My wife has decided she’s had enough of the Odyssey and wants a Volt. We have solar and batteries, so we can charge for free, and she likes the way it looks and drives. I no longer influence her car buying choices after a disastrous incident 11 years ago. I give suggestions, she looks, she drives, tells me what she wants, then I go hunting for that.
I’ve found a local 2016 Volt for $18k with just under 8k miles on it. Basically new, it was a local municipal vehicle, if it was at a dealer with a new Monroney on it, I’m not sure I’d question that it was new or not. Very nice car, and 11k under what a new 2019 is going for with current rebates etc. We’ve looked at 6 or so different used ones and 2 new, as well as the Ioniq, Clarity, and Prius. She wants a Volt.
Current plan is to go and buy that car this morning. Before Doing so, I sent out a TrueCar request. I bought my last 2 cars using their service, a Subaru and a VW, both times within a couple hours I had emails from 3 dealers with specific cars, specs, and prices. What do I get from Chevy dealers?
This exact same email from all 3 dealers with different names. This is not how Truecar is supposed to work. Beyond that, I’ve looked at 2 new ones and both had 0 charge and the sales people said that they’d try, but they really don’t know anything about the Volt. This is not how you sell an electric car. Plug the damn thing in so it has some charge, for starters, that’s what makes it special.
Beyond that, they really want to make it easy and just send me an email with the deal. I’m willing to take it, knowing I’m leaving money on the table rather than playing the game. But if they want to play the game, cool. I’m a bastard to negotiate with, I’ll get every penny and make them work their asses off for it.
The dealer that has the used 2016 she likes had it charged, clean, and had a sales rep who I could geek out with. THAT IS HOW YOU SELL A CAR! I’m going in at noon, and asking them for the best price possible on the 2019 they have and going from there. If I can get the new one for within 5k net of the used one, I’ll buy it so I have the warranty, power seats, and other improvements of the 2019. Otherwise, we will own a 2016.
