Just another retired mechanic here, agreeing with Volvo & Joe replies. By the way, your note is quite fine writing, with details showing a very clear picture in this reader’s mind. I frequently read my emails quietly out loud, so I can hear if that is what I really want to or need to say…garnered compliments for clarity with inter-office co-workers. Congrats with moving forward with a car that you want and worked for! Took me a few years longer, but my 5-gear ‘83 GL Wagon by Subaru was nothing less than total enjoyment well past 250,000 miles. Um, last thought is to ask if the seller really has sold ‘your car’. If not, perhaps there is wiggle room for negotiating some value-added perks like a maintenance package or even a reasonably lower price or a bumper to bumper warranty extension or something else may be offered…and you end up with the keys to your new car. After all, widgets need to be sold, and not always for top dollar profit.
@bing, I wouldn’t necessarily say that cash needs to be taken, but in the San Francisco Bay area some high volume businesses like coffee shops have been using a no cash business model. They say cash transactions cause delays in service during busy times and using credit/debit cards or something like Apple/Google pay speeds things up. However, there are people pushing back against this idea and some of the businesses are starting to accept cash again. Still, like it or not, this may become more common in the future.
Sorry, but I can’t see spending 40 grand on a Civic anything. Just like I couldn’t see anyone paying the 42 grand sticker price for a Focus RS at the dealership where I bought my Mustang. Heck, you can buy a turbo 4cyl Mustang and get about the same performance numbers for 10 grand less than the Civic’s price.
I hate to say it since I think we have too many laws now, but there should be a law on this one. At least for store fronts.
Personally, I like not having to carry cash. Being honest, the only thing I ever needed cash for was for off-the-books transactions. Cash is covered in bacteria and traces of cocaine, and if you lose it or it is stolen from you, it’s gone forever. My credit and debit cards, on the other hand, are more sanitary, and if they’re lost or stolen, I’m not responsible for paying for anything that is bought with them. Heck, if I’m not carrying cash, and I get robbed, giving up my wallet is just a matter of inconvenience, a very low stakes scenario. If I have cash in my wallet, I might be tempted to do something stupid while being robbed.
Maybe that’s part of why I’ve never been robbed, because I’m smart enough not to carry things people would want to steal. Sure, being male, 6’2" tall and weighing 240 lbs. helps, but not carrying cash also gives me the confidence of knowing I have nothing of value that anyone in his right mind would want.
The only thing I use cash for anymore is paying my motorcycle mechanic. He works out of his home, so I’ve always assumed he doesn’t take plastic.
People got beat up and even killed for NOT having anything of value on them. A $20 bill might save your life.
At least one legislator in my state is proposing a bill to require businesses to accept cash. I don’t really have a dog in this fight because I rarely use cash, but I suppose that this type of regulation would be egalitarian in nature.
If it is passed into law, it should be interesting to see how they implement it at our Costco gas stations that currently accept only Visa credit cards and Visa debit cards.
Never been mugged, but may have given a homeless guy a heart attack. I was at a conference in chicago, kept some cash in a pocket just in case. Now there was this guy with a help please sign and a collection box, I said hey and dropped him a $20 bill, walked a couple of blocks up the street, and doing some people watching, an ambulance pulls up and loads up the guy, hope he is ok.
I thought everyone in south Florida laundered their money? I’ve never been robbed either, not even close. I keep my $100 bills in the car or checkbook, my $20s in my billfold, and smaller bills in my money clip. So if I’m hit up for a hand out which usually happens in Ohio, I never have to take out my billfold. One guy outside of Chicago hit me up and I gave him a ten. Said his card didn’t work and needed to get his wife and kid back to Gary. Afterwards I saw him with his kid and wife going into the store. I was thinking I should have given him a hundred-he looked honest and just in case. The thing is you never know I guess.
I only offer to buy a meal for panhandlers, never give them cash. Never had one take me up on my offer. I worked for one trucking company for a couple of years where I had to carry $300 dollars cash to buy fuel (would have been $600 today) . I would not have extended them credit either. U worked there 2 years and quit 3 times, The last time was when the owner gave me a paycheck on Friday and asked me ti not cash it before Wednesday.
I was slightly larger than Whitey and have never been mugged, but I think it is because I never looked nervous or out of place or prosperous.
About 25 years ago, in San Diego, I was approached by a guy with a little girl, and he seemed very embarrassed to ask for money. I turned him down, but because I remained in the same general area for an hour or so while sightseeing, I had a chance to observe him and his daughter for an extended period of time. They did seem to be genuinely distressed by their plight, so before I left the area, I handed him a $10 bill. Maybe I was “taken”, but I don’t think that I would have been able to sleep that night if I had to think of that little girl going hungry. And, I really didn’t miss that money, so…
“ Judge not, that ye be not judged .”
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IMO the car dealership has a right to refuse a cashier’s check as payment for a car. Teenage customer probably part of the concern. Cashier checks are usually good, but fraud with these checks remains a possibility. They’d probably take a cashier’s check drawn on the dealership’s bank however, provided somebody at the bank verified they had just given it out. Or they could take the check as payment, but keep the car on the lot until the check cleared. Wouldn’t have been convenient in OP’s case though.
I wanted to change my bank account from one bank to the one next door. I got a cashier’s check from the first bank, walked it over to the second, both major banks that’s I’ve had accounts with for years. Even so, the second bank still telephoned the first bank to verify the cashier’s check number I just handed them is the same as the one they just handed to me. Could be thought of two ways: One, that the bank’s aren’t cooperating with the customer; two, that the banks are protecting the customer’s deposits. Probably a little of both involved.
I don’t know what I said before and I’m not going to look, but a cashiers check is simply a check guaranteed by the bank+/underwriter. If it is not counterfeit. That’s the problem. They can look very real until ten days later when they find out it was fake. Same with hundred dollar bills. Now a debit or credit card transaction is a lot safer. Still think the law should require anyone to take cash, but get that marker out to verify they are real.
Had one lady I donated to every now and then. She was sitting looking at the flower garden at a nearby park where I was walking the dog. I had gone there to see the flower garden also. I talked to her a bit, then said here is $5. She was missing a few teeth and said thank yo, I am gong to go buy a watermelon because they were on sale for $4.99. The only rule is there is no rule. I think every thing she owned was packed up on her bicycle.
Just take cash it’s safer than a wire transfer. A wire transfer is non reversible. If some scammer tricks the sender of a wire transfer in to sending it to a foreign bank the money is gone.
Really,cash is saher than a wire transfer? If a scammer gets your cash, just how do you get it back. Also , I have never heard of being mugged for aq wire transfer.
.I did just run into a bank that refused to take either a wire transfer or a mailed check for a large CD(Bread Savings).
They will accept ACH transfers only.
Friends of ours saved up to spend a year RV’ing in Austrailia which for the credit union they use didn’t offer international wire transfers but there was what they termed a scary work around using their debit card.
When I bought my car I asked the dealer in advance if a cashiers check was ok, could have done a wire if needed. Might have helped that it was one of the banks they dealt with for loans on a regular basis.