Changing of the Car

When I bought my previous car, a 2008 Audi A3, three years ago, I wrote about it but combined it into my weekly running post.  It was suggested it deserved its own post.  In retrospect, I agree, so here goes.

I had bought my Audi A3 with 90,000 miles on it.  I'm pretty sure that's the highest mileage car I've ever bought in my life.  The car's mileage was now up to 145,000 miles, but it still ran strong and was very fast and fun to drive.  It wasn't the mileage or the age of the vehicle (13 years) that led me to replace it a few weeks back, but rather a combination of the following:

• After 3 deer ran into my car, my right passenger door could no longer be opened from the outside.
• Key fob no longer worked.  (I was actually OK with the old-fashioned way, and wasn't about to drop about 2 grand at the Audi dealer to have it reprogrammed.)
• Driver's leather seat getting pretty worn and cracked.
• Rusty hatchback lift struts.
• Significant rust on front rocker panels.  (The driver's side was actually completely rusted through now.)
• And the clincher:  the A/C was no longer working, or at least not if above outside temperature 70° or more.  (I could live with that for around town driving, as I'm not going into the office or dressing up, but that doesn't work for longer summer trips.)  I think a new compressor is about 2 grand as well.

So time to begin the car search, again.  What am I looking for?

1. Late model year (i.e., within 5 years and preferably under 50K mileage)
2. All wheel drive
3. Wagon
4. Sunroof
5. Manual transmission

This was really the same wish list I had three years ago, when I bowed out of a new car purchase at the last minute for expense reasons and bought a 10-year old car instead and in the process gave up the first two of the five above characteristics.  I would call the first two characteristics "nice to have" and the final three, especially the last two, non-negotiable.  So I'm not making it easy on myself, as wagons are not popular here in the US with the SUV fervor.  As for manual transmissions, while most people in the UK and other cool European countries still drive manuals because reportedly most there find automatics boring, very few Americans buy manual transmissions anymore, except for automobile purists and diehards.  Throw in AWD on top of that?  Good luck.

After much research, I refined my search to a VW Alltrack, which in the SE model meets all five criteria above.  Unfortunately, it's not a good time to buy a car.  Used car prices are up 30% over a year ago.  Thirty percent!  Many dealers have half-empty lots as they can't get inventory.  This is attributed to less cars made during the COVID pandemic when operations shut down, a semiconductor shortage, and Americans starting to make large purchases again.  On the expense side, just personally the pressure has eased for me since my last car purchase, as our necessary but costly house repairs are in the rear view mirror, as are all but a year of college tuition bills.

As soon as this car came on the market, I gave the dealer a call to 
confirm availability, and Jana and I made the short trek to Vernon, CT
to test drive that afternoon.  Apparently the previous owner had a new job
which required him to get a truck and he had just traded the vehicle
in a few days prior.  We arrived at the dealer, and we had to wait,
as a woman was out on a test drive.  I had a bad feeling.  We decided
during the test drive to buy it, and sure enough, as soon as we got back to the
dealership, the salesman came out to advise us that it was now sold.  Ugh.

24 hours later, we were at a dealer in Bedford, MA
test driving another Alltrack that had just been traded
in.  This car's previous owner brought the car in for
regular service, and checked out a VW electric SUV
while waiting and ended up buy it.  Sounds implausible to
me, but to each his own.

2019 VW Alltrack SE, with just 10K miles.
As you can see here (this is in Westerly), we ended up
buying the car immediately after the test drive.  In this demand-driven
car market favoring sellers, there's no room for price negotiation.  If you don't want
to pay the sticker price, the guy right behind you will.

Immediately after the test drive, we offered full price.  Apparently cash is NOT king anymore, as the salesman advised if I pay cash, the price will be $700 more.  WHAT?!  He candidly discloses that if we finance through VW Credit, they get incentive money back from VW.  I'm calculating the math in my head with interest payments, and this doesn't sound like a good deal, until the salesman says we only have to make four monthly payments total, of any amount we want, and can pay it off then without prepayment penalty.  Recalculating ... yeah, weird, but that works.

I'm nervous anytime approaching car dealers, because I'm genuinely afraid of being assaulted by a Herb Tarleck type.  Not physically of course, but verbally and with mental games.  But I like this guy.  For a metro Boston car salesman, he sure is laid back.  He talks softly, no pressure, no gimmicks (well, other than deflating my "cash is king" posture), no extra bogus charges like so many other dealers apply.  During COVID, dealers can't ride in the cars during test drives, so that was a relief as well.  And he drives a VW stick shift himself, so while there would be no running talk, we can talk about the days of yore and lamenting some of the changes along the way.  (I remember my first car that had power windows and thinking "Why would anyone want these?" when the window crank worked just fine.)

Remember Herb, the salesman from WKRP in Cincinnati?
It turns out he just died.  Last week.

So now what to do with my current car?  I plugged in all the available data points I could in to Edmunds site.  This included obviously make/model/year, but also questions I hadn't expected such as how many dents, how the engine ran, how many keys I had, etc.  I had to input my e-mail address, and instantly got a valuation response back based upon the condition that I input: $1,800 for a dealer trade-in and $2,500 private sale.  The dealer offered $1,300 and wouldn't budge, explaining that obviously the car would go to auction and that the biggest factor in the lower price was the rusted rocker panels.  I understood, but was stubborn and turned it down, saying I could get more on my own.  No games, no bluffing, no counter-offer; the dealer simply said he understood and asked me if I still wanted to go through with the sale.  You bet!  No haggling, no trying to sell me upholstery protection, VIN etching, fake wood paneling, or registration fee surcharges, just a simple itemized bill with very few line items.  Two hours total, and a contract in hand, full price, not a penny down.  Odd, but completely stress-free.

So back to my current car.  I'm thinking about Craigslist and either a $3,000 or a $3,500 listing, and will take whatever reasonably reduced offer is made to be done with quickly, but already am not looking forward to the phone calls and strangers coming over the house.  I get home and have two unsolicited e-mail offers (referred by Edmunds), one a dealer in Norwich for $2,300 and another CarMax in Warwick for $3,000.  Dubious, we setup an appointment with CarMax for the next day, all done on the web, pretty neat.  The introvert in me was glad he didn't have to make phone calls and sit on hold while they try to sell me something I don't want.  Jana and I go up to CarMax the next evening.  The lot is near empty!  We walk in, wait a while, and a young gentleman named Max comes to talk to us.  He goes out with a camera to take pictures of the car and takes our one car key to go for a test drive.  I have no fear on the test drive, as the engine is strong and peppy; it's the cosmetic inspection I fear.

Final drive for my A3
This was a really fun car drive, and peppy with
a 2L turbo engine, but time to move on

We look out the window as Max is kneeling down taking a number of pictures of the rusted out rocker panels and is on the phone.  Uh oh.  Not good.  Is he going to offer even less than the VW dealer's offer of $1,300 now?  He comes back in and asks us if we're still interested in selling.  I said it depends on the price.  He said, I told you, $3,000.  Still skeptical, but absolutely.  Let's go.  Shortly thereafter I have a check in hand.  Too easy.  Surely the car shortage has a role in this.

Three days later, the dealer and I (and Matthew giving me a ride) meet halfway at the MA/RI border, and I take possession of the car.  Psyched.  The experience was easy, not the harrowed bait-and-switch and games I feared, and the journey is almost over.  The ensuing mandatory out-of-state VIN check at Westerly Police station is quick and easy.  The one final rub is registration itself.  Due to COVID, you can no longer just walk into the DMV in RI, and you need an appointment.  Sales tax is due in twenty days, but the earliest appointment I can get is in thirty days.  Anyway, at the risk of further boredom, there is a workaround available by contacting the tax division to get your tax paid with the state in advance of the registration and stave off interest and tax penalties.

I don't want trouble with the taxman.  You do remember this gem, right?
It's almost as old as me.

Fast forward a few weeks.  I'm thrilled with the new car to date.  Oh sure, there are always more things I could've gotten.  I really loved the blue color, for example, and this model doesn't have dual climate control.  But I got everything on my original wishlist (and more) and I have a solid, fun, and very practical car for vacation travel, and if I take care of it, this should last well into my retirement.

6-speed manual.  Oh yeah!

Plenty of space to store the bodies luggage.

Nice big sunroof.  Lots of glass.

Comfy leather seating.

I had a few moments of panic when I didn't see
any CD player in the radio unit.  It's here in the glove box;
how weird is that?

Whew.  Life is good again.  I get to play my classic CDs.

It's weird, but any time I shift into reverse, this video game pops
up on my dashboard.  I asked my brother Kurt (a BMW
mechanic) about this, and he said sometimes people appear
in the video game image and the object is to hit them.  Sounds
like a neat game.  I'm sure my brother wouldn't steer me wrong.

Now unlike the backup camera which I just totally ignore,
here's one new (to me) feature that I've already
used and appreciated:  blind spot monitoring.
It works!  It also comes with rear traffic alert.  The car
beeped like crazy when I was getting ready to back out of
a spot at Stop & Shop and a pedestrian walked behind my car.
I like it!

And, finally, my car seems to know me and my
forgetfulness already!  I think we're going to
get along just fine.