- Feb 25, 2004
- 21,751
- 595
- 126
We only went to a few dealerships. Went over to the Hyundai place in town and took the 06 elantra out for a test drive. I liked it a lot. Base model is loaded up with stuff and has a very attractive price. Engine had good power I thought, handled nice at 80 in the interstate and had a nice quiet ride. Very roomy on the inside.
Guy made the offer of 13,881 after the $1000 rebate.
Went over to the Toyota dealership in town. Guy came out generally acting like a douchebag. We just asked if we could test drive a yaris and then maybe a corolla. Guy kept asking us how much we were looking to pay a month saying something about wanting to make sure we were looking at a car we could afford. Its a fvcking yaris...I didn't come in there asking to test drive your ferraris...I came to test drive the cheapest fvcking car they made.
Guy finally offered to get a yaris for us to test drive after I said I had 5K to put down. (In reality, I could buy it outright if I so desired) He blabbed something about there not being many left and that the yaris hadn't been looked over so we could only drive it around the lot. He went to get the car and we just left. There's plenty of other cars for sale, if they make it so hard to look at one of theirs we'll just buy one of those instead.
Went over to the automaster, who sells BMWs, audis, etc...and hondas. Test drove a certified preowned 05 civic VP. It was a nice car...interior felt a bit sharper then the elantra but the ride was a little noisier. Its better gas mileage though...but we don't travel very far so thats not to huge of a concern. They ended up wanting more for it then the new elantra, which wasn't unexpected. It was a likeable car...but I had to question spending more for a used vehicle with less stuff and less warentee. Plus it didn't have side air bags...and I want side air bags. Since there aren't a lot of vehicles on the lots around here I can be as picky.
We thought about it and decided we're going to probably go with the elantra. I know there might still be some reliability concerns, but with the 5YR bumper to bumper we should have to worry about extra bills on top of the payments. And with 10YR powertrain I'd most likely just keep the car until every drop of warentee was gone. The resale value isn't a concern for the same reason, at that point the car won't be worth sh|t anyway. Its actually a bigger car then we were initially looking for...but I've warmed up to the idea of some extra space.
Honestly, coming from our current cars (a 99 neon which has about the noisiest ride imaginable and a 94 prizm with extensive rust problems, a leaky gas tank and wonky interior) about every new car seems pretty damn nice.
My next step is to contact other hyundai dealers in the area and see who can offer me the best price.
Update:
Called around a few places. The initial offer he made us was pretty good. I had another dealership make me an offer of $13,500 and the original offered $13,600. I decided to go with the original guy because I liked the way they handled their business and I felt he was always being upfront with me. The guy from the other dealership was understandably aggressive and wanted us to make a commitment really quick. So we're going to go put some money down on it tonight.
Update:
Finished all the paperwork, etc. Went over and picked it up last night. Tried to upsell me some of their services, which a few of them tempted me. $1100 the would extend the bumper to bumper and roadside assistance to 10 years from 5. Was kind of tempting, since I'd be surprised if any car didn't require at least $1100 of (non powertrain) work in the second 5 years.
Offered some wheel protection thing which didn't sound like that great of a value. $300 and they'd replace a wheel and tire free of charge if you drove it into a hole. Since I never damaged the rims on any of the cars I've driven in my lifetime, and the steel rims on our elantra cost about $70 it didn't seem worthwhile, and he said as much.
My wife made him jump through a bunch of hoops at the last minute over what she thought was a scratch on the windshield. It was just some left over wax that turned out to be pretty hard to get off.
Not much else...first oil change is free at dealer and he says he'll top of the tank of gas if we give him a good survey review. Free gas is free gas.
Guy made the offer of 13,881 after the $1000 rebate.
Went over to the Toyota dealership in town. Guy came out generally acting like a douchebag. We just asked if we could test drive a yaris and then maybe a corolla. Guy kept asking us how much we were looking to pay a month saying something about wanting to make sure we were looking at a car we could afford. Its a fvcking yaris...I didn't come in there asking to test drive your ferraris...I came to test drive the cheapest fvcking car they made.
Guy finally offered to get a yaris for us to test drive after I said I had 5K to put down. (In reality, I could buy it outright if I so desired) He blabbed something about there not being many left and that the yaris hadn't been looked over so we could only drive it around the lot. He went to get the car and we just left. There's plenty of other cars for sale, if they make it so hard to look at one of theirs we'll just buy one of those instead.
Went over to the automaster, who sells BMWs, audis, etc...and hondas. Test drove a certified preowned 05 civic VP. It was a nice car...interior felt a bit sharper then the elantra but the ride was a little noisier. Its better gas mileage though...but we don't travel very far so thats not to huge of a concern. They ended up wanting more for it then the new elantra, which wasn't unexpected. It was a likeable car...but I had to question spending more for a used vehicle with less stuff and less warentee. Plus it didn't have side air bags...and I want side air bags. Since there aren't a lot of vehicles on the lots around here I can be as picky.
We thought about it and decided we're going to probably go with the elantra. I know there might still be some reliability concerns, but with the 5YR bumper to bumper we should have to worry about extra bills on top of the payments. And with 10YR powertrain I'd most likely just keep the car until every drop of warentee was gone. The resale value isn't a concern for the same reason, at that point the car won't be worth sh|t anyway. Its actually a bigger car then we were initially looking for...but I've warmed up to the idea of some extra space.
Honestly, coming from our current cars (a 99 neon which has about the noisiest ride imaginable and a 94 prizm with extensive rust problems, a leaky gas tank and wonky interior) about every new car seems pretty damn nice.
My next step is to contact other hyundai dealers in the area and see who can offer me the best price.
Update:
Called around a few places. The initial offer he made us was pretty good. I had another dealership make me an offer of $13,500 and the original offered $13,600. I decided to go with the original guy because I liked the way they handled their business and I felt he was always being upfront with me. The guy from the other dealership was understandably aggressive and wanted us to make a commitment really quick. So we're going to go put some money down on it tonight.
Update:
Finished all the paperwork, etc. Went over and picked it up last night. Tried to upsell me some of their services, which a few of them tempted me. $1100 the would extend the bumper to bumper and roadside assistance to 10 years from 5. Was kind of tempting, since I'd be surprised if any car didn't require at least $1100 of (non powertrain) work in the second 5 years.
Offered some wheel protection thing which didn't sound like that great of a value. $300 and they'd replace a wheel and tire free of charge if you drove it into a hole. Since I never damaged the rims on any of the cars I've driven in my lifetime, and the steel rims on our elantra cost about $70 it didn't seem worthwhile, and he said as much.
My wife made him jump through a bunch of hoops at the last minute over what she thought was a scratch on the windshield. It was just some left over wax that turned out to be pretty hard to get off.
Not much else...first oil change is free at dealer and he says he'll top of the tank of gas if we give him a good survey review. Free gas is free gas.