Sarasota FL
This morning, we decided to buy a Chevy Silverado. I didn’t like the appearance of the Dodge Ram; neither of us liked the Ford trucks; we agreed we love our current Chevy. We also decided to buy a new truck. While the ticket price was more for a new truck, the incentives and financing brought its cost down into the range of a used truck. Many thanks to Jim (our Money Guy) for helping us with this analysis.
We knew what we needed – towing capacity of at least 7,000 pounds, a bed at least as long as our current one, an extended cab rather than a regular cab. While we would accept a crew cab, we did not want an 8-foot truck bed or one shorter than 5.5 feet. We were hoping for white with cloth seats, but we’d be fine with blue or red. We would not accept a tan interior.
We drove down to Venice to look at several options. The only truck that met our criteria was two-wheel drive, white with leather seats and enough chrome to make us squint. The leather smelled good. I figured cows get wet and muddy all the time, so we could probably keep the interior clean, but that chrome was really bothering me. We were also concerned that neither Debbie nor Linda (our vegan friends) would ever ride in a vehicle with leather seats. The weird thing was price – the fancy truck cost quite a bit less than the bare-bones one in Sarasota.
While we were in the Venice show room, I contacted the Sarasota salesman to ask him some questions about the truck we’d seen there. It was pretty obvious we were looking at his competition. The truck in Sarasota had four-wheel drive. That added to the price, but not enough to explain the huge difference between these two trucks. We decided to use this as a bargaining strategy and returned to Sarasota to negotiate.
We used everything we had ever learned about negotiating. Kelly hates this part of buying a car, but I like it. I work so hard on being nice - sometimes it’s great to just cut loose. Kelly wanted me to do all the talking, but since I used silence to make the salesman uncomfortable, it shot me in the foot – Kelly felt uncomfortable and filled the silences. We walked away at one point. In the end, they came down a couple thousand and threw in two options we really needed – a rubber mat for the bed and running boards. They had offered us a free bed liner, but we opted for a rubber mat because it was more practical for our road trip. (Objects in the bed won’t slide around.) We tried for a rack, but they wouldn’t go that far.
Here’s what we got: 2009 Chevy Silverado with V8 engine and towing capacity of 9700 pounds (room to grow to a larger trailer if we love this lifestyle), extended cab, built-in tow package with all kinds of safety sensors, white with grey fabric seats, radio with CD and MP3 jack (This was a HUGE point for Kelly and the Fords didn’t have it.) The safety sensors made it more expensive than the one with leather seats. When I realized the difference, and what those sensors would give us over the next year, I made up my mind very quickly.
Kelly and I were very happy with our decision. We used teamwork and got the best deal we could on the truck we wanted. We’re both nervous about driving it – it is friggin’ huge! While sitting in the front seat, we can barely reach across the middle to touch each other. We’re telling ourselves it’s smaller than many of the pick-ups on the road; it’s no wider than the trailer; we’ll get used to it.
This morning, we decided to buy a Chevy Silverado. I didn’t like the appearance of the Dodge Ram; neither of us liked the Ford trucks; we agreed we love our current Chevy. We also decided to buy a new truck. While the ticket price was more for a new truck, the incentives and financing brought its cost down into the range of a used truck. Many thanks to Jim (our Money Guy) for helping us with this analysis.
We knew what we needed – towing capacity of at least 7,000 pounds, a bed at least as long as our current one, an extended cab rather than a regular cab. While we would accept a crew cab, we did not want an 8-foot truck bed or one shorter than 5.5 feet. We were hoping for white with cloth seats, but we’d be fine with blue or red. We would not accept a tan interior.
We drove down to Venice to look at several options. The only truck that met our criteria was two-wheel drive, white with leather seats and enough chrome to make us squint. The leather smelled good. I figured cows get wet and muddy all the time, so we could probably keep the interior clean, but that chrome was really bothering me. We were also concerned that neither Debbie nor Linda (our vegan friends) would ever ride in a vehicle with leather seats. The weird thing was price – the fancy truck cost quite a bit less than the bare-bones one in Sarasota.
While we were in the Venice show room, I contacted the Sarasota salesman to ask him some questions about the truck we’d seen there. It was pretty obvious we were looking at his competition. The truck in Sarasota had four-wheel drive. That added to the price, but not enough to explain the huge difference between these two trucks. We decided to use this as a bargaining strategy and returned to Sarasota to negotiate.
We used everything we had ever learned about negotiating. Kelly hates this part of buying a car, but I like it. I work so hard on being nice - sometimes it’s great to just cut loose. Kelly wanted me to do all the talking, but since I used silence to make the salesman uncomfortable, it shot me in the foot – Kelly felt uncomfortable and filled the silences. We walked away at one point. In the end, they came down a couple thousand and threw in two options we really needed – a rubber mat for the bed and running boards. They had offered us a free bed liner, but we opted for a rubber mat because it was more practical for our road trip. (Objects in the bed won’t slide around.) We tried for a rack, but they wouldn’t go that far.
Here’s what we got: 2009 Chevy Silverado with V8 engine and towing capacity of 9700 pounds (room to grow to a larger trailer if we love this lifestyle), extended cab, built-in tow package with all kinds of safety sensors, white with grey fabric seats, radio with CD and MP3 jack (This was a HUGE point for Kelly and the Fords didn’t have it.) The safety sensors made it more expensive than the one with leather seats. When I realized the difference, and what those sensors would give us over the next year, I made up my mind very quickly.
Kelly and I were very happy with our decision. We used teamwork and got the best deal we could on the truck we wanted. We’re both nervous about driving it – it is friggin’ huge! While sitting in the front seat, we can barely reach across the middle to touch each other. We’re telling ourselves it’s smaller than many of the pick-ups on the road; it’s no wider than the trailer; we’ll get used to it.
So when do we get to see a picture of that new truck? I've been waiting. What the heck?
ReplyDelete