There’s a lovely line from the movie “The Exotic Marigold Hotel”: “It’s all good in the end. If it’s not good, it’s not the end.” This week has been the epitome of that statement.
Last Sunday, Danita and I went to have a look at a new car. Actually, we’d been talking about how it was time to start thinking about one and we were both drawn to a Toyota Prius C. We felt we really should go for a test drive to see if it would suit us. Our requirements were pretty simple: it had to be about the same size as what we currently drive and be close to our current repayments. If these didn’t work then we’d wait – we didn’t feel in any hurry. After all, this was just the early research stage – yeah right!
We went to Pennant Hills Toyota (PHT) – we bought our last car there and were really happy with the service and how we were treated. So, the first port of call was PHT. (We had already seen the Prius C at another dealer but hadn’t driven one.)
All went swimmingly for a while. We went for a drive and were suitably impressed. Naturally, the model we drove was the top of the line – car dealers are pretty clever psychologists, after all. There was little difference between the standard model and the top of the line in terms of features which were really relevant for us. However, there was one significant issue – the standard model has aqua trim on the arm rests on the front doors. These really annoyed Danita as she had something of an issue with the aqua. I later found out that when her parents had bought their first car it had been aqua, at her mother’s insistence and her father’s displeasure. This is a critical point so stay with me.
As we went out into the car yard for our test drive, there, sitting in a line of silver and white cars was an aqua one. Of course, that was the car we were to drive. It took a while to recover from the colour issue (a major plus was that it matched the She Business corporate colours – Danita’s business). Also, she gradually came to appreciate the benefits of having a car which stood out. (If you’ve ever been in the car park of a large shopping centre and forgotten where your car is, you’ll understand how having one which is recognisable from a distance has distinct advantages.)
Having overcome that hurdle, we settled in for the discussions about finances.
I had earlier checked with our finance broker (Prolease) about what price range we could aim for based on maintaining our current repayment level. Naturally, this car was slightly outside that range and as we were offered a much lower trade-in than we’d expected, it put us into a situation that we thought we couldn’t do it if we stayed with Prolease.
We explained our position to the dealer and they came back with an offer that would work for us and so we signed up to purchase the aqua Prius C demonstrator vehicle.
Sunday evening, everyone went home happy and excited. In a few days we would have our new car and the sales people and dealer financiers would make their targets and get their monthly bonuses.
That’s when things got ‘interesting’.
Part of the paperwork required by Toyota Finance was a form stating that we lived a our registered address. Since we’re house-sitters and officially ‘persons of no fixed address’ we couldn’t provide this form. This sent everything into a spin and the dealer had to redo the whole process via VW Finance.
While all this was going on the people from Prolease were letting us know they could do better than what the dealer was offering us. We turned them down on the basis that we’d committed to the dealer and, what we understood would be a small difference in monthly repayments, didn’t justify going back on what we felt was our word.
We’d arranged to pick up the car on Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday morning Prolease told us we could have the finance sorted within a few hours (because we were simply rolling over the existing loan). As I said, we’d made a commitment and so felt we needed to stick by it. Our response to Prolease was, thanks but no thanks.
On Thursday I didn’t hear anything from the dealer and by late that afternoon I was getting anxious. At 6.30pm I received a call saying the new financiers were waiting to complete a reference check before approving the loan.
That night I didn’t sleep much. In that state of anxiety (and trying to tell myself it really didn’t matter if we had to pull out – it was just a car after all) I decided that if I hadn’t heard from the dealer by 9.30 am on Friday I’d contact Prolease and ask them to go ahead.
Friday morning, that’s exactly what happened. I requested Prolease to arrange our finance.
I didn’t hear from the dealer until 11.30 that morning to tell me VW Finanace had approved the loan. I explained I no longer required their finance and had made alternative arrangements. As part of this process Prolease had sent a request for an invoice to PHT which precipitated a call from the finance manager wanting to know what was going on. I explained we’d made other arrangements and she was somewhat annoyed. She started to give me a hard time but as soon as I pointed out my position she went very quiet.
All in all, it was a rather uncomfortable time but the outcome has been excellent. We’ve ended up with a car we’re very happy with (in technicolour – aqua body and environmentally green). The repayments are only slightly more than what we’ve been managing and with the significantly lower fuel consumption we’re expecting to more than make up the difference. Also, since we refinanced through our current lender, Prolease were able to get a reduction on the balloon payment from $11000 (which the dealer had offered) to $9100 which is an amazing saving.
So, here are some of the things we’ve learned from this exercise:
- Clearly know and state your parameters when negotiating
- If you’ve got a finance broker that you get on with – stick with them. (Danny at Prolease was incredibly understanding, helpful and, most important of all, patient with us as we went to and fro in this little adventure.)
- Finance companies will give you good deals if you’re a good customer (and you’ve got a good broker to raise the issue on your behalf)
And finally: It’s all good in the end. If it’s not good, it’s not the end.