I wrote this last night on the flight from Phoenix to San Jose

Okay so I’m on the plane right now back to SJ. It was sort of a hectic day, but it was also sort of fun. Esther’s flight was at 7:30 or some such freakish hour, so her and mom were getting up at like 4:30 or something ridiculous to get to the airport in time to make her flight. I vaguely remember rustling around early in the morning, but then immediately went back to sleep. The next time I woke up it was to the sound of Jennifer “fighting” with Benj right outside my door. I again rolled over and went back to sleep. Then I woke up and sort of felt guilty for sleeping in so long. I felt like it was probably 10:30 or so. I rolled out of bed, threw on some shorts and a t-shirt and made my way out to the kitchen. Benj was in the high chair and mom and Jenni were chatting at the bar. I looked at the clock… 7:55!

So then we started trying to figure out the events of the day. The boys had spent the night at “Grandma Judy’s” and were due back around noon. The rental car that we had extended for a day (that’s a long damn story in itself) needed to be back by 12:30. We wanted to make another attempt on buying a car. And of course I needed time to pack and get to the airport. So the first plan was to go to the dealership, and attempt the car purchase, get back by noon or so to take the rental in, and then relax the rest of the day… Then the phone rang and it was Neci. Neci’s mom died last Thursday and we were all just sick about it. But she couldn’t talk to anyone for a couple of days, so we hadn’t really heard from her. Mom HAD to take the call. Neci was calling to ask for help with the viewing, and the funeral, and some stuff like that. She wanted mom to do some things. So in my mind I’m thinking that the car is going to have to wait. So I told mom that I would jump on the Internet and try to get some more information on the invoice pricing and stuff like that, and that she could go run some of the errands that Neci needed. I hopped on the net, and immediately 3 people from my office started messaging me, and asking questions… I was like, “HELLO! I’m on vacation here!” anyway, just then Esther pops up a message. She says, “I’m in the air right now!” She was cordless on her I-PAQ surfing, blinging, flexing, you know…

Anyway, mom comes back, Jenni shows up with the kids, and it’s like 11:45. In the meantime I have gotten more information on the cars, we are now leaning possibly to a 2001, 2000 car with really low miles, etc. The salesman from the dealership had called, and from our Saturday conversation had done a dealer search for the stripped down configuration that we were looking for. There weren’t any. So Jennifer and I said, “Look, we’ll take the rental car back. We’ll be home by 1:00 and then Mom and I will drive out to the dealership and look at some late model Avalon’s etc. etc.” Great plan, we take off for the rental car place. I’m driving the rental, Jenni’s driving mom’s car. We get going and I remember that Monte said to take the car back with a full tank of gas. So I pull into a gas station, get out and reach for my wallet… no wallet. Son-of-a… So then I have to get Jenni’s card and then the damn thing is asking for a PIN number… I was freaking out, getting a little uptight. Then the damn thing was a total of like 3 gallons of gas. Stupid! Anyway, we finally got to the rental place, turned the car in, and everything went smoothly. We started heading home and then Jenni and I started talking about buying mom a car. Now, my “pre-purchase buyer’s remorse” was sort of kicking in, and I was feeling like the whole thing was being rushed, and that we weren’t doing our due diligence. But Jennifer’s attitude was on the opposite end of the spectrum… “Just go buy a car.” I was saying that the car she wanted didn’t really fit in the budget… blah blah blah. And Jennifer was saying, “Who cares if it’s $1000 dollars more or even $2000… they have the money, and Mom should be able to drive a nice car.” And the light totally went off in my head. I agreed with Jenni wholeheartedly, and changed my thinking. My goal in the car negotiations was not to get a car under $20,000; the goal was to get her the car she wanted, and pay the correct price. In other words, buying a $23,000 car for $23,000 is okay. The thing that you are trying to avoid, is buying a $19,000 car for $23,000.

So we got back to the house. I said, “give me 15 minutes on the Internet, and then we’ll go.” I logged onto Edmunds.com and got the base invoice on the LE 4cyl, the LE 6cyl, the SE 4cyl, and the SE 6cyl. I also got the invoice pricing on the packages, and the options that we really wanted (ABS, and Moon-roof), and I put these numbers into my Palm Pilot, and then off we went to the dealer. Time 1:30. We get to the dealer and we see our salesman, he’s just finishing up with some couple who are leaving. We say, okay, lets go out to the lot and see what you have in stock. Let’s work with your existing inventory, and see what sort of a deal we can do. As we are walking out to the cars, he mentions that he had been talking to his boss this morning about the whole situation, and they were discussing the options that we wanted, and they agreed that they wanted to move their own inventory, and that they might need to work with what they have and in the final numbers make the options that we don’t want “go away.” I knew right then that we would get the deal that we wanted. But there was still a long way to go. So we walked the lot and we picked out 3 candidates; one SE 4cyl, one LE 6cyl, and one LE 4cyl. The SE had a moon-roof the LE’s didn’t. But we had already talked on Saturday about doing an after-market sunroof at the dealership. So this wasn’t really a problem in the scheme of things. We then went inside to talk about the cars that we had looked at, and to sort of get to the deal. But once inside we decided that Mom should drive the SE because even though she had test driven on Saturday, the SE drives a little different because it is the “sports package”. So we agreed, and took the car out for a spin. Now, ever since we met the guy on Saturday, I was trying to make friends with the guy. Knowing that only the slimiest of car salesmen, can actually take a customer without even thinking twice about it. So this test drive only gave me more time to make friends with the guy. Which I did the whole time. We get back to the dealership, and we go into the office to get down to it. After just a couple of minutes we narrow it down to the LE 6, or the SE 4. We sort of starting “the dance”, I am quoting a couple of “invoice” numbers etc. and he says, “Let me just go get the invoices on these two cars.” He brings back copies and I immediately see that the numbers on the page are the same one’s that I had gotten off the Internet. So that is good. So the SE has a package that includes keyless entry, power doors, power windows, and one notch up on the stereo (this is the middle package, which is the one that we want). It also has Anti-Lock Brakes, Alloy wheel upgrades, Air bag upgrades (includes the “curtain” airbags on the side), the moon roof, and floor mats. These are the extras that are on the invoice. What we had said we wanted on Saturday was the ABS, and the moon roof. So I pull out the Palm, and start doing calculations. He is sort of just sitting there. Mom is just sitting there as Esther, and I had made it very clear that she shouldn’t do any talking. NONE. DON’T SAY ANYTHING! He asks, “Will we be financing this?” I say, “No… this will be cash.” He says, “Will there be a trade-in?” I say, “We think so, but we’re not a 100% sure on that.” He says, “Okay, well, what kind of car is it?” And we go into the trade in dance. The thing is, in January, mom and dad had actually gone into a different dealership where they did a trade-in appraisal, and the number was something like $2200. Neither one of us could actually remember, but the fact that a different dealer had actually looked at it helped us. Anyway, Rick and I walked out to the car, he took down some numbers, asked if the AC works, I said yes, asked if it runs, etc. I wasn’t trying to build it up too much but at the same time I wasn’t down playing it either. So we come back inside and he’s sort of filling out paperwork on the trade-in, and I’m sort of doing calculations on the invoice sheet. And I’m coming up with some numbers that I think are good, and so I want to talk to mom about them. So I say, “Rick, I really don’t want to be rude, please take this in the right way, but could we (me and my mom) talk alone for just a few minutes?” So he says, “Oh sure… no problem, of course you can.” Then I went over the numbers with mom. Basically what I did was add up only the options that we wanted. Then I added in the difference on the Airbag upgrade. Used $2500 for the trade-in, and $2200 for the taxes, and came up with $21,700 or something like that. So I told mom that we would say $21.3 and see what they do. So then Rick comes back in and I show him my math. Then he takes the paper and goes off to talk to his boss. Mom can see them talking and it looks like the boss is asking tough questions, and sort of not going for it. So then Rick comes back and asks more questions about the trade in. He was asking if the trade-in appraisal was done over the phone at the other dealership, or if they actually looked at it. And so we told him they actually looked at it, and drove it, etc. So then Rick goes off to talk to the guy again. They talk for a while and then the boss guy comes in. So now it’s the face off. He sits down behind the desk facing me, mom is on my left, and Rick is standing in the doorway on my right. The boss is a really nice guy, and goes into his routine, “I’m just trying to understand some things… I’m not trying to pressure you… etc.” Standard Fare. So I tell him what I’m thinking. Things like, “I’m not going to pay $109 for floor mats. I realize that some of the options are on the car, but we really don’t need them, or want them. And the bottom line is that if we want to do business with you we are limited by your inventory… blah blah blah.” So he listens patiently, and then pulls out his calculator and starts running some numbers and finally writes on the paper, $22,700. And I’m silent for a while, and then I say, “I’m looking at the math, and I see what you did, and I really apologize for making you go thru all this. I guess we did all the calculations on the wrong car, because those numbers are really over our budget.” So he says, “Well, what were you thinking?” And I said, “Well we really thought we could get out of here at around $21,500.” So then he frowns wrinkles his forehead, does more calculations on the 10-key, and writes on the paper $22,300, and says, “How do you like that number?” Now keep in mind that this whole time, Rick and mom aren’t saying anything. Mom is being great. Her facial expressions are ‘worry’ ‘concern’ etc. all the perfect emotions. So when he writes the $22,300 on the paper I want silence for a little while. I want some squirming, and I want them to think that we are going to have to leave because we just can’t afford that much. So the silence is just starting to get uncomfortable (about 20 seconds) and he starts sort of shifting in his chair. He’s looking at me, then Rick, then he looks over at mom. And with perfect timing, she looks right at him and says deadpan, “I like $22 even!” You couldn’t believe the room. The boss gets this sort of sick look on his face, but with a very joking tone says, “Oh crap! SHE’S the bad cop! This whole time I thought Eric was the bad cop. I’m over here facing off with him, and he’s the good cop!” We are all just laughing at this time. He goes on, “She just looked up with those eyes and said ‘22 even’, how can I dispute her… oh great, I’m going to have to go call the trade-in guy.” And he walked out of the office sort of chuckling. Then he comes back and goes, “Look, seriously, the lowest I can go is $22,116.” And we both go, “Okay.” It was so awesome. Mom spoke up only once and it was PERFECT timing!!