Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Stranger Than Friction's avatar

This happened to me when purchasing my first car in my twenties. My father came along for support. The sales person talked exclusively to my dad for many minutes, wound up his sales pitch, and asked Dad what he thought. He looked him over and said, in his dry laconic way, "You should ask my daughter. She's the one who's trying to buy this car."

I said I'd take into consideration what he said, and walked away with my dad. The next day I started a bidding war between his dealership and another with a very similar model. By phone. Just me and them. I set it up like they were in a casino and if they bet just right, they'd walk away with the deal. I made them keep dropping things, adding incentives, until they each had their dealer sheets in front of them and the price kept edging down. Finally they were hot and bothered by it all and I could tell one of them was about to calm down and realize what was going on, but I got the car I wanted at the price I wanted to pay from the dealer who caved. My dad drove me to the dealer's lot when the car was ready and I had enough money down to hand over and to sign papers. That was my first car, which I had for a long, long time. it was the ugliest car, but it was utterly dependable over 90% of the time.

And this is a fond memory of my father that stays with me.

Expand full comment
415 more comments...

No posts