Negotiating a Vehicle

This is a true story, with the heroine's name changed to protect the triumphant.

Ninety-year-old Sarah, a retired psychologist, recently located a nice used car at a dealership forty miles from Austin, where she lives.  She called the dealership and explained she was interested in the car but had no way to get to their location.  The dealership promptly sent a driver to Austin to pick her up.

Sarah examined the car and liked it, but said her Austin mechanic would have to check it over before she bought it.  So the dealership arranged for a driver to transport her and the car to Austin. However, the trip took approximately two and a half hours because an  eighteen-wheeler had overturned on I-35 and caught fire.  Thus by the time Sarah's mechanic had finished his examination, it was five o'clock.  The mechanic gave the car high marks, but Sarah decided that by then she was too tired  to make a decision.  The driver took her home and returned the car to the dealership.

When the salesman called Sarah the next day, Sarah told him she wanted the car.  He drove to Austin to pick her up, and when they reached the dealership, the manager started giving her papers to sign  to seal the deal.   Although he said he was in a hurry and needed her to sign the papers so he could move on to other tasks, Sarah insisted on reading every page. Then she balked at paying three hundred dollars for extra insurance.

The manager told her the dealership never sold cars without that provision, but Sarah, in her usual polite way, said she had never paid a charge like that before and wouldn’t pay it this time, that she wouldn’t buy the car after all, and would someone please take her back to Austin.

Then she gathered her things and went into the hallway to wait for a driver.

After about thirty minutes, the manager emerged from his office and told Sarah the dealership would meet her terms.  Our heroine then agreed to buy the car--but only if someone would take her and the car back to Austin because she was uncomfortable driving on the busy highway after seeing that wrecked big rig the day before.

After the contracts were signed, the salesman drove Sarah and the new car home, with a driver following him so he could return to the dealership.

Now that’s how to deal with a dealership.