I've been dreading having to change my car for the past 9 months, ever since I stopped paying back the loan I took out five years ago to buy my last one. To be fair, that's been one of the most reliable cars I've ever owned, but with well over 80 thousand miles on the clock, I knew I couldn't rely on it much longer. I didn't want to wait till the next MOT (which was due in July), because it was going to cost me...
For me, a car is a necessity, not a luxury item. I'm not interested in speed or flash, fancy spec or a cool badge. I just don't want it to cost any more than it has to, and I don't want to have to keep taking it into the garage. Reliability and economy are key, and, because my has commute doubled since I started working in Leeds, low mileage is important too. I'll be racking them up over the next few years.
The reason I've been dreading this for so long is that I despise the motor trade. Car sales people are by and large liars and con artists and it makes me sick to the stomach to have to deal with them. As you may know, my dad was a car auctioneer when I was a boy. But he just talked fast, took the nodded bids and ultimately the auctioneer's commission. I'm not saying the auctions business is flawless, and I think ultimately my dad left it with a nasty taste in his mouth, but also a deep-seated mistrust of the car sales industry, which he passed onto me. Especially when he accompanied me in buying my first few cars. He's too old to come along with me now, and that's probably for the best. The only time I ever heard my dad use the F-word ("bloody hell!" is otherwise as foul as his language ever gets) was during a conversation with one dealer who was trying to rip us off. I was only in my 20s at the time, but it made a lasting impression...
I'm with you 100% as regards the motor trade. Also, I know less than zilch when it comes to what goes on under the bonnet. Fortunately I fell in with a small family run garage many years ago who, when a car of mine is finally too far gone to pass an MOT, will track down another one for me. I trust them implicitly and don't know where I'd be without them.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing Part 2 will not be pretty.
ReplyDeleteI remember my dad came with me to buy my first car and unusually for him he lost his temper with the salesman, told him to forget the 'patter' and just get on with it. We've been lucky and unlucky with our cars but you just never know how it's going to pan out.
Doesn’t matter which side of the Atlantic you live on... car salesmen are all the same.
ReplyDeleteI bought my last one as Lockdown V1.0 was easing - found it on the Garage's website, arranged a test drive, picked it up. All really painless.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter used Kazoo recently - even less painless, and they gave a fair price trade-in for her old car.
No more Arfur Daley dodgy deal negotiations and kicking tyres - it's so much easier on line now.
(plus the quality of used cars out there mean you'll be really unlucky to get stuck with a dud)
I do wonder, what is it about cars in particular that attracts these sort of salespeople? I can't imagine quite the same scenario with, say, books or violins or duvets, etc. What a pain for you but I hope all was resolved satisfactorily. We're like TS now with a local family-run business we've known for 20 years so think ourselves very fortunate, but some of our experiences prior to that were less happy.
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