734 Deal Breaker

734 Deal Breaker

Time to explore cars. After all, the current guy is getting a little long in the tooth. It's also about 15,000 miles before the timing chain expires, which means about $700 in repairs or the risk of getting (a) stranded on the road somewhere and (b) wrecking a perfectly good engine if the part snaps, which it likely will.

So, the home work is done. Consumer Reports, Edmunds, researching trade in values, deciding. At the dealer, the experience is totally pleasant and easy going. They sure are less aggressive about this than they used to be. Listened carefully to needs, came up with a recommendation close what's being sought, came up with a price that involved no pressure from the "sales manager" or "the closer" or anyone else, and very little haggling.

Oh sure, they try to sell you "body protection" no one has needed on a car made in the last decade. And oh sure, they try to sell you glass engraving. But, again, not as aggressively as in former years.

But then, this...

Customer: "I want you to take your name and logo off the trunk lid."

Salesman: "Oh, sir, we can't do that. It's on all our cars."

Customer: "But once it's sold, it's no longer one of 'our' cars, it's mine."

S: "Why do you want to do that, anyway?"

C: "Because I don't want to be a rolling billboard for your dealership, or anyone's for that matter."

S: "I'm sorry, sir. We just can't do that."

C: "Okay, I'll compromise. How's this? You leave your name and logo on the trunk lid and I charge you a penny a mile for the ad, payable quarterly for as long as I own the car? Put that in the contract and we'll complete the sale right now."

S: "I'll have to check with the boss and he's out of town right now and he forgot his cell phone."

C: "See ya later."

A deal breaker. Now, it's off to Old Navy or Gap to see about negotiating a walking billboard deal for t-shirts.

Shrapnel:

--Sitting in a restaurant the other night and the Muzak was playing stuff from the 1970s, much of which was terrible, un-melodious and was whined and screamed rather than sung. It was like finding dinosaur bones. Music has evolved (or is it devolved) since then. Music of the 2000s is the obvious descendant and is even less melodious, if that's possible, and the noises the "vocalists" make sound like the soundtrack from "Primal Scream Therapy."

--Beach story followup (Wessay #733.) The folks at an outfit called Kayloma Candles in West Virginia informs that it makes scents of the beach. Yeah, but do they spit saltwater at you?

--How do you get a transcript from a New York City high school that has closed? Easy, you call the still active phone number and leave a message, and they don't call you back. Just as it was when they had an actual building, teachers, students administrators and office people whose job was to ignore phone messages.

I'm Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you're welcome to them.®

©WJR 2010