What was I thinking - going to a car dealer on Friday the 13th??
The Honda (car) dealer who insulted us (yes, really) called back yesterday. The salesman was very apologetic, and said, "The manager really wants to make this right with you. We are going to make you a very good deal, if you are willing to give us another chance."
Right. I figured: I have nothing to lose. We haven't bought another vehicle, yet.
He shot me a price. I said, "I guess you aren't trying hard enough - you are still way off."
He came back with the salesman rhetoric: "What would be willing to offer?"
"I wasn't going to play that game with you last time, and I'm still not willing to do that. You have one more opportunity. Go talk with your manager again, and give me a call back."
He did. Right in the ball park. There is probably a reason they couldn't do that right off the bat... although I can't figure out why they would rather piss you off? If that is a sales tactic, it is incredibly stupid. Since we were now close, I told him I would "come to talk with you face to face, tomorrow; and we'll see what happens." No promise, no commitment.
I forgot that today is Friday the 13th. Good thing I am not superstitious.
We went into the dealership, got with our salesman Luis, then went to look at their vehicle again. It is a Honda CR-V. It is not new, but lightly used. Honda made a change in 2015 with the CR-V, so it is not towable 4 wheels down behind a motorhome. The list of vehicles that are towable gets smaller each year. So, a couple years old CR-V is still towable - this one is "Honda Certified," meaning an extended warranty from Honda. And, it looks great and has the features we were wanting. The next closest thing we could find in a new vehicle that is towable was heavier - the CR-V is right at the limit of where we wanted to be for towing.
We sat down with Luis and made our "final offer." This next part gets a bit fuzzy, but with pushing all the numbers around, they came up with an "out the door" price that is even better than what we asked for. Joan and I looked at each other and said, "Deal."
Of course, all this takes time. Gone are the days when you make a deal, write a check, sign the papers and drive away. We had to visit with the "accessories guy"... who pulled up a computer program to show us all the things we can get for our vehicle. "Can I get spinner wheels?" I asked. Apparently, accessory guys don't have much of a sense of humor. With that out of the way, we went to the finance lady. She tries to sell you more stuff you don't need. We smiled and said, "No thank you," a lot. She gave us the "out the door" number, which was even smaller yet, Joan wrote a check, and we went out to move stuff from the truck to the Honda...
It is a LOT smaller than Big Red. The color on this is White Diamond - it looks like white pearl to me. It should look decent behind the Aspect... when we get the chance to get all the stuff necessary for towing.
It drives nice. Leather, sunroof, heated seats (don't need those in the Tropical Tip), and lots of other goodies. Before we were done transferring our stuff, a guy came up to us with questions about the truck - he is interested in buying it. We told him that is has been an absolute champ for us. I offered to give him our 5th wheel hitch, no charge. Easy resale for the dealer.
Before heading home, we stopped for a late lunch and some shopping... didn't have a lot of room in the Honda, with all the stuff we took out of the truck bed (didn't really think we'd be trading today), so it was some light shopping.
A very pleasant drive home. This is some downsizing after almost a decade with Big Red; she has been a wonderful truck - made some great adventures possible. End of an era; ready to make some more memories with the Honda.
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The value of the Honda is more than the truck. The insurance is less with the Honda. Go figure? Oh, and watching the instant fuel burn read-out on the Honda makes me smile.
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