I always tended to think of myself as a shrewd car-buyer enthusiast who knew how to spot deals: buy, sell, trade, swap and make a mint in the process.
But I’ve
been thinking of my track record more recently and it doesn’t look like I’ve
shown much promise in my ability to wheel and deal. Now I never thought myself as a good
negotiator, but I thought I could at least spot a deal when I saw one.
The
problem is I like to be sold on what I’m buying. I like someone to tell me all the good things
about the vehicle before I buy to give me that feeling that I’m getting my
money’s worth. I also like cars too much
to be objective. You can throw out any
leverage I might have when I start to drool over a newer (yes, never new) vehicle.
And when
you’re a teenager, it really doesn’t much matter what kind of car it is – you
want it. Who else would want a 1988
Pontiac Firefly with 200,000 kms? To be
clear, this kind of car was only meant to function until 150,000 kms. But my Dad and I ponied up $2400 for this
gem, and after its motor job, it did serve me well for another thousand
kilometres. Sadly, its life came to a
tragic end one snowy October day.
My next
car was a step up: a 1991 Honda Accord.
Almost having completed my university degree, I jumped on this
opportunity to own a real man’s sedan.
The person selling it got high marks for his presentation – he could’ve
been a used car salesman. And it was a
nice looking car. Now whether he
neglected to mention it was a car from Quebec because he didn’t know about that,
we’ll never know. It wasn’t even an
issue of rust; as you might know, out East they salt their roads like Laird
arena fries. It was an issue of basic
reliability. Normally you buy Hondas for
this very reason, but this Honda, sadly, was a lemon of epic proportions.
So after
thousands in repairs, I finally got rid of the Honda and bought a used (of
course!) 1997 Acura 1.6. A very
economical car with few issues. My one
solid buy. Sadly, its life came to a
tragic end one snowy October day.
As I
entered parenthood and abandoned my university-day ideals, I decided to be a
real man and buy an SUV (used, of course!)
It was quite a step up for me, costing almost half the price of a new
vehicle! Still, I got persuaded to buy
the car with the engine light on (they said they would fix it, which they did a
couple weeks later) and paid the full $500 “service fee,” which I’ve since
learned is a bit of a scam. Little did I
know at the time that the salesman was desperate to meet his quota for the
month, and I was in the proverbial driver’s seat. Lesson learned.
But I’m
not telling the whole story here. One
year earlier, I actually decided to throw away my manhood and buy a
mini-van. Just a short-term buy, mind
you, one that I would buy and resell when we no longer needed the vehicle
capacity to drive around relatives on a summer vacation.
It’s much
easier said than done, to buy and sell a mini-van. You see, mini-vans at the price range I was
looking at aren’t really much to look at.
And they typically have some serious issues under the hood. Add to this older owners who think their vans
are worth a whole lot more than what they actually are, and it becomes a
problem finding a deal. After much
deliberation and pointless haggling, I finally settled on a Honda Odyssey with
tons of mileage that smelled like dog.
It was a fine driving machine.
But it caused me lots of stress, and when I sold it, three months later,
the buyer got a heck of a deal (I guess I can’t really sell vehicles either).
It’s one
vehicle that should have come to an end one snowy October day.
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