New Car

I am amazed at how much the car industry has changed since I bought my last car.  A few days ago I blogged about the tactics I have used when purchasing a car.  Not many of those worked well this time.

Terri and I started our car shopping day with a trip to the Chevy dealer we have done business with before.  I had made contact with their Internet salesman earlier in the week to describe what we were looking for - a Equinox, not white or black, 4 cylinder, with leather, heater seats and premium sound system.  The salesman assured me they had a vehicle that met this criteria, plus many others to choose from.  We arrived at 9:15 AM to see the lone Equinox on their lot.  Not only was it the only one, it was not equipped anywhere near what we wanted.  Okay, so maybe they have access to others.  We asked the first salesman who approached us.  Nope, this was the only one.  They would get 2 more at the end of July. 

Disappointed, we moved on to the next Chevrolet dealer.  They also had only one - a black one.  It was at this second dealership that we began to look at the Traverse, the next model up from the Equinox.  We liked it a lot and began to deal on one that met our option list.  Our trade-in was evaluated which returned the exact value we thought it should.  So far so good.  As is normal, the dealer's first offer was at sticker price.  I countered a number that I thought would at least begin the serious discussions.  Instead, the dealership's general manager dropped by with the dealer invoice.  To my surprise, there was only around $1,000 mark up.  I had offered $7,000 less than sticker, $6,000 less than invoice.  Obviously the dealer was not going to go that far, no matter how long we dickered.  We excused ourselves and left.  There was no attempt by the salesman to continue negotiations.  First new car-buying lesson learned - mark up on new cars is not as much as it once was.

Terri and I then broke for lunch where I began calling other dealerships to inquire on the availability of Equinoxs.  I learned that nobody had more than one, and it as usually black or poorly equipped.  One Internet dealer informed me that if I seriously wanted a new loaded Equinox, I would need purchase it before it was delivered to the dealer lot.  This was not something I am inclined to do.  Second new car-buying lesson learned - all prior tactics do not work when you are pursuing a popular model of vehicle.

So we then began expanding our potential car models.  We drove a Kia, then a Subaru.  Both had good points, but neither had he smooth quiet ride of an Equinox.  We  then decided to go to a GMC dealership and look at their version of the Equinox.  We learned that version was called the Terrain.  The local dealership had 3 on their lot.  One met our needs.  Within a couple hours we reached a deal with the salesman.  Our new car is shown below.