TexasCHLforum.com

strogg wrote:... If you want a killer price, one thing you can do is finance it through manufacturer financing even if you have the dough to pay cash. Once the loan goes through, just pay it off, and you'll be out the first month's interest plus a hard credit check on your record. It'll be more than offset by the extra money you get back from the reduced purchase price. ...

Interesting. That has the potential to be the most useful, or at least thrifty, thing I've ever read on the internet.

The only time I actually enjoyed buying a car was in Los Angeles. I needed a vehicle right now, but I needed it only for about six months since I was going overseas on a one year remote tour where I wouldn't need to take a car.

I spotted a nice looking Chevy S-10 on a used car dealer lot, went to check it out. Was in very good shape, not too old, good tires, price was OK. While the salesman and I were walking around I asked him in concerned voice about reliability, I didn't want to pay for a lot of repairs in the future. "Oh, these are great trucks, ninety-something % of these trucks are still on road, never break down, " yada yada. I asked same question in different ways about three more times, same answer.

When we got signing the paperwork, I noticed that the dealer gave a 30-day warranty. So I asked what's this, only 30 days, I thought these were reliable machines? "Oh, that's just the standard warranty from our dealership." Ah, but I am not the standard customer, I don't want to be fixing this thing every month. "No problem, these are so reliable, you won't have any problems yada yada."

So I said, that's great, so you guys wouldn't have any problem giving me a warranty for 12 months, right?

The salesman looked like he had just found out those chocolate covered raisins he had been eating were really rabbit "pellets."

He sputtered and stammered about company policy and all that, but I wouldn't yield, kept reminding him of how reliable these trucks are, so it wouldn't cost his dealership anything, right? but it would make me the customer happy and get him sale right? Cuz it's never going to break down, you told me that about six times right?

He trots off to the manager's office, comes back in about five minutes, says his boss will go for six month warranty. Deal! that's just about the time I was going to go overseas, probably leave the truck in my mom's garage for a year (didn't tell him that tho).

It was a pretty good truck. Drove it from Los Angeles to Washington DC and back, drove again to Indiana, stored it for what turned out to be six months instead of a year, drove it to Texas, and drove it here for several years before selling it. Never had any serious problem with it, so I guess the salesman was right!