Drive-by dating

[twilight33]

My mom came down today and she watched Kieran during a nap while we went for a little test drive on this beautiful non-rainy day. I've gotten her hooked on freezer cooking recipes so today's lunch of some ground beef cooked with my Texas salsa (Joe T's) and spices on freshly cooked tortillas (I'm not sure we can ever go back to stuff from the grocery store) with black beans & rice and lemon cheesecake for dessert was heavenly plus immediately split between us to freeze for later meals. Yay!

My husband & I confirmed that we both really like the new second car we're thinking of getting. I won the color standoff when my husband realized the one he liked on the computer is way too dark in person.

What was hilarious are the options that our sales guy, his manager, and some other sales guy tried to convince us of: for models 'in our area', you can either have power windows & doors but no ABS, or ABS and power doors but no power windows. Who in their right mind would want to deal with regular windows while willing to spend the $ for ABS?!

Enter immediate model upsell 'but look, this has all that...' attempt. Haha, no way, we easily & happily walked away once they realized they couldn't sway us. We submitted a request through the Costco auto buyer's program & found out their contact is not at the same dealership. I'm dying to see what the sales tactic contrast is.

Comments

[spaceling.livejournal.com]

Can I ask what car you're looking at?

[twilight33]

Email, the make is apparently rather unique around here (we've only seen a total of 3 on the road and one of those was last year's) & color even more so :)

[sunneyone.livejournal.com]

very interesting. :)

what is freezer cooking?

[twilight33]

Along these lines, although not vegetarian friendly :(

[sunneyone.livejournal.com]

so prepare it and freeze it then cook it later?

[twilight33]

Sometimes, depends on the recipe :) The key thing is making big batches and freezing at least 3+ meals for later so for those meals all that's involved is defrost/cook. It's a time lifesaver with work/grad school/family!

[sunneyone.livejournal.com]

aaaah okay. i got it.
and it does sound like a nice time saver. :)

[kethry.livejournal.com]

Although you prolly already know try Edmunds for car comparisons. They can also get you in touch with car dealerships who will then try to entice you, but I never found that to be very helpful.

Its funny the tricks they try. I made the mistake of just walking into a dealership last time and the guy was really really rude. We had just finished my internet car appointment next door and we thought while we are here lets check out the Honda's as well. Big Mistake.

After the text drive the salesmen Would NOT tell me the price of the car, instead wanted to tell me about all the current financing, safety records etc. My friend and I kept saying "What is the Price of the CAR?" Then he said I was lying when I informed him Toyota next door had given me a price. We left then. They called later asking if I was interested.

[twilight33]

Costco (so far) has beat Edmunds and all others we looked at. Their dealership's manager contact promptly called us at noon today, wasn't phased by our all-power/ABS specs, and simply said it would have to be a factory order which wasn't a problem. We're sold :) To be fair the sales guy who was with us yesterday was great and didn't see a problem with our specs, it was his manager who looked like & probably was a weasel. :)

Surprising about the prices, invoices on windows isn't standard there?