Yesterday, we all went car shopping in Johnston County whilst President Biden was making his pitch for vaccination in North Raleigh and had identified a few cars that appeared to be interesting.
We had come to the conclusion that it’d probably be better to get a car sooner than later so that Nicholas would have time to get comfortable with driving that he hasn’t really been able to do in this past year. We weren’t holding out a whole lot of hope at the beginning of the process given the state of the auto market but were pleasantly surprised to find some reasonable cars out there that were affordable.
Today’s adventure was taking a closer look at a black 2011 Camry in Cary that had hit our radar thanks to the wonders of the Internet. Today was the sort of day that I prefer doing test drives…nice and drizzly. Anyone can drive in VFR (visual flight rules) conditions…what I want to know is what the car will do when the conditions are less than ideal.
The initial once over was definitely looking promising…in spite of some obvious road rash and cosmetic blemishes, the engine compartment looked far cleaner than that red 2009 Camry in Clayton with 20K less miles on the odometer. The CarFax report was also cleaner even allowing for the damage on the right side which seemed just about the right separation for a brushing of the guard rail on the motorway. Our guess was that the previous owner was probably an older driver given the many years owned and relatively few miles per year driven and meticulous mechanical care of the really important bits.
The test drive was lovely…our salesman Khaled (originally from Giza in Egypt…he used to play on and in the Great Pyramids with his friends when he was growing up!) had a couple of routes to choose from and we chose the one that favoured the US-1 motorway as that’s going to be the majority of the miles from my house to Wake Tech’s northern campus just off I-540. And in a word…that Camry’s drivetrain was *SMOOTH*, especially for a 4-cylinder engine which tends to be a bit more lively and fun to drive!
Fortunately, my neighbour Miguel was a mechanic whilst in the Army and was kind enough to stop by on his way home from a job in Durham and give the Camry a thorough inspection and a test drive that exercised the car even more than I did whilst I’m on the phone with the insurance agent trying to figure out the impact of adding this car. I’m sure they’ve been loving me ringing them every couple days or so this past week and I’m equally sure Bloomington is just loving all the updates coming their way as well.
Miguel gives the car his mechanical blessing and I’m at the point where it’s clear we’ve managed to find a unicorn of a car…great condition mechanically and inside, a few boo-boos on the outside and I’ll admit I’m not wild about a black car in a hot environment (been there, done that with a 1988 Nissan Pulsar NX…my “Black Fox” was visually stunning but hotter than hell in the summer until the A/C kicked in!).
I’ll admit this is the first time I’ve encountered a “no-haggle” dealership and stuck around this long in the process…I’m old school enough at car negotiations that I’ve always believed that anything that is taxable is negotiable. And I’m not a huge fan of “doc fees”, especially the exorbitant ones I’ve been seeing of late on top of already paying the tax, tag and title which are state mandated costs. Usually if you push hard enough, you can get the finance manager to back out the doc fee from the sales price so he can still show it but I’m not paying it. However, it’s a different world now and this particular dealer just will not budge on that doc fee whatsoever and sadly we’re operating in a completely crappy market for buyers where dealers are tacking on thousands in “market adjustments” because they can so it’s either lump it or walk time.
I manage to get the sales manager to hold onto the Camry until closing time whilst I go off to collect Alex from school and then get everyone else but Nick (who is on duty at DQ whilst all of this is going on!) to go back to Clayton and test drive the red Camry and see if they’re more amenable to haggling on the price.
We get in the red Camry and make a quick run to the Murphy petrol station in front of the Walmart and that was more than enough for me. The gearbox was shuddering in park and didn’t get much better through the lower gears out on the road. No one knows when it might ultimately fail (if ever…these cars are tough to kill) but compared to the black Camry which was two years newer and 20K miles younger, there was no way in hell I’d recommend the red one to Nicholas or anyone else. I didn’t even need Miguel to come look at this car (though he was perfectly OK to do so…he’s such a great mate!) and looking closer under the bonnet after watching what he was looking at earlier, it still looked OK but I could see oil I didn’t see the previous day in places I didn’t really want to see it.
We go across the street to the other lot right as the storm is coming in and there were two Camrys on the lot that were much more expensive than the car we were seriously considering in Cary. One was a 2010 Camry XLE with 82K miles for just under $12K before BS fees and the other was a near identical 2011 Camry LE with 129K miles on the clock that was asking $1,500 more prior to BS fees than the out-the-door price in Cary. This lot also had a salesman who followed us round and exhibited all of the signs of actively being on drugs…he certainly had an outgoing and effusive personality and his rendition of “Singing in the Rain” as the rain was starting complete with a girly umbrella like the ones used in that musical was certainly a unique experience!
That was the situation we found ourselves in when it came time to pick up Nicholas from work and take a decision as to which direction we were going to go.
Now, it can be fairly said that I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of democracy…I’m fine with defending it but practicing it? Not so much. But Julia was right on this…Nicholas needed to be part of the decision because he’s putting in a fair heap of the money and will eventually buy us out of the stake we’re loaning him. And we knew he was all over the moon about that red Camry’s colour and not as wild about the black or the road rash. But when confronted with the reality that the red one is older and starting at a base price more expensive than the black one, he came to the conclusion the smart move was to head to Cary and check out the black Camry on hold for us.
She was tucked away in the side lot as promised and I think it’s safe to say that Nicholas fell in love with her at first sight. Yeah, there are some noticeable bits of road rash but he was willing to look past that provided she was mechanically sound. But it was the test drive that he and Julia took that ultimately made it a unanimous vote…Julia had experienced the shaking and rattling of the red one and pronounced the ride of this car to be so much smoother even than Grammy’s Camry which has been treated very well.
He felt comfortable driving this Camry, so much more so than the Traverse.
And it was clear to him as to us that there was no way a 2011 Camry this cherry mechanically was going to last the weekend, much less the next two months when we’d be in a much more desperate position to find him something he can use to get to Wake Tech and to working at the service department of his dealer. It certainly could happen…but was that really likely given what we’d seen in this market, even briefly?
Yeah, it wasn’t a hard decision.
The price was on the high end of the private party sale range and the no-haggling on the doc fee rather blows but all in all, this was not a hard call in a market almost certain to get far worse before it gets better (estimated now sometime in 2023!!!).
All that was left was to do the paperwork and get the keys and then head off to Olive Garden to celebrate finding Nick a ride he will truly love! 🙂
