reesesWeb

So, it's that time. While much of the car noise I mentioned the other day turned out to be cicadas, Kat's car has also started making one of those,"I'm not going to die right now, but you're going to be paying soon, and it's going to cost a bit," noises. I'm guessing it's a bearing in the rear axle, which means taking things apart, and replacing things, and putting things back together.

Kat's car is old enough that if it can't be fixed by changing a combination of fluids, it's probably not worth doing. It just hit 60k miles, and we're looking at the first of a long stretch of annoying $1k repairs. After a handful of those, we will have been better off digging a hole and burying the car.

That said, it's time to buy a new car. I haven't bought a car in several years, and even then, I drove maybe 1000 miles a year.

No, I'm not exaggerating, and no, I did not leave out a 0. Let's just say it was a stunning investment. I ended up giving the car to my sister, extending a tradition of giving away cars to my family, a tradition started by giving my father my 911 about five or six years ago.

While I know a tremendous amount about how cars work, I don't know much at all about buying a car. Because the process is so salesman-dependent, you're really at the mercy of a lot of other "experts", and you can either spend a lot of time analysing the options and coming up to speed, or relying upon someone else's expertise.

I'm so, so tempted to do the former. Those of you who know me are immediately thinking,"yes, he'll read up on the differences between all these cars, and assign a value system to each option and feature, and after six months of this, he'll be walking by the Foo Motors dealership and buy the first car he sees."

Wow, you really do know me. I'm touched.

But no, I've made an internal commitment to buy the car this weekend. I haven't told anyone this but the Intarw3b at large, so I don't have to face any embarrassment if I fail in my task. You people, I'll lie to and say I bought some random car. When I actually find the car, I'll say I crashed the fake car and had to buy this other car, unless, of course, I buy the same car as my fake car.

You'll never know.

Actually, finding the car isn't the part that worries me. We have a price range, and there are a certain number of cars that fit in that price range. Some, we like more than others. That part is relatively easy -- hit the car dealers, drive a couple cars, buy the one you like the most. We live very close to a Mercedes dealer and a Honda dealer, and don't have far to go for BMW or Volvo dealers. I'm sure we could track down an Audi S4 if we had to, but I'm not sure I want to buy that car for Kat. :-)

The part of the arrangement that makes me nervous is the negotiation. I don't like the idea of negotiating against an unknown. You hear about invoice and MSRP and that neither of those values actually means anything. I.e., you'd think "invoice" would == the cost to the dealer, and if you take n hours of some salesman's time, you should expect to pay some amount over the invoiced amount.

However, this turns out not to be the case.

The other thing I'm concerned about is reading the whole "back end" financing angle. I don't really want to finance the car, because I hate paying for things on a recurring basis. I just want to walk in, find the car, write a check, call my insurance company from the lot, and drive away. Done. But my reading is telling me that your choice of financing will actually have an impact on the lowest price you could conceivably pay for the car, because the dealer actually buys financing from a third party, and sells it to you at a markup. That is, you'll qualify for the 3% rate or whatever, but they'll charge you 5%. So, if you're financing the car, they're making that extra 2% on the "back end". If they know they won't be making that 2% because you're sitting there, pen in hand, ready with your check, you won't have as much ground to make up.

So, I have a plan. Find the car I want, or rather, the car I've settled on after two hours of looking and getting tired of the whole process, pull up carsdirect.com on the handheld, and start negotiating at that price. If they want more than a couple $k more than that, walk, and complete the order on the site. It'll probably be the same car, fulfilled from the same dealer, anyway.

Of course, you should feel free to email me and mock my naivete. Or offer advice, because I'll take that, too, especially if you've purchased a car in the MD/DC/NoVA area recently.

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