Car shopping, was Re: A shameless marketing ploy...

[nlpnt]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "macloudt" <macloudt at y...> wrote:

Mr. Salesman gave us the "blah blah 
> blah must-speak-to-the-manager" speech, then took the keys so the 
> Invisible Manager could take it for a test drive.  I say Invisible 
> because he *didn't* drive it; the only way out of the dealership 
was 
> visible to us, and we never saw Dad's car pass us.  Then we were 
> told "blah blah blah...we'll give you $5000", and to my surprise 
Dad 
> gave in.  Only when the idiot wandered off somewhere did my Dad 
> whisper to me, "Not bad, considering I bought it off the company 
for 
> $3000"!  Way to go, Dad!
> 
> Wish I had inherited his bargaining skills, though...
> 
> Mary Ann
> (who is dreading dealing with her insurance company after she 
scraped 
> her back passenger door against a brick pillar...oops...)


Great! The only car I ever turned a profit on was a non-running VW 
Bug I bought for $1 at age 12, with an eye for restoring by my 16th 
birthday. Never did, but I sold it for $25.

 BTW, one thing that's been drilled into me is , NEVER let a car 
salesman out of sight with your car keys! If they say , "The manager 
needs to drive it", you're next line is, "OK, I'll meet him outside 
with the keys." 
The reason being that some dealers will take your keys and refuse to 
release them in an attempt to force you into signing a sales contract-
 it's called "unhorsing", it's highly illegal (we're talking jail-
time illegal), and I'm given to understand it's quite rare now, but 
any dealership still practicing it is one you DON'T want to deal with.