I hate car shopping, for good reason. I learned years ago that there is nothing a car salesman won’t say to get you to take the deal, figuring he can fix it later. And the whole “let me talk with my manager” thing is both insulting and infuriating.
But, after reparing the transmission on the Xterra and looking at about another couple of grand in maintenance expenses in the next few months, I realized it was foolish to sink that kind of money into a car that was worth $4,000 as a trade-in. It was time to replace it.
I initially wanted to look at small luxury sedan. So, I went Crest Infiniti in Plano with my family to look at the G35. I don’t know if it was the fact that I had my wife & kids along, or how I was dressed, or whether I looked too ethnic, but not one employee of that dealership approached me. Only one employee spoke to us, and that was without breaking stride on his way somewhere else, commenting that the QX56 on the sales floor had a Playstation in it. Other than that, no salesperson even made eye contact.
Fortunately, I was able to sit in the G35 and realize that it was too cramped and low for me, as much as I liked the idea of the car. Not that I would have bought a damn thing from Crest anyway. I’m not going to beg for service or announce my annual income just to impress a car salesman enough to talk to me.
Then we went to the McKinney Nissan dealership, where a perfectly nice gentleman showed us vehicles that consistently had a $1200 markup over the sticker price. He explained that this was the “Environmental Protection Plan,” which was a fancy name for some sort of clear-coat paint sealant they put on at the dealership.
This is why I hate car dealerships. They’re always working an angle. I’d be willing to bet that they would come off the price for the EPP, and then act like they were doing me a favor by selling it to me at MSRP. We didn’t even talk money.
I ended up leasing a Pathfinder LE from Autoflex, the easiest car transaction I’ve ever done. To heck with car dealers.
