I thought I wanted a Vibe (made in the same plant as the Matrix) so tried one out and I didn’t like it at all. I didn’t like the ride, the feel, the fit. Just didn’t like it period. Plus they made a big error on the internet pricing and no way did they want to sell it for that so it was a short discussion.
“big error on the internet pricing and no way did they want to sell it for that . . .”
Can you please clarify?
Are you saying the dealer would NOT honor its internet price?
That sounds like deceptive business practices or even false advertising
Sounds like the dealer was using bait and switch. That’s illegal in OK (and maybe in most other states as well) but it’s also quite commonly done.
Car dealers do this on eBay all of the time. They may list a 2013 Camry at 99 dollars starting bid with no reserve. If the price doesn’t go up to what they want they cancel the bids and relist it while doing the same old thing again.
My problem with having kids buy their own cars, or pay for part of them, is that it encourages them to get after-school McJobs instead of spending their time on schoolwork. The list of high school classes good colleges expect students to have taken just gets longer. They’re also given credit for volunteer work and other after school activities. If a kid is not cut out for college or will be attending a less demanding school (the local JC, maybe) then there may be enough time for a job. If the kid is smart and ambitious, make it clear that school is the priority, not cars and clothes and fancy phones. Unless you lobe in the country or your kid has activities that are a long ways or the climate is bad off it is unlikely he even needs one.
I certainly didn’t, living in suburbia. Everything was pretty close. Some kids had jobs, but most of the honors students didn’t and they knew what their parents expected - good grades. Admittedly, it was a heavily Asian area and the emphasis on education rubbed off on the rest of us (my mother was a teacher so I was born with expectations.)
@ok4450
As for bait and switch and ebay . . . it’s not just for cars
I’ve often encountered this when I’m bidding on tools
It’s often occurred that the starting bid was low . . . with no reserve . . . and I was the only one bidding
I was all set to get the tool for a fantastic price
And then at the last minute, the item is withdrawn, most likely because the seller knew they misjudged the situation. They probably anticipated a bidding war, and it didn’t happen, and they’re not willing to let the item go for that low price.
When I contacted ebay about these items, I was told the seller had removed the item, because they couldn’t find it or it was stolen, etc.
Yeah, sure . . .
And a few days or weeks later, that same seller relists the exact same item, this time with a substantial reserve price . . .
Yeah I know thats what it sounds like but they were shocked when the price on the internet was a couple thousand less than what they thought it was. They corrected it right then. It was a small dealer and think they just made a mistake. At any rate I didn’t want it anyway for either price.
Anyone can afford to buy an old Mercedes. Very few can afford to own and maintain one.
Don’t buy a car that your teen-ager will get attached to. I bought my first new car, a 1978 Cutlass Salon coupe when my son was 5 years old. We hadn’t had the car a month when he blew the temporary cap off a bottle of root beer. I put him to work with me and it took us a couple of hours to clean up the car. Fortunately, the car did have vinyl seats. I told my son that we had to take care of the car because he would be using that car to take girls on dates. Well, I still had that car when he was driving age. When he went out on his first date, he reminded me of what I told him when he was five years old. I did let him take that car to college which was 50 miles away. However, in his sophomore year, he was selected to go on an internship 350 miles away. I told him that we had to put him in a newer car. He was very unhappy–said the Oldsmobile was just fine and he and the Oldsmobile “understood each other”. I finally prevailed and got him in a 1988 Taurus. At that point the Oldsmobile was nearing 200,000 miles. I kept the Oldsmobile for myself. When my son finished his college work and became engaged while in seminary, he brought his finance to meet us and insisted that he had to take her out in the Oldsmobile. I don’t think his fiancé was impressed, so I didn’t give them the car as a wedding present.
@Bing
I’m more pessimistic than you
When the seller suddenly removes an item from ebay without a sale, even though there were bid and there wasn’t a reserve, I suspect a POS seller who doesn’t believe in fair play
I don’t care what the ebay person says . . . they are only relaying the presumably incorrect information that the seller gave them
The first car that a teen drives sets their driving and buying patterns for years after. If you as a parent want to developed a pattern of buying reliable transportation for a price you can afford, do it with the first car. You want to fall for glitz and over spending on repairs, expect your child to follow suit.
Very good point @dagosa. Thrift needs to be taught. Kids get most of their needs met without having to consider the cost. I suspect most would be shocked by the household’s weekly grocery costs. As you’re one of the lucky parents who can afford to buy your kid a nice car your kid is probably used to not having to make financial decisions. Maybe you can use buying this car as a lesson. Come up with a reasonable budget, then let him make a proposal of what he thinks would be a good buy, justified in writing. Feel free to reject his suggestions, but you have to explain yourself, too. Make it clear you’re not promising to buy what he wants, but you’d like to know what he likes and why. This proposal should also make him think a little harder about his priorities and even make him do a little research. You never know. Your kid may have more sensible tastes than many adults. Or he may want something totally nuts.
When they ask the young about what they would like in a car the answers are not much different from what adults say. When automakers try to make cars for the young they almost always get it wrong as their tastes vary as much as older buyers. The funky Kia Soul, Toyota Matrix, and Honda Element were marketed to snowboarders and surfers, but sold mostly to middle-aged women who liked the practicality (especially dog owners.) The funky styling didn’t bother them, apparently.
BTW, that last message got a bit messed up. Only the first part was addressed to dagosa. The rest was for the OP.
Doing this on my aging phone is asking for it, but by evening the tablet battery is always dead. At least with the phone they’re removable, so I always have one charged. I really wish we’d go back to removable batteries on handheld devices. A little bigger is OK by me.