Car buying has always been a pain. Even with “haggle” free policies, it is time consuming and a painstaking process. You would think that it could be easy once you know what it is that you want to buy? We have searched this valley high and low. We have decided that we want to purchase a 2016 Town & Country Touring Van in either, Granite, Grey or Charcoal. Simple, it should be right?
They seem to be right around our price range. They have lowish miles most around 26K miles or less. The Town&Country Touring has the stow n go seats in the back, allowing you to put them away and haul things. The options are perfect for family life and trips. It just seems like a practical vehicle for our needs. Not the price of SUV’s but room to take kids to games and on trips! My favorite color is the Granite. They are harder to come by because they are highly sought after. The car buying process has worn us down. The dickering and the games… we have been to the table negotiating on two different vehicles. The first deal fell apart over $300.00 difference. Husband got mad and stuck at price point. Don’t blame him, they had us give them a huge check, our old van and another $1500 check on top and then wanted us to make payments on $300.00 bucks… Too much giving lol.. so we left…
The last incident was totally ridiculous! This particular company, Bill Luke Chrysler on Camelback Rd. here in Phoenix, emphasizes that if you don’t finance with them, the cost of the vehicle you buy will be 1K more! They get a kick back from the lender for every application they generate. They receive more money for every approved credit app they submit. This seems to be a real trend with the dealerships. Cash is no longer king with them. In fact, this particular dealership is hyper focused on financing through them. So much so that they risked and did blow up our deal! After we negotiated a solid accepted offer, we made out the bank draft which is essentially like handing them cash… The sales guy took the draft to the finance guy and came back telling us that we needed to fill out a credit application. My husband was furious! Since when do they have to run your credit when you pay cash for something? They salesperson simply told us that is how they do business. We don’t need another ding on our credit report especially when we have essentially cash for the deal. Our own secured financing! My husband got so angry that he snatched the check out of the salesmans hand and we stormed out! They were going to run the credit app to get the kickback from their lenders without even giving us the 1K incentive deal… they blew up a cash deal over whatever kickback they thought they could get through running our credit application.
To add insult to injury, the dealership kept calling us the next day to see if we would come back in and do the deal. They offered no better deal, just come back and buy the car. My husband told them if they have no better offer for the trouble and hassel they created, forget it! They had a sizable check in hand that they let walk by trying to be sneaky and underhanded with side deals. Needless to say, we tore up that bank draft.
The research online, along with chatting with salespeople takes my days. We have looked at and have driven many now. I think we have pretty much exhausted the Phoenix market! Boy we are getting an education on car buying.
We chose to get our financing through a federal credit union. The interest rate is terrific so it will help with the monthly payments. We were approved for up to a certain amount of money. We are trying of course, to stay below that amount and get the best deal that we can! We only pay on what we use of the loan…
We are finding this process to be so not fun! I wish I could wake up to a Granite 2016 Town&Country Touring Van in my driveway lol.. I can’t wait to be finished with this life lesson.
On another note, or several of them…
I was glad to spend some time yesterday playing. Stress relief!!!!
tynajoymetzner 