I don't know about you, but I've always enjoyed the car buying experience. Even if it is terrible. I don't like to haggle normally, but something I got from my dad is dealing on cars. I love the rush. I also very much dislike 99% of every car salesman I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Some of them I have loathed outright.
I started thinking this weekend about trading in my wife's Camry and getting a newer used vehicle with a little more interior room. We really like the Toyota and it has been a great car so we decided we wanted to go back with a Toyota.
I dealt with 3 dealerships, two OKC locals and one in Tulsa. Every Toyota we could find on the lots in the OKC metro were a little higher than similar cars we located on lots in Tulsa and Dallas. We did use Fowler Toyota in Norman for test drives (prices are stupid high forget those guys). They seemed disorganized and less knowledgeable about their stock and about cars in general. Got quite a bit of sales pressure from them. They had lost the car that I wanted to see and tried to pressure me into a similar unit with 15k more miles with lots of scratches, dings, and dents. They also wanted to give me bottom dollar on my trade. It was pretty disgusting.
Momentum on NW expressway and Tulsa once they had my info they have been blowing up my phone and email inbox for 3 days now. They also wanted to lowball my trade, but it was sight unseen so I can cut a little slack. Oh the other hand, average trade in was at least $1,000 more than they were offering and acted like if the car was immaculate they might be able to get close. So they probably would have tried to stick it in me on the trade regardless of condition. We never even stepped foot on this lot and probably never will. From what I can tell online it is formerly Dub Richardson.
The third dealership was Jim Norton Toyota in Tulsa. I found the car I liked with the features I wanted on Auto Trader and decided to give them a call and see if I could get them to drive the car to OKC (fat chance I figured). Then I gave them the details on my trade and they made me a great offer for sight unseen according to book prices. The price on the car was even pretty good and required little haggling over the deal. They came back with an offer for the car and my trade that was very close to what I wanted out of the deal so I decided to get them to come down a little more. They did and agreed to drive the car to OKC to meet me. The car arrived exactly as described to me over the phone, with documentation to back up any claims made about it. He barely even walked around my car before we left for the 30 mile test drive around OKC. Once we returned from the test drive the deal was finalized in about 10 minutes, we swapped keys, and he drove the Camry back to Tulsa.
Overall the wife is happy with the new car and I'm happy I got to go though the process again. Didn't get a chance to try Hudiburg since Jim Norton took such good care of me. Maybe I'll start there next time.
I started thinking this weekend about trading in my wife's Camry and getting a newer used vehicle with a little more interior room. We really like the Toyota and it has been a great car so we decided we wanted to go back with a Toyota.
I dealt with 3 dealerships, two OKC locals and one in Tulsa. Every Toyota we could find on the lots in the OKC metro were a little higher than similar cars we located on lots in Tulsa and Dallas. We did use Fowler Toyota in Norman for test drives (prices are stupid high forget those guys). They seemed disorganized and less knowledgeable about their stock and about cars in general. Got quite a bit of sales pressure from them. They had lost the car that I wanted to see and tried to pressure me into a similar unit with 15k more miles with lots of scratches, dings, and dents. They also wanted to give me bottom dollar on my trade. It was pretty disgusting.
Momentum on NW expressway and Tulsa once they had my info they have been blowing up my phone and email inbox for 3 days now. They also wanted to lowball my trade, but it was sight unseen so I can cut a little slack. Oh the other hand, average trade in was at least $1,000 more than they were offering and acted like if the car was immaculate they might be able to get close. So they probably would have tried to stick it in me on the trade regardless of condition. We never even stepped foot on this lot and probably never will. From what I can tell online it is formerly Dub Richardson.
The third dealership was Jim Norton Toyota in Tulsa. I found the car I liked with the features I wanted on Auto Trader and decided to give them a call and see if I could get them to drive the car to OKC (fat chance I figured). Then I gave them the details on my trade and they made me a great offer for sight unseen according to book prices. The price on the car was even pretty good and required little haggling over the deal. They came back with an offer for the car and my trade that was very close to what I wanted out of the deal so I decided to get them to come down a little more. They did and agreed to drive the car to OKC to meet me. The car arrived exactly as described to me over the phone, with documentation to back up any claims made about it. He barely even walked around my car before we left for the 30 mile test drive around OKC. Once we returned from the test drive the deal was finalized in about 10 minutes, we swapped keys, and he drove the Camry back to Tulsa.
Overall the wife is happy with the new car and I'm happy I got to go though the process again. Didn't get a chance to try Hudiburg since Jim Norton took such good care of me. Maybe I'll start there next time.
