There's Got to be a Better Way

Rob and I have been car shopping. Oh boy! We've spent hours on the internet (partially while you haven't heard much from me lately) and we've even poured through the Consumer Reports Used Car Best Buy lists at the library. We narrowed it down to a handful of cars that we are looking at, and we know exactly what we can spend.

So, aimed with a list of cars and a maximum price point we've been able to get on and off several lots quite quickly. They either have what we are looking for, or the don't. Last night we drove onto a lot just as they were closing and somehow they managed to keep us on the lot for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Despite the fact that the two cars they had that we wanted were far newer (and twice as expensive) as what we were looking at. I stayed in the van with the kids except for when we took a short test drive in a 2005 Ford Escape (I'm in love!).

Bottom line though, it irritated me. We couldn't have come more prepared... knowing exactly what we want with our financing in order... yet they still tried to crunch the numbers for hours trying to fit a big fat foot into a little tiny shoe. They knew it was pointless, we knew it was pointless, we had kids in the car and it was closely zeroing in on bedtime. Why, oh why won't they just let poor saps go so they can go to the next lot and maybe, just maybe find something they can actually afford to buy?

There is no other place in the world that wastes this much time and puts this kind of pressure on you to buy something you don't want. I've NEVER walked into a store looking for something in particular only to have the salesperson try relentlessly to get me to buy something else for far more money. How on earth have car lots made it in this world while they try only to serve their own needs at the expense of the customer. It seems so backward. So wasteful. So obnoxious. So irritating. So pointless. So time consuming. I say we revolt! Oh, wait... I still need a new car...