Weekly Twitter Updates for 2009-05-31
- Home after a glorious weekend w/ my best friend. Never get tired of the breathtaking scenery in Trout Lake. Stole Cathy’s brush. Oops! XOXO #
- Kat is giving away a Rubbermaid 20piece set! Go enter for a chance to win! http://bit.ly/XkVO4 #
- My job can be interesting at times. I was totally an Internet Perry Mason today. #
- Wow… it’s really hot out today. Even though I’m currently melting.. I’m not complaining. I was really sick of cold weather for so long. #
- Car salesmen with all their paper, numbers, circles, etc drive me freaking insane. I haaaate the run around! #
- You forgot to mention FULL SIZE SUV.
RT @JackThompson899: Looking for a new (to me) SUV so we can take our tribe camping and stuff! # - Got a 9 seater Suburban today. Already tossed the kids in the car for a small road trip. Bliss. #fb #
- I HAD a Diet Coke with Lime. I can’t figure out where I put it. Who wants to bet one of my kids put it in a “bigger container”? #
Suburban
As I posted Friday, we started looking for a new rig. We thought about a passenger van but we wanted something a bit more rugged, something that could go over a mountain if we wanted it to. Something with four wheel drive.
I did quite a bit of internet research and had my heart settled on a Chevy Suburban. Jack is more of a Ford man and wanted an Ford Excursion. Either would work. While rare, both have versions that seat up to nine people. The only problem is the larger sized Excursions seemed to be very rare. At least around here. There were far more Suburbans to look at.
We looked at an ‘06 Suburban on Friday at some sort of “close out” event at a local dealership. The salesmen weren’t actually from Vancouver, though. They were just using the (otherwise empty) dealership to sell their stock of repossessed and lease-returned vehicles.
The ‘06 Suburban was feature packed, but seemed a bit rough on the ride. If there’s one thing Suburbans are known for, it’s their comfortable ride. It was hard to put my finger on it, but it just seemed like the vehicle had seen some hard times. It had fairly low miles (64,100) for an SUV (most we looked into had 80K plus miles, even newer used models), and it seemed in good condition, so I chalked up the ‘rough ride’ to not being used to riding around in a “truck”. It only had 8 seats, something I wasn’t thrilled about. But at that point we realized how hard it was to find the 9 seat versions of these SUVs. We decided to make an offer anyway.
I’ve dealt with car salesmen before. Actually I should say Jack has dealt with car salesmen before. But these were the most sleaziest sales guys.. EVER.
The salesman and the sales manager sat us down in a tiny stifling hot room, whipped out their scratch paper and started writing numbers down all over the place, circling the numbers here and there, and basically doodling on the paper while trying to seem like they were working hard on “figuring out the numbers”. It took an effort on my part to not laugh in their faces while telling them to STOP with the hokey dramatics.
Despite the fact that we told them they would not be pulling our credit and that we had our own financing, they made us sign this paper stating that we’d drive the vehicle away THAT DAY if we all agreed on the terms. We hesitated at this. Why do we have to sign for anything before we even really talked numbers? They explained “the bank” (the ones who owned this supposedly repo’d or lease-returned vehicle) required it. We obeyed, then made the mistake of giving them our phone numbers.
We had already looked up the value of the vehicle at kbb on our iPhones. (kbb.com is iPhone-friendly by the way.) We already knew the ballpark figure we’d be offering. The salesmen saw what we were doing so grabbed their kbb printout of the vehicle and told us their sticker price. It was $2k higher than the suggested retail on kbb. We were like “wtf?” They just continued talking out their ass, avoiding our questions, giving us a bullshit runaround while doodling on their paper.
I have to give them this: They could write numbers and make circles really really well. My 6 year old would be proud.
What we offered was dead center of the high and low values on kbb. It was a fair price based on our research. They balked at us, but remember, their sticker price was $2k over the norm with no reasonable explanation as to why. The sales manager claimed the bank would not take the number we offered as the vehicle was going on auction on Tuesday and they would not take less for what they could get at the auction.
Jack and the “sales manager” bickered back and forth about that for a while. It wasn’t a public auction, it was a dealer auction. Did they really think we are stupid enough to believe that a dealer would pay 2k more than the kbb value at an auction? Call me crazy but that doesn’t make sense at all.
The sales manager did the “have to talk to the bank” crap and kept leaving the room to “try to get our offer approved”. We know damn well he went into another room, picked his nose, then came back. That’s how they work.
Jack stuck to his guns, stating over and over the only price we’d pay. The sales manager left the room one last time, then came back claiming he talked to the bank and the bank counter offered with 1.6k more than our bottom line. He had written it in big letters on his doodle paper, and put a few circles around it. We said sorry and turned to leave. He and the salesman chased us down to the parking lot, continuing to show us the big number and circles. We kept saying, ’sorry. not happening. We offer this and only this and that’s that”.
He changed his tone to be that of someone who understood so he was going to work with us. Then he pointed to the SAME number again and said “we agree on this right?”.
Um… NO? Didn’t we JUST tell you 60 times NO NO NO? He was like “but come on? We AGREE!” Jack was like “no, WE DON’T AGREE”. The guy practically whined saying ‘WE ALL AGREE!!’.
Was he trying to do some Jedi mind trick on us or something??
Then he tried to guilt-trip us. He said the salesman who assisted us worked hard for us and spent a lot of time with us. So we should all AGREE on their number.
First of all, the salesman didn’t do shit. He just followed Jack around like a desperate starving puppy while Jack waited for me to arrive to the lot. Second, there was NO GAS in the vehicle. NONE. And the salesman couldn’t get their company gas card to put gas in it to allow us to test drive it. WE drove it to the nearest gas station and WE put $5 in it. Out of our OWN pocket.
That reminded us. They owed us $5.00.
The weird freaky sales manager dude with his uber Jedi mind powers (haha) kept trying to convince us that WE ALL AGREE while the sales dude went looking for $5.00. I think our eyes WERE glossed over at that point, but it really wasn’t because his Jedi mind powers were working like I’m sure he thought they were.
We got our $5 and tried to make a break for it. Jack beat me to his vehicle first and hightailed it out of there back to work. I had to buckle in a child so I didn’t escape so easily. The sales guy chased me down and tried to get ME to buy the Suburban for the number WE ALL AGREE on. I played dumb telling them my husband did all the numbers in the household and I was clueless. He tried anyway repeatedly the whole time I was getting in my car, buckling my seat belt, starting the car, and backing out. He practically chased me down the street!
He then called my cell phone later that evening. Fortunately I missed the call so he left a voice mail saying they really wanted our business. Their offer, the number WE ALL AGREE on, was still good. I didn’t return his call.
What part of WE DO **********NOT********** AGREE did they not understand?
Yesterday we did some more research online, looking for anyone who had what we were looking for. No one really did, or if they did, the mileage was way too high for us to consider. So we went scouting local dealers ourselves. And found her. The ‘04 Suburban that seats 9.. .the ONE we’ve been looking for. The mileage was 4k less than the mileage on the ‘06 the freaks tried to sell us, and it was priced fairly.
It also had some gas so we could test drive it without having to fork over some cash. That’s always a bonus.
I drove it first and instantly I knew THIS is what a Suburban is supposed to feel like. It was smooth, like butter and exactly what I envisioned it would feel like. That “rough” feeling was not there at all. The engine was clean, the interior in excellent condition, and had brand new tires. Overall it was in better condition than the ‘06. It had the ninth seat and… it was priced seven THOUSAND dollars less than the ‘06 from Friday.
I realize two years on a vehicle can make a difference, but this had LESS miles than the ‘06 and was in better condition. I don’t think I’m so crazy thinking the crooks were asking way too much for the ‘06.
We didn’t snatch it up though. We wanted to be sure. We spent the next several hours scouting and calling around. NO ONE had a 9 seater. Some dealers tried to sell us passenger vans instead and one even told us for a low ten thousand dollars we could convert a passenger van to a 4WD (lolz).
We looked at Expeditions, Excursions, and Explorers. We looked at Tahoes, other Suburbans (lots of Suburbans) and none compared. It all came down to the ‘04.
On top of the that, the dealer selling the ‘04 was good. It was the actual owner of the dealer working that day and we could tell he was reading us and acting accordingly. He recognized we wanted to be left alone and stayed away keeping himself busy but still nearby if we had a question. He let us do our little iPhone research and didn’t butt in. Even when we left to do more scouting, he didn’t give us any hassle. He just thanked us for our time and off we went. Of course we came back, with an offer in mind. STILL he didn’t push us. He let us look over the vehicle some more, talk, etc. He left us alone to make our decision.
When it was time to talk numbers, there was no scratch paper, no numbers, no circles. He told us he tried to follow Costco’s way of pricing and mark up all his vehicles a certain percentage (15%) and that was that.
The price he was asking for the ‘04 was more than fair, yet Jack still managed to talk him down a bit and we all settled on a price. It was THAT easy with this guy. And guess what? WE ALL AGREED. 
A short time later we drove this home:
We grabbed the kids and took off for a family member’s birthday party in Portland. It wasn’t a big trip… but… WE ALL RODE IN THE SAME VEHICLE. There was no figuring out who was going to ride where, or who could go or stay. We just… went!
And for those naysayers worried about how much gas this thing is guzzling (yes we’ve already been teased for this), we’re driving ONE vehicle to haul our kids around instead of two. So we’re really not consuming any more than we were before. We’re keeping our minivan for the times when it’s just the 7 of us, and for around town driving. The Suburban is our weekend vehicle.
Edited to add: I forgot to mention the second phone call from the sleazebags. Just after we finalized the deal on the ‘04, Jack got a call on his cell phone from the sales guy from the ‘06. He called to let Jack know that their offer was still standing. They were still totally allowing us to drive their crappy ‘06 away for $1600 more than we wanted to pay. Wasn’t that nice of them?
Jack told them, “I just bought an ‘04 in better condition and with less miles for $7000 less than your piece of crap. Don’t call us again”.
It made his day.
Trout Lake 2009
Last weekend we crammed the kids and dogs into our minivan like sardines and took off for Cathy’s house in Trout Lake, WA. The kids pitched a tent in her front yard so it was like camping for them.
I’ve missed my Cathy-friend so it was awesome to see her. And the scenery. OMG the scenery. I took 439 pictures. I’ve uploaded 39 of them here: Cathy’s House, Trout Lake, WA Most of the mountains, grass, and animal pictures I took were views from Cathy’s back porch.
Here’s a small sample:
We discovered on this trip that we have really really outgrown our minivan. I haven’t mentioned it on here yet but we’re moving from fostering to adopting my niece. So our family has “officially” grown by one. (She’s legally free to be adopted now, we’re just awaiting the finalization … which could take a long time.)
Whenever we travel to family or a friend’s house, we try to bring food. At the very least some snacks and drinks so we’re not putting anyone out. We couldn’t even fit one small cooler in our van with the two dogs all the seats taken. In the past whenever we took *all* the kids, we’d rent a passenger van. We figured we were saving a lot of money by doing that. But we realized that it limits us way too much to depend on renting whenever we want to take the whole, or even just most, of our tribe anywhere.
R&D recently got a big SUV and that was also part of our inspiration to actually look into this. We’d love to be able to toss the kids, the dogs, and some gear and take off on a weekend here or there and not be limited by the miles, time, money, etc. that comes with renting a vehicle.
And I really want to be able to steal away to Cathy’s house any time it’s possible and not have to worry about which kids get to go with us.
Weekly Twitter Updates for 2009-05-24
- First round of medical bills have started rolling in. $1500 in the hole and counting.
# - Just got back from the dump. EWWW. At least we got the truck running. #
- And by “we” I mean, @erie_wilson of course. We did have a few more things to do to get it to go. It still needs work. Lots of work. #
- Hilarious! RT @flashydreams: I’ve only read 3 comments, and I’m still laughin’… only 250+ to go. http://is.gd/yUt0 #
- OMG. Best. American Idol. Finale. Ever!! I mean…Kiss!?! Jack almost had a heart attack. Seriously… He was freaking OUT. #fb #
- It’s over and I’m happy. That’s all I can say about that. #fb #
Weekly Twitter Updates for 2009-05-17
- I haven’t touched my computer since Friday at noon. I’m soooo behind on emails & comments & such. #
- It only took 6 hours but I’m caught up! (mostly…) I had a great mother’s day, btw. #
- Worked a bit late tonight. Gonna go do dishes, fold laundry (it’s always about the damn laundry isn’t it?), then watch American Idol. #
- Randy always booing Simon sure gets old after a while. #
- RT Retweet this if you disagree with Twitter’s decision to hide replies to people you don’t follow #fixreplies #twitterfail #
- RT @flashydreams: they’re watching…and brainstorming http://bit.ly/RaaD5 #twitterfail #fixreplies #
- Google news is down…. who cares. #
- What sucks is Gmail not saving my “Always display images” settings on my contacts. Hasn’t worked right for over a week. ANNOYING! #
- My mom is taking me to see the American Idols Live concert in July. How cool is that?! #fb #
- Dragon slain!! Yes!! #
- It’s Friday evening. The sun is shining. It’s warm outside, & it’s going to be sunny & warm all weekend. Yay! #
- Spring cleaning all morning. Hoping to get it done by this afternoon so we can enjoy this awesome weather! #
- Got tons of projects done today. Many small home improvements. Enjoyed the sunshine. Tired. Yard work tomorrow, & more sunshine!! Yay! #fb #
- I bit the bullet and decided to read Twilight. Now it’s almost 2 AM and I’m still reading. Gah! Can’t put it down. #fb #
- Jack had to work last night. “Monthly downtime”. Then got paged with an issue that wasn’t his problem early this morning. Happens every time #
- Baking in the sun. Doing yard work. Listening to music on my iPod. http://twitpic.com/5dty4 #
