  Sedan?

Yes it was an ION 2 sedan with automatic transmision. I registered the On star today, boy is that trippy. Ipushed the button, was greated with my name (no not my screen name) and they went through the many features, analyized my car's systems and e-mailed me the results including my milage (147 miles).

[76ChevyTrucker]

Yeah, its funny, I'm the second owner of my Impala and I accidentally pushed the OnStar button while driving (I was trying to turn the self-dimmer rear view mirrow option off for a moment) and I was greeted by my name and I haven't even signed up for the service....although it was nice to know that at least the information is there if I wanted to sign up for it.