Crazy Good Negotiating Skills

Saturday saw the end of the car search. It's been a two-year saga of looking, test-driving, nit-picking every little detail, not being satisfied for some small reason, and walking away. Everyone was thoroughly exasperated with my search. I was fed-up with always being dissatisfied with every potential car. And then a lightbulb went off in my head and I realized the source of my dissatisfaction...I was looking for the wrong type of vehicle.

I thought I wanted another SUV since we were going to trade-in the Mountaineer. But I really didn't want an SUV, I just didn't know that. It took me two years to figure it out. Once I had the moment of clarity and realized that what I really wanted was a sedan, the right car seemed to just find me.

I still don't think the guys at Parker Subaru know what hit them. Dave and I went up on Saturday afternoon and test drove the 2011 Legacy that they had advertised. At the end of the drive the salesman asked if we liked enough to spend an hour or two with him. I told him "You have one hour." and then I turned it all over to Dave. It was a whirlwind of activity from that time forward, which is an amazing feat at a car dealership considering most things move at a glacial pace once the negotiating process begins. Seriously why does it take so long? It only makes people irritated and grumpy. Dave and I once walked away from a deal because they kept us waiting...the sales manager was out smoking a cigarette that's how interested he was in our business.

Anyway, Dave has some crazy good negotiating skills. He has a great poker face and he knows just how to say things so he winds up getting his way without the other person really realizing it. He managed to negotiate the price of the vehicle down about $6000.00. He's pretty awesome.

The negotiating process took just a little over an hour. The actual signing of the papers took a little longer because they kept trying to sell us about a million different warranties and factory extras. Honestly people, how many times and in how many ways do we have to say "NO" before you will let us sign the papers?

But like I said, the process was successful and now I'm now driving around in a silver 2011 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Limited. It has 11,5000 miles. It's a pretty sweet ride.