While I had bought the CR-V because I’d figured it was time for a new rig, when I sold/gave it to G (she got a much better deal on it than the blue book) I kind of figured I wouldn’t bother getting a new car.

The pricing of new cars is such that it’s hard to justify it. The 4Runner runs awesome and you’d never guess, without looking at the odometer, that it’s got 173K miles on it. That’s not just me yammering because I’m going to be trying to sell it soon; it’s really a great SUV. The engine is still strong, it’s in great shape, everything.

I haven’t spent more than a few hundred bucks a year on maintenance in the 5 years I’ve owned it. The biggest expense has been gas.

Well, driving 60+ miles a day to commute to work, in addition to this little tidbit of a news story, played a big part in pushing me to buy order the Escape.

The AAA auto club says the average price of a gallon of gasoline in Washington is $4.34.

That’s 36 cents higher than a month ago, $1.22 higher than a year ago, and 27 cents higher than the national average.

The story goes on to point out that gas is $4.39 here in Seattle, and $4.16 in the Tri-Cities area. Yet more proof that the oil companies are gouging us; there’s simply no way that it should be cheaper over there, because the higher costs to transport the gas to them should balance out the higher land/facility costs here in the Seattle area.

The 4Runner will make a great SUV for someone who doesn’t have to drive that much, or who can drive slower than me (ie, less than 68 to 70 on the freeways) and therefore get better mileage.

Well, it’s not THAT small… but today, coming back through Tacoma after ordering my rig (which is another post entirely), my girlfriend and I were coming over the 38th Street overpass to get onto I-5, and who do we see walking along?

With a monster pack on?

Kevin! Our houseguest from last weekend!

I pointed and said to G “Hey, look, there’s Kevin!” She laughed and said “man, what a small world.”

So we pulled in front of him and chit-chatted for a bit. He looked pretty tired, so he’s been walking some today. Plus it’s finally warmed up; we have a marine layer of grey overcast skies, but it’s in the mid to upper 70s, so it’s kind of muggy (well, muggy and humid for around here, anyway) and considerably warmer than it has been.

He was doing okay. Had some newer shoes on. I still think he needs some heavier boots, but he doesn’t like how they feel when you walk in them, and he’s got a point; the heavier a boot is, generally the less it flexes underneath your foot, so it feels like you’re kind of flopping your foot down flat instead of rolling on it.

I wanted to offer him a ride but that kind of defeats the purpose of walking across America, so we just wished him well and hopped back into our (airconditioned!) car.

It’s a small world and full of funny concidences sometimes. We had just been talking about him this morning, because his journey is making us re-thinkin vacation plans; we’re considering doing one Big Trip instead of a few two-week or one-week or long-weekend types of trips in the next year or two.

I did my Big Trip when I did three weeks in China, although in hindsight I could have made even more out of my time. Kevin’s monster walk across the continent has us saying “man, we should do something like that while we’re young enough and have the energy and the inclination to do it”.

Best of luck, Kevin, and hang in there.

So on my breaks at work over the past couple of days I’ve been working on the car thing. I made a list of all the Ford dealers in western WA (there’s a lot) and have been calling them up.

At first I would ask for “the X-plan administrator” because that’s what the web pages about the X-plan say to do, but it seemed like a lot of the time the receptionist would just send me to any old salesman. When I asked if they were selling the 2009 Escape Hybrid on the X-plan, the answer was usually either a flat “NO” or more typically the schmoozy “well, I can sure handle that for you, come on by and take a look at them- we’ve got some 2008s here”.

When I would ask the second guys “um, so do you do the X-plan on the 2009 or not? I don’t want a 2008, I want the bigger engine and I’ve already got the X-plan PIN” they would usually start hemming and hawing a bit. I’d pin them down and demand if it was on the X-plan price and that’s when they’d usually take a number to check on it or whatever.

Jerks. How tough is “yes” or “no”? Just answer the damn question!

Anyway, I got smarter and started asking for the new car sales manager and asking them directly. Usually they’re a lot more blunt, simply say “no” because nobody wants to do it. That’s fine, it doesn’t bother me a bit. A few offered to check and did call me back, which is cool.

One guy was funny. We started chatting a bit and I told him that through the Costco car-buying plan I already had one dealership that had offered to sell it to me for $500 under MSRP. He said “wow, that’s dumb of them, we’re going to sell every one we get for at least MSRP if not more.”

I liked him because he was very honest. I think that because he could tell I wasn’t a BSer and knew how the game worked, he didn’t care what he said to me- and therefore told the truth. He said he thought I’d be lucky if I found a dealer that would do the X-plan and I said “well, anywhere within a two or three day drive is fine with me- I bought my last car in Kansas City and drove it back in two days. A two hundred dollar flight saved me eight grand.”

He said “wow. Well, you’ll find someone then, no problem.” It truly didn’t bother him because he is confident that his dealership (which will remain nameless) will sell all their rigs at more than that. He’s probably right.

Anyway, Saturday I’m supposed to go to the dealership and sign the paperwork for the car. I don’t know if they’re going to want the full cost, a deposit, or what; most places seem to take a $500 or so deposit on it and then go from there.

I’ll post their name and so forth if they say it’s okay as long as the deal goes through. I do have a meeting with another (closer) local dealer (the other one is a bit of a drive away from Seattle) tomorrow and if they make me a solid offer, within around 500 bucks of dealer invoice, I’ll just buy it from them.

The car industry is a fascinating one to me, because buying a car is such a giant pain in the ass for so many people. And lots of us get outright skinned at the dealerships. Last night I found a great article called “Confessions of a Car Salesman” sitting in another area here at work. I picked it up and started reading it, and it was so on-topic for what I’m going through that I wound up staying over 30 minutes later than normal at work to finish the article.

Edmunds.com hired a writer and sent him to work for some car dealerships and write the article. It’s awesome and I highly suggest you read it.

The easiest way to deal with all of this (or, more correctly, to not deal with it) is to just use Costco’s car buying program. On the majority of cars they’re going to give you a VERY solid price. In my case the Escape Hybrid isn’t officially on the plan because it’s so popular, but the Ford dealer that the plan referred me to was still willing to order me one at 500 below MSRP, which is actually a pretty good price considering that Pierre Ford was trying to jack me for 9 grand OVER the MSRP.

By going through Costco, you’re protected because they have so many members that any dealer getting into their program doesn’t want to piss Costco off- they’ll lose a ton of sales leads that way. So if they get too aggressive in trying to take moolah from the customers, Costco will find out and terminate them (Costco is known for being tough-but-fair with its vendors.)

Of course, if you want to skip the Costco plan you can do it yourself… or you can do what I’m doing, which is to use both. Get the Costco deal and then see if you can do better; you can always default to it (which is my backup plan) if you have to.

I’ll report more on Saturday or tomorrow if anything comes out of that meeting.

Man, I hate car buying. It freakin sucks.

So I’m right at the tipping point of buying a Ford Escape Hybrid (FEH). I’ve done some research (a lot), been shopping around, and that’s what I want to get.

I went through Costco’s car buying program (which is a good one) but the dealer that they referred me to doesn’t have the FEH on the Costco plan. The dealers occasionally do that on the more popular cars.

The dealer did offer me the rig, in the 2009 model, for a pretty good price- 500 bucks off of the MSRP.

Then I found out about the Ford “X-Plan“. Basically, Ford (like other companies) offers special deal pricing to employees, business partners, and so forth. They code these plans with letters; the X plan winds up being pretty much right at, or very near, the dealer invoice pricing on a car.

Employees of Ford can also get a PIN code for the X-Plan and give it to a friend or neighbor, who can then buy at the special price.

Okay, sounds great. There’s online forums where you can ask someone to give you an X-Plan PIN, but as it turns out my girlfriend works for a company (Marriott) that is part of the plan, so she can get the PIN on her own.

I call up a local dealer, Bill Pierre Ford on Lake City Way in Seattle, and tell them I need to talk to the X-plan administrator, just like they say. Guy says sure, come on by, we’ll get you hooked up with a FEH. In fact, they’ve got a 2008 in stock, we can drive it and yadda yadda yadda.

G and I head down there today. Salesguy is pretty nice guy, shows us the rig, takes at least 30 minutes walking around talking about how great it is and pointing out all the features and everything- more like 45. He’s ready to sell us this one but I’m pretty adamant; I want a 2009.

The 2009 FEH has a new engine with 20 more horsepower, better fuel economy (better tuning on the engine plus slight change in air dams/body on the rig), and much-improved brakes (brakes are often a complaint about the FEH). Plus it’s got Ford’s new industry-leading SYNC system for their navigation/stereo/electronics system. The 2008s have a nav system but it doesn’t include SYNC.

But he’s determined to run the numbers and see what kind of a deal we can get. His sales manager mentions that they can’t do an X-plan on a 2008 but maybe for the 2009. We go drive the car- maybe a 10 minute loop around the city streets to the dealer. I want to see it on the freeway, so we go up I-5 a few miles and back.

It’s fine, just what I want. Go in- now by this time we’ve been at the dealer for over 90 minutes. They KNOW that I am not going to buy a 2008. The salesman sits us in a little office and we wait around for the sales manager to quit doing whatever it is he’s doing. (Personally, I think that at this point they’re trying to get us anxious and such, but hindsight is 20/20.)

Comes in and says “well, we’re not going to do the X-plan on the 2009 orders either”. (The 2009 aren’t in for a few months, you have to pre-order them.)

“They’re such a popular rig that we’re just not able to get any.” (Hmmm, you have three or four 2008s sitting on your lot, and most of the Ford dealers I’ve been poking around at haven’t had any, so how is it you’ve still got them is what I’m thinking to myself.)

“So here’s the best price we can do.” He slides over a sheet that has the rundown on the one we drove- which was the “Kiwi Green” color which I am SO not attracted to. And the price?

$9,000 OVER the MSRP. All of that is “second sticker” from this dealer. They want $43,800 for the rig.

I’m shocked. I’ve just wasted almost three hours for these fuckers, who KNEW that I was specifically looking for the Escape Hybrid on the X-plan pricing- which, on this particular rig, would be $32,486, and then they tell me that no way, if I want one I’ll have to shell out 11 grand more?

If there is a God, hopefully He’ll forgive me… but Jesus H Christ on a fuckin’ pogo stick. That’s utterly ridiculous. If I’m going to spend 44 grand on a hybrid SUV, I’ll go buy the Lexus RX400h or the Toyota Highlander!

As I type this, I’m so pissed off I can barely think about it. Okay, I’m not THAT pissed- I’m more disappointed than anything. I know that the auto industry is like this; it’s a pathetic joke but that’s how it goes.

What really makes me mad is that they could/should have just been honest. There’s several dealers around that I’ve called to ask if they’re doing X-plan pricing on the FEH who have just said straight up on the phone “no way, sorry, we can’t do that.”

That’s their right; they can try to sell the thing for whatever they want. But at least they’re HONEST about it.

At Bill Pierre Ford, in Seattle, on Lake City Way? They’re a pack of dishonest lying scumbag weasels.

I’m going to knock out a letter, maybe with a copy of this post, and send it to the owner of the dealership. And I’m going to post all over what a bunch of sleazeoids these guys are.

Again, I don’t really have a beef with the price. They’re allowed to ask for it, and I’m allowed to choose to not buy it. I have a major bitch that they would set up an appointment with me when I was totally clear on my expectations, and then jerk my chain for almost three hours.

I ought to take them to small claims court on a fraud bitch and hit them up for $300, charge them a hundred bucks an hour for wasting my time when they KNEW perfectly well they had no intention of doing the X-plan deal on that rig. Hell, maybe I will; it’d serve them right.