I got a flyer through the door about a manager's special event being held this weekend where I bought my current car. As we had no other plans for today Ciaran and I decided to head out and see what they have. Ciaran would have loved to get a Prius or a Celica or MR2 but there was little chance of that - Prius doesn't suit my drive (or pocket) and both the mr2 and Celica are out of production. In all honesty I didn't expect to buy anything and was only interested to finding out what my 7 year old car would be worth. I will admit that i wasn't happy with the car though - over the 2 plus years I've had it its had a series of electrical problems in different systems. An expensisve and difficult thing to resolve.
So we arrived at the garage and looked about for a bit before being approached by the salesman. As we were 'interested' in the Auris (the Corolla replacement) we were offered a test drive in the 5 door TR model.
Once we got back to the garage the haggling started. In order to get my info I went along with it all - specificed what model I would want, features and the trade in value for my old car. Of course, what he ofered wasn't near what I would like for it (but then is it ever?). He ran the numbers and came back to me - way to much, but I expected that. He offered a bit more for my trade in and re-ran the numbers. If I took their finance deal they would add more onto the trade in so he re-ran the numbers. Much better this time, almost reasonable. however, I had a service/MOT due and my preferred colour would not be available for 16 weeks (Tpyota build to order). They would pay for the service/MOT and any work if the new car wasn't available by then. The salesman explained that the weekend deal was only for the weekend and that their bonus depended on them hitting the targets, which, at 1600 Sunday evening with only 2 hours remaining, they still hadn't.
By this time the deal wasn't that bad and I was seriously considering it. I then asked about the steering wheel audio controls. "Not on this model, only on the next one up." "Oh, its funny how its the little things you get used to" "Wait here". Off he popped and when he came back asked how fixed was I on the colour I choose as he could get me the next model up, in silver, next week, for the same price, if I signed now.
Went and bought a new car today, I get it next week. Got a great deal. Not a colour I would normally go for, but silver is neutral enough and I'm looking forward to it.
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