Jesus, I had a right old escape today as I was hounded to near submission by a couple of really aggressive salesmen at a car dealership. To try to cut a long story short, my car is an ageing Mercerdes, it has been a fine car to me, but it is now seven years old with 140k on the clock, and every service or repair just gets more expensive. It has crossed my mind to downsize to something like a Golf, I don’t need a big car anymore as dealings with prams and car seats are consigned, thankfully, to the memory bank (volleying unwilling car seats up and down the drive used to be my favourite past time). So this morning I decided to look at a couple of Golfs, and get a valuation on my car at a dealership that maybe I shouldn’t name for legal reasons.

When I got there, I was greeted by a salesman (let’s call him Dave) who immediately wanted to go for a drive in my car to see if it was okay, which, let’s face it, is fair enough. We went through the old softening up routine of talking about my family, my job, football, and cricket, which I actually don’t mind, the guy is only doing his job, then suddenly……………..

“What do you want for this three grand?”
“I think it’s worth more than that Dave”
“Four then, is that want you want four grand?”
“I don’t know…………..it depends what I am paying for the car I am buying”
“Okay, well the one you rang about is still here, lets take that for a drive”
“Hang on Dave, it said £8.5k on the Autotrader site why is it £9.2K”
“We advertise cheaper on the net that’s normal”

Can someone tell me if that is normal? It doesn’t seem right to me, and I was getting a bit nervous now, I only wanted a look, so why was I feeling hunted? My defense mechanisms were beginning to kick in with gusto. Anyway we took the Golf out for a drive, and as I knew it would be, it was a nice car, with a three year old German vehicle you tend to know that you are getting a reliable car unless you are really unlucky. However I went through the motions, a bit like I used to at the hairdressers (in my hair days) when they showed my head from behind with their mirror, saying things like yes, nice, ooh yes, I like it et etc.

“So tell me Bob, do you like the car?”
“Yes erm….yeah it’s nice”
“So what can I do do to make you buy it?”
“Nothing, I have another one to look at later.” I lied.
“If I gave you 4k for yours and gave you the car for £8.7k would you buy it now?”
“No”
“Why not?”
“Because I am not buying a car today.”
“What deal can I do to make you take it today?”
“You can’t.”
“Why”
“Because as I have said I am not buying a car today.”

“Okay I am just going to see my boss…wait there”

I should have just pissed off there and then, but despite the adrenalin pumping through me, politeness made me stay, god knows why, as I was half expecting the fucker to come out with a bag of dust and a Kirby vacuum cleaner as part of the deal.

“Hello Robert……………you like the blue Golf yes?”
“Yes it’s fine, but I am not buying it until I know my figures are correct?”
“What if I said £8.5k”
“No”
“£8.3k”
“£8.1k”
“£8k” four thousand for the Merc and four thousand interest free credit balance?”
“Listen mate, no, no, no……………get a written quote of what your offer is this afternoon and I will give you a straight answer, but I won’t buy it now, I have to know I have done the right thing!!!”
“I want you take the offer now”
“Well I’m not going to, ring or email me at 2.00pm your a good salesman, I’ll give you that”
“No I am not, I haven’t sold you the car!!!!.”

Fuck me, that was crazy stuff, but I still had my money.

I got up and walked out, and they didn’t ring back which I found kind of amazing really, had he gone to far on his price slashing? Should have I snapped his desperate hand off? The answer is, I just don’t know, but check these figures hard if you are thinking of buying a car from any dealer. From offering £3k for my car as a part exchange on a 9.2k car, they went down to £8k on the car plus offering another 1k for mine. That’s potentially (I say potentially as it wasn’t a written deal) a £2.2k swing in cost. That’s incredible stuff and worth taking note of, I was pretty staggered to say the least.

I don’t want to claim heroics here, as I was really wobbling at one point, and ten years ago I would have folded under pressure, but today was a real lesson in holding your nerve under pressure. I don’t really hold anything against these guys, they are just doing what they have been directed to do from above, they are not holding a gun to your head (not quite anyway) after all, and it is the customers right to say no firmly and politely. However without trying to tell anyone how to suck eggs, I felt much better holding myself together, than what I would have done driving out with a new car, not sure if I had done the right thing, which is what I did many years ago when I bought car which I hated from day one and lost a fortune on.

As we get older we get uglier, but at least we get wiser, youth as they say, is wasted on the young.