Used vehicle purchase...

...or should I say combat. As I noted in a prior post we have purchased a used mini van. It is a silver 2004 Mercury Monterey with about 48,000 miles on it. It rides very smooth and the seats are comfortable. Overall we like it but being a mini van it uses a fair amount of gas so it isn't going to be our primary vehicle. The primary vehicle will remain the 300M that I usually drive.

Back to the purchase.

We got sucked in by one of the local dealer's [here forth known as HZ] promotions on used cars. [Mistake number 1] On the car lot we talked with Sales Guy about the promotion, it became clear that it would not be very likely that the price range that we were working with would allow us to take advantage of promotion. We didn't leave. [Mistake number 2] So we began looking, with some insignificant assistance from Sales Guy, at the mini vans that HZ had in stock. After some discussions on price, model year and features we decided to take a test drive.

While driving we stopped in the parking lot where I work and did a through examination of the van. [Winning move 1] We found several items that we want taken care of if we decided to buy. We also found the original window sticker. I called The Daughter with my cell phone and had her go to NADA's web site and run a value on a Monterey with the features and mileage adjustments that were appropriate. [Winning move 2] The value was pretty much in line with what HZ was trying to sell it for. Sales Guy also let it slip that the van has been on their books for five months. Whoops, advantage Me.

We went inside the negotiation combat arena [aka sales office] and began to discuss the price and items that we wanted fixed. Of course Sales Guy has no actual ability to set a price so we had to wait around as our offers were relayed back and forth to Sales Manger [manager]. This lead to some confusion between the front man and the guy making the decisions. When Sales Manger made an offer that was higher than an offer that Sales Guy had previously offered it got a little ugly and we made our move to leave. [Winning move 3]

Our move to leave created panic in both Sales Guy and Sales Manger and they were forced to meet our last offer. The Monterey should be a good vehicle to use when we return to Myrtle Beach next spring. And The Daughter now can use the 1998 Pontiac Montana as her vehicle, although I still own it.

I have not used actual name to protect the ???innocent??? Manger was an intentional spelling. I thought it was a little bit funny.