Car Shopping!

So Josh's mom has talked me into going to help her buy a new van since I used to work in the banking industry. I ran the numbers and know basically she can get her new van at $350 a month for a 2006 Mazda MPV LX since they have tons of rebates. She had me call one dealer in North Austin. I spoke to the internet manager who was very nice and friendly. I told him I would have my 8 year old son with me, so if he needed anything he would need to get that so everything would be ready when we rolled in today. I call the guy today and he is at lunch. We fight 5 0'clock traffic to get up there. He calls me and he is back from lunch and tells me to come out. We roll into the dealership and he tells me they have this demo 2006 Mazda LX with DVD player and he can get me out the door for $350 a month. We go back into the showroom and he goes to talk to his manager twice. He tells me he can get $390. I told him basically that we would do $365 tops. I told him to meet me in the middle and give me more money for my trade. For every $1000 dollars its an extra $20 payment. I tell him to put $2000 somewhere so we can leave. He proceeds to tell me that all the paperwork is locked in his boss' office and he would have to call me on Monday so we can work the deal.

First of all, I am amazed that this dude would even consider me coming back on a Monday even after telling him that I was bringing my 8 year old son and I did not want a long, drawn out car purchasing process because Josh would not go for that. Secondly, he told me at first that the demo had more room to play with numbers and would work out for Josh's mom. He then tells me that perhaps another model might be better. Another model? Didnt you tell me on the phone that everything was ready to go? Why make me come back to go through MORE hassles? I left pissed off and went over to the other Mazda dealer in South Austin, thinking that they would work out a deal for me. I walk in and was told that all salesmen had gone home. I told the lady, "Most car sales are done when a dealership is closing." I then spoke to the Internet Manager. I explain my situation to him. He tells me that their deal is a better deal than the other Mazda place was offering and show it to me on paper. The one dealer had an SV model and they offer an LX model. Josh's mom picks out a color and they get to working the deal. I started playing dealers against each other when I told them the one dealer was offering me $1500 more than they were offering me. This guy would not budge. They wanted to offer her $420 a month. I was amazed that they did not want to budge on their price. I had thought that it being the end of the month that they would give me some sort of break, especially since they are not going to be offering that model any more since they are going to the CX7 and CX9. He suggested I go over to Carmax and see if they will give me more for my trade and then bring that over to them so they could work something out with that. I told him I was NOT going to goto Carmax. He could either earn my business or I will wait for the first bone head to call me on Monday.

My first mistake was offering to help Josh's mom buy this new van since I was in the banking industry at one time. It is exhausting. It would be nice to be able to walk in to a place and have them give you a fair price without trying to poke your eyes out. I thought I was avoiding all that by contacting the dealer first, providing him my information and then going into the dealer a few days later.