Aiyeeee!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Unfortunately, no. That would be pretty sweet, huh

I'm recanting the idea that the costco thing is a good deal. They said they had a fixed price that would be "four or five grand" off the sticker price (64,304, invoice 56,340). I have one dealer verbally agreed to selling me the car for $57,540. A couple of grand cheaper than the Costco option. I havent given the costco guy a second round chance, but he'd probably have to drop the costco referral deal and do a direct negotiation. Not sure thats super productive considering I'm already to $1200 over invoice.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Well we've got it. Mrs CFB had her 4.5 hour "lexus buying experience" where the salesman sat with her in the car and practically read her the owners manual. The actual paperwork and whatnot was over in an hour. Gabe was a prince throughout, although he certainly had plenty of places, stuff and people to get interested in.

Very nice folks. Even the guy who tried to sell us the extended warranty and paint sealant was pretty nice. The extended warranty actually started sounding like a decent deal. About $2g's to extend the bumper to bumper from 4 years/50k miles to 7/70. I dont think i've ever bought one before, as they're usually a bad deal but its a little tempting on this car. I think it has 14 slots to put quarters in and make things light up.

Even got the deal I was quoted over the phone, no further haggling, "losing" my drivers license, having a prior buyer suddenly materialize, bait and switch, snap and shuffle, nada. Of course, I did fire a couple of warning shots over their heads on the phone just to make sure we didnt have a bunch of hoo-hah when I got there.

 

[justin]

Very nice folks. Even the guy who tried to sell us the extended warranty and paint sealant was pretty nice. The extended warranty actually started sounding like a decent deal. About $2g's to extend the bumper to bumper from 4 years/50k miles to 7/70. I dont think i've ever bought one before, as they're usually a bad deal but its a little tempting on this car. I think it has 14 slots to put quarters in and make things light up.

Too late now, but you can negotiate the price of the extended warranty too. When DW and I bought two new hondas back in 2000, I had the dealer sell me two extended warranties at "cost" which was about half of the retail price for the extended warranty. Hard to believe the extended warranties have a 100% markup.

On a side note, I think your wife and mine had a remote brain connection even though they are 3000 miles apart. I got home Friday afternoon and lo and behold my wife wanted us to buy a new sports car. I think I persuaded her that is wasn't such a good idea when I told her that all of her dream cars were manuals and didn't come with automatic transmissions. Then I reminded her how much more her 30 minute to 1 hour commute stuck in bumper to bumper traffic would suck with the manual transmission.

I kept asking her what aspects of a sports car were most important to her and why she wanted to buy one. "To look cool". I kept showing her the acceleration curves, 0 to 60 times and 1/4 mile times for different cars, but to no avail. She didn't really care how fast a car was, only what color it was, and how "cool" the body style was. Girls... Looks like the marketing folks did a number on her.

Another anti-FIRE bomb diffused. Amazing how she can see the clarity of my logic.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Oh I negotiated! Hey! Its ME! It started off about $3g and had to be bought "today only", then I got it down below $2g. Then it turned out the time to get it went from today only to anytime before the factory warranty expires.

 

[justin]

Not bad. That 2g is probably pretty fair, based on the starting price of $3g. Cost plus a nice little profit to the dealer.

 

[73ss454]

Oh I negotiated!  Hey!  Its ME!   It started off about $3g and had to be bought "today only", then I got it down below $2g.  Then it turned out the time to get it went from today only to anytime before the factory warranty expires.

Your Fuzzness,

See if the extended warranty gives any ofhter benefits during the original warranty period. Such as rental cars and roadside. Many manufacturers put a surcharge on the extended warranty if not bought at time of sale. Also you will have the price increases as the years go by.

Most of all make sure it's not an aftermarket warranty. Only buy the manufacturers warranty.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I checked and the nav system alone if it fries costs ~5500 to replace...

Tape a couple of pictures of the kid to the screen and call it even...

 

[Jarhead*]

So the wife wants a lexus.

Not just any lexus, the "big one".

Guess what we're going shopping for later today...

So much for LBYM...

TH: When the word gets out down there, don't be surprised if the Chamber of Commerce contacts you, and asks if you'd drive "point" in the annual "Don't believe what you've heard about Yuba City" day parade.

Jarhead, who believes you should do whatever makes you happy.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Well, since new home prices started regularly topping 400 and 500k around here, theres plenty of "new money" flowing in from Excramento. Funny, I remember when that started happening down there 5-6 years ago. Lots of new stores opening up, giant swaths of prune, peach and nut trees are being mowed down to make room for new subdivisions. Cant wait for the bottom to start tilting on this one...

All I have to say is, first time I see someone on a recumbent bike, I'm moving. Thats my measure of satisfactorily maximum levels of yuppiness absorption.

 

[justin]

I checked and the nav system alone if it fries costs ~5500 to replace...

Tape a couple of pictures of the kid to the screen and call it even...

Go to walmart and pay $4.95 for a California street atlas. Shove it in your glovebox. Teach Gabe to read maps, use a hand-help GPS device, and navigate.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah, we have a garmin colormap (old but reliable) in the expedition and the handheld black and white emap in the rav4. Cheap enough and great for "ok, where the @#%$#@ am I?" situations.

This new voice operated thing in the lexus is pretty cool. You say "I'm hungry", and it pops up restaurants. You say "chinese" and it shows all the closest chinese places. Then if you have a bluetooth enabled phone, it interfaces with your phone and lets you call the one you pick to place your order. Then tells you where to turn to get to the restaurant.

Guess what I've been ordered to go buy this afternoon...

 

[justin]

Tell your fancy talking car "my tooth hurts". See if your fancy jap import can steer you to the nearest dentist...

btw, don't you already know where the good local chinese restaurants are located?

What would your car say if you told it "I like pretty girls"? Directions to nearest college campus and/or strip clubs?

 

[wallygator69]

Hi,

For the hell of it I would have the wife take the RX330 for a cruise.

Women love being up high and Depending where you live it has AWD drive and is amazing in bad weather. Wife hit black Ice on an on ramp and "the car started beeping and it straightened itself out somehow". May save yourself $20k...


Also, It rides as well as my 1996 LS400 that the wife doesn't care for. Seats aren't quite as comfortable in my opinion but wife disagrees. Again, it's the up high see everything vs the male lounge back as far as you can like your on a couch.


Also I bought the LS400 certified preowned and saved about $20k. Certified Lexus has a better warranty than a new one and is transferable when you trade it in. 3year 100,000 and Lexus backs it up. Only problem was lower and upper ball joints went at 80,000 miles and they replaced for free, would heav bee $2000.00

Good luck

Wally

 

[SteveR]

Must be something in the air! DW casually mentions over the weekend...."I would like to trade my car for a new one." :

I told her she had some options.

Work another year to pay off the new car before we retire.

Or,

Keep the existing car for a couple more years so we can retire in 2007.


She is thinking it over........

 

[Nords]

Well we've got it.  Mrs CFB had her 4.5 hour "lexus buying experience" where the salesman sat with her in the car and practically read her the owners manual. 

Well, TH, I have you to thank for an evening's interesting spouse conversation.

I wanted to make sure that my spouse was feeling adequately compensated for our ER beach-bum lifestyle. During our evening walk I mentioned that the portfolio had been doing pretty well lately and that it might be a good time to "lock in some gains". We talked about all the expenses we've been cutting (without any quality-of-life compromises) and how it might be time to reward ourselves for our efforts. I actually showed her the text of your post about upsell insertion & imminent decision fears so that she could fully appreciate all the slimy tricks advanced negotiation tactics.

She said "Why the @#$% would I want a Lexus after fixing the Altima? Besides, I've ridden in a Lexus-- those leather seats are too slippery!"

I fell in love all over again.

giant swaths of prune, peach and nut trees are being mowed down to make room for new subdivisions.

Listen, I can't tell a prairie dog from a gopher or even from Al's beaver, but I'm pretty sure those would be plum trees. However I could be wrong, especially if they're grafted from raisin vines...

 

[justin]

She said "Why the @#$% would I want a Lexus after fixing the Altima? Besides, I've ridden in a Lexus-- those leather seats are too slippery!"

I prefer the feel and breathability of cloth seats over leather. Sort of limits the luxury level of my furniture/vehicle purchases.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Wally - our other two cars are an expedition and a rav4...she already had a lot of good options for "riding up high"! As far as new vs used, she's never had a brand new, really nice car before in her life, just the sensible year or two or three old ones. It was time.

Nords, I left that prune thing in there for you. I'm pleased to see you still read for content as well as explosive characteristics. I am however, quote certain you could tell a prairie dog from a beaver. I can do so in the dark.

She isnt a leather interior type either, but thats the only way the car comes!

I finally drove it tonight. Very nice. I made sure she got the good buying experience in and got to drive it home and to work to show it off without my big hairy ass hitting the seat until after that was all over.

Tomorrow its up to the in-laws to show off. :

 

[laurence]

Congrats! Now post some pics of you standing in front of it, with a Sacramento Kings baseball cap on sideways, dark spy sunglasses, baggy t-shirt and gold chains, maybe some K-Swiss strapped to yo' feet, flashing a gang sign! That would be dope!

I tried to convince DW to let me get the S60 a full limo tint and 22" spinners, she stopped listening to me half way through the sales pitch!

Seriously, I'm all into LBYM, but if a purchase makes no change to the firecalc numbers, so to speak, everybody should experience the nice car feeling at least once. I bet there are a lot of people here who would pay that amount to go to space, and that experience only lasts days! Of course, some peoples' nice cars are nicer than others!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Eh, I was holding a little too much cash, couldnt really figure out what I wanted to do with it.

Along comes the wife, problem solved!

As I told my dad when he asked why she wanted it; i've had a bunch of really nice new cars. I dont need one right now, in fact I'd rather drive a beater. But my wifes never had a really nice new car. I'd probably what-if or wonder on if i'd never had one. I have and dont. Now she's got one and wont have to wonder either...

 

[Jarhead*]

Congrats!  Now post some pics of you standing in front of it, with a Sacramento Kings baseball cap on

My oldest daughter works for the Kings. Anytime I want to go to Arco, she has tickets for me.
After going a few times this year, agree with you, maybe try baseball.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

As far as keeping them...Gabe might end up learning to drive in this car!

 

[Texas Proud]

First, it is not too late to get the extended warrenty... I have an Acura and they said I had until the original warranty expired...

The 'cost' of these are not half, but more like 10%... they make a sh@t load of money off them... and for a Lexus, Acura, Honda, Toyota are not even worth buying... you only get a few more years or a few more miles.... if the car was so bad you would not have bought it anyhow...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Thats the conclusion I came to. Once I told the finance/second sales guy (cause thats what they are) I wasnt going to buy "today" if I was going to be pressed to do so "today", he admitted that I had until the last day of the factory warranty to buy, and that unless his costs went up during that time period, he'd honor the "deal" we had partially negotiated. Methinks theres another notch down in price as he wasnt squealing yet.

After looking at the warranties, I get 48/50k bumper to bumper, 7/70k on the powertrain, and extensions for the engine control computer, the emissions and the safety gear. The extended warranty that they have is a 7/70. They generously list all the stuff thats already covered by the powertrain and other warranty extensions.

When I took all the stuff out thats already covered, about all that was left that I thought had a chance of suddenly blowing up between 4 years and 7 was the air conditioning compressor, the dvd drive for the nav system, the cd changer and the screen for the nav system. I doubt any one of those would cost more than the $2k cost of the extended warranty. I doubt all of them would go in a 3 year period. Apparently so does lexus.

I figure I'll wait the 4 years. If the car has a lot of niggly little problems that get fixed under warranty, i'll buy it. If its pretty much problem free, we'll pass.

As far as "if the car was so bad you would not have bought it anyhow", spot on. First thing I said to the finance/sales guy was almost just that "We know we're buying one of the most reliable cars made, so we expect great reliability and to never need the warranty for anything serious". Then he's backed into the corner of having to tell me the car i'm buying isnt very reliable, or shortening the sales pitch.

As a point of interest, this didnt stop the guy who tried to sell my dad the extended warranty when he bought his new Toyota a couple of years ago. The guy flat out said that all cars are full of electronics today and are very unreliable as a result, and that this situation didnt exclude toyotas. He all but said the car was going to implode the moment it was out of warranty, perhaps sooner. My dad actually bought the warranty and then went back the next day and asked for his money back. He was subjected to a second 15 minute spiel about how nuts he was to cancel, complete with eye rolling and tongue clucking.

From what i've heard, they arent making a lot of money on cars these days but are making their profits from sales of the paint/fabric protection and the extended warranties.

Considering they made ~2% on my car (not including any holdbacks or factory to dealer incentives I dont know about), that would seem to be the case...

 

[justin]

The 'cost' of these are not half, but more like 10%... they make a sh@t load of money off them... and for a Lexus, Acura, Honda, Toyota are not even worth buying... you only get a few more years or a few more miles.... if the car was so bad you would not have bought it anyhow...

I don't buy the 10% figure. I'm sure there's a huge mark-up, but I doubt it is 900% of the cost. When I got my 4 extra years of coverage on a honda civic, the retail price was ~1000, and I paid ~500. Hondas are great, but there's wear and tear stuff that gets covered under warranty (my $260 oxygen sensor replacement was under warranty). Granted, had put that $500 I paid into the bank for seven years instead of buying a warranty, I'd have more than $500 at the end. But the fact that I'm only out $240 of what I paid with 1.5 years left of manufacturer warranty leaves me feeling pretty good.

If I had to do it over, I wouldn't bother getting the warranty even at cost. I have enough money to pay for whatever could break (The car only costs $14-15k brand spankin new). It is only effective for years 4-7 (or whatever the term is after the initial warranty expires). Then there's the hassle of submitting paperwork, figuring out which mechanical problems are under warranty, disputing denied claims, etc. Not worth the headache. My local honda dealership charges $86 for a diagnostic check to tell you whether the mechanical problem is under warranty or not. If it's under warranty, they'll waive your diagnostic charge. If it isn't under warranty, you're out $86 and your car is still broken. No thanks, my local honda specialist is much cheaper, more friendly and more competent.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I look at it in the broader context and in line with considering it Just More Insurance.

If I dont take any of the extended warranties on anything, even if its not a Bad Idea on its own (like notebooks, big screen tv's and cars), and I keep a high deductible on all of my insurance, something somewhere along the line is going to happen to cost me out of pocket. Its pretty unlikely that my notebook will crap out, my tv will blow up, and someone will crash into my car all about the same time. So i'm "self insuring" against the individual risk I'm taking on vs the extended warranty and insurance companies spreading that risk and taking the premium.

On the other hand, this year my laptop broke and my tv blew up. Maybe I shouldnt drive for a while.

On the third hand, the laptop and tv would have been well past any extended warranties I would have bought.

I *am* actually considering lowering my deductible on the lexus from the $5000 I carry on all the cars to a thousand or $2500, at least for the first year. Car has a lot of distracting electronics and learning to drive a new car, especially when you're alternately driving among three different cars, might be conducive to a dent.