Saturday, July 24, 2010

first day of car-shopping

ok before I start, let me first say that I am a complete rookie when it comes to car shopping. I’ve driven two cars in my life and both have been hand-me-downs so I’ve never actually been to a dealership with any intention of buying a car before. So today was a brand new experience for me. The first place I went was the Toyota dealership down the street from where I live.

The first thing I notice about the car buying experience is that the salesmen just bum around and do nothing unless you initiate (almost like a CSR in a Chinese supermarket). So I wandered around for about 20 minutes before I had to approach one of the reps to help me out.

The guy I talked to (Anthony) has been a rep for 6 months. Not exactly the most experienced person on the lot but definitely knowledgeable about the cars he was selling. He helped me test drive a camry and a prius (both are nice…). I have to say I’m definitely leaning towards a camry tho. After that I went over to the Honda dealership across the street and test drove their accord (nice car…) and sat around and talked to the sales rep for a bit too (jim went to bible college and is now a retired music teacher turned sales rep).

The second thing I noticed is that everything on a car is optional. The very base model comes with seats and a steering wheel. Luxury add-ons like navigation packages or seatbelts will cost you extra. Even a sticker on the back windshield that says Synergy Drive is $19 (that’s convenient because I might not even get the optional back windshield). XM radio comes standard tho. Ahh so many choices.

Now that I’m back home…it’s time to sift through the brochures and find the best car to pick from. Right now I’m leaning toward the camry but I’ll still open to new ideas…

1 comment:

hello friday said...

you should wait until the end of the year after the nissan leaf and chevy volt come out so you can test drive those as well :D electric cars are gonna be the future!