Cars youo almost bought...... but didn't

I have only bought three new cars in my life, but I tried quite a few times. Back when they still sold Fastback and Squareback VW, I wanted one. I went out to the VW dealer to look at them.

The salesman was chatting as they do, assuming they are going to impress you. He commented that at times people would boast they had enough money to buy a Porsche, but didn’t want to spend it, so got an ordinary VW. He said it in a manner implying they were lying about having that much money. I guess he assumed everyone spends his last cent on a car?

Well, sadly for him, I did have enough money in the bank to buy a Porsche. And, it was staying in the bank! I saw no reason to take my life’s savings and spend it on a Porsche. So, I walked out on him. His big mouth cost him a sale.

Another time, I went to the Dodge dealer. My brother had a Dart and it ran out very well. So, I thought that would be a good one to buy. A basic Dodge with no expensive options.

The next years cars were on the lot, so I thought I’d check out the price on the older model. I warned him as I usually do that he got one shot at me, give me his best price, because I do not play those games. He did some magic number nonsense and talked to the manager, and offered a whole $100 of window sticker price. With the new models on the lot. I walked and bought a used car from a friend.

Two or three days later, he called me up and offered $300 off sticker price. This was when the stripped Dart would have been not much more than $3000 but I don’t remember the price or year for sure.

I told him if he’d offered that price in the beginning I’d have taken it, but that I had warned him not to play kiddie games with me, and I had bought an old used car.

In 1988, our daughter was starting her last two years of college, and was going to be driving 70 miles a day round trip. A dealer 15 miles out in the country away from our city advertised he had much cheaper prices than in the city.

So, we drove out and looked at a new Nova (the Toyolet type). I gave him the standard speech about getting one shot at me, and not to play games. He priced it at a few hundred dollars under window sticker price.

i drove back into the city and the dealer knocked off several thousand dollars. I took it. We drove that car to just short of 250,000 miles.

A couple days later, Mr. Bigshot called up and offered a better deal, but still a thousand dollars more than in the city. I believe I was not nice.

In 2001, I tired of constant repairs on a Dodge Caravan and went to the Toyota dealer, in those days still in McAllen, now across the city line into Pharr.

We wanted a bottom line Sienna, I think it’s called a CE, with no special options but radio and air.

At that time, October 2001, no one was spending money on cars, as you can remember. So, they offered me the next line up, probably XE, for not much more than the cheaper one would cost.

Whether that 2002 Sienna will be the last car I ever bought depends upon the Wreck Gods, so to speak, and if Mexico changes the import rules. If I can still import that car next year, I may well be the last car I ever own, even if I live a long time. They can do wonders down here for not much money.

Our builder, also a cousin, has a 1976 Chevrolet pickup as his business vehicle, and while it is battered, it runs out okay for heavy hauling. They can keep old vehicles running a long time here.

I had a chance to buy a Jeep CJ8 but chose a Toyota 4WD Hilux instead. I loved the truck but the Jeep would have been way cooler.

Back in the mid 70s a guy I know knew a cantankerous old man who supposedly has some old Indian motorcycles. The old man was known to be a hermit and rough to talk to. This guy managed to put me in touch with him and I got invited to his house. For some reason he took to me pretty well. I assume it’s because I had a big cubic inch Harley flathead which was Harley’s version of the Indian Chief and maybe he felt a connection.

He took me to his mom’s house (she must have been 110…) and in an old shed stuffed with junk he had the following.
An original paint, complete 1936 Chief.
A rolling 1939 Chief chassis.
A rolling 1947 Chief chassis.
A clean complete motor/trans for the 47.
A rolling 1953 Chief chassis; Bonneville, last year of the Indians.
Several boxes of stuff which held the 53 engine/trans along with other junk.

He priced it to me at 1300 dollars for the lot and fool that I was; passed on it. (Kicking self still…)

I found out about 3 years later he sold that stuff to a guy who was off parole and ran a motorcycle shop. The cycle shop owner got caught manufacturing meth and was out on bail.
While out on bail he got caught yet again for doing the same thing during a police raid and the cops confiscated it all.
He’s an idiot; the motorcycle stuff was just plain sad…

The old man who owned this stuff originally was a widower and kept 2 bikes in his living room; a '47 Chief and a '67 Triumph Bonneville. He had a ramp and would ride the Chief out about once a year and run it around town for an hour before parking it back in the house again.

A couple years ago the local Ford dealer had a (new) 2008 Mustang Bullitt on the lot that had been sitting there for months. When I first enquired about the car, they were unwilling to budge off the sticker price. I wasn’t going to pay that, and I left them my number to call me back when they were willing negotiate on the car, as I didn’t think they were going to be able to sell it at sticker price.

A few months went by, and sure enough they called me back, and were willing to sell the car for a little under $28k. (The 2009 models had begin showing up on the lot at this time.) I countered with $27.5k out the door. And we went back and forth for a bit, and I eventually got him down the $26.5k. But I didn’t jump on the deal because the upcoming (at the time) 2011 Mustangs were rumored to be getting all new engines (which they did). And I wanted to wait to see what they had to offer. So I passed on what was a very good deal at the time.

In my situation buying that car wouldn’t have been a “need” per se because I still had two vehicles that were and still are in fine condition (and an old TR6 that one would not really want to rely on as a daily driver). Anyway, I held onto the money and have added to the “new car” fund over the years since. And I’m just going to drive my current 03 Mustang GT until it dies, and then go out and buy a new one and just pay cash. The 2015 Mustang GT in Guard Green with the Track Pack, is tempting me mightily though.