After work on Friday, I took the Metra down to Oak Park to meet up with Jeani in order for us to go see the green Element. It was a little surreal, since that was my commute for a year; it felt pretty normal in the end. I even needed to use the washroom in between trains, just like the old days!
Anyway.
The dealer with the E was the same one where we'd purchased the Vibe, so it only made sense for us to use the same salesperson. Earlier on Friday, Jeani had stopped in and looked at some hail-damaged cars the dealer needed to get rid of - including new ones - and strongly suggested we consider one of those.
We started with the green E, which was in fact there. Our salesperson was oddly cold and distant, though - during the entire first half of the process it was like we were bothering him being there. Jeani hypothesized that he was miffed at us since we only came in for cars that were well below market value. I agreed - it was certainly the case.
Our salesperson took a good 10-15 minutes just to find the key to the car, and then drove us over to the lot it was in. He then parked the car, got out, and didn't say anything to us. Okay.... We got out as well, and the salesperson gave me the key. So we started looking it over. The body itself was pretty clean but, oh boy, the interior.
To put it politely, it wasn't perfect. It certainly wasn't a pigsty. But there was a layer of dust on the top of the dash, the seats were stained (with what?) in various places, and the interior just looked beat up. We decided to drive it, though, and to my tin ears I could hear something rattling whilst driving - from underneath the car. We liked it okay overall, but I tell you that the interior was a huge enormous turn-off. I appreciated that we were able to test drive the car ourselves, but there was no gas in the thing: the gauge was on "E" the whole time.
On the drive we came up with a plan: we'd go see the hail-damaged new ones and consider them. Jeani had seen three that morning, and got a contact on the new car side. Once we returned from our drive, we informed our salesperson about this - remember, he'd been pretty distant - and his initial reaction was, "Well, you see, that cuts me out of the deal." Ultimately Jeani said that we didn't care how that worked out and we were willing to give him the credit if need be.
He went inside, talked with his manager, etc. and then we spent more than a couple of minutes trying to park by the new car showroom. (This dealer is in Chicago, and parking in Chicago is, uh, hard.)
Upon arriving, we had to wait a good 15 minutes before our paged salesperson - the guy Jeani had contacted - showed up. Once he did, he took us over to the new car lot where we got to see what was still there and, sadly, there was only one hail-damaged new one worth considering. It was an 06 LX (not EX, so none of the creature comforts we wanted) with modest but not horrible damage on the hood, running boards, a roof rack, a luggage bin on top, and the shiniest most bling-y wheels I'd ever seen. I couldn't stand the wheels; Jeani was indifferent. They were ugly as sin.
Pictures of us with a luggage bin we'd never use (hello, 74 cubic feet inside!) and shiny wheels driving to IKEA flashed through my head. No aux jack? No armrests? No sunroof? Sure - it was new, and had a warranty. The green one didn't.
So we drove it, liked it, and talked with our guy. He "talked to his manager" and came back with a price of $18,999 - way too high, and allegedly due to those damn accessories (we later tallied them to be a few thousand dollars.) Mind you, that was sticker. But we thought, you know, we've already been here for 2 and a half hours - yes, 2 and a half hours - and if he wants to sell a car, he'll work with us.
We asked him to appraise our car, and he wanted to push it off until Saturday. He explained that other buyers weren't around this late (8:30ish on a Friday) and we'd have a better chance the next day. Jeani had an appointment in the morning, though, so that wouldn't work - and given they had sold 2 of the other cars, it was starting to look like a "now or never" situation.
We were both just exhausted at this point. But we wanted him to appraise it tonight. He eventually agreed, took the keys, and we waited. 15 minutes later, he came back and said, "Our guy can't find the car!" even though we told him exactly where it was. He very clearly didn't want to sell a car, and we felt really miffed at this point. We both told him again where it was but then Jeani turned to me and said, "Wait, it's going to take another 15 minutes? No way." We both yelled out his name, told him no, and went on our merry way.
Both of us were bummed that we didn't have a car. I was secretly a little happy we didn't have the bling-y wheels. Upon returning home we looked at listings again and decided to check out an orange 03 that we'd seen the prior week. The good news? The price dropped by a thousand bucks, so it was now $13k. The bad news? 35 miles away in Downers Grove.
Jeani suggested (sorry, that's the only verb I have for her today) that we sleep on it but should go see it. I agreed. And Friday, our long sad Friday, came to a close.
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