I'm buying my first ever new car tomorrow
EDIT: See final update here
...and I'm a little worried the dealership might try to screw me over.
Some backstory:
In 2021, Chevrolet announced the Bolt EUV -- a slightly larger version of their Bolt EV.
Right after it got introduced, all Bolt EVs and EUVs underwent a battery recall. Dealers were unable to sell these until their batteries were replaced, despite the high demand for the vehicle.
In June 2022, Chevrolet announced a $6,300 price drop for the EV/EUV.
My current car was due for replacement (it's a 2003, lol); I wanted my next car to be an EV; the price drop made this something I could really afford; and it turns out that the EUV is literally the only electric vehicle at that price point that I can actually fit in (my head hits the ceiling in a Kona, for example).
In June 2022, I attempted to buy an EUV, only to find out that there were waitlists everywhere because the price drop increased demand, while the recall decreased supply. As such, I put in an order for a 2023 EUV with a deposit.
2023s went into production in July, but it turns out they're not made in order (which makes sense: the factory makes batches of similar types) and it also turns out that different dealerships have different "allocations" which means that they only get so many of a certain type of car -- even if it's been directly ordered by a customer.
I didn't know this at the time of ordering, but, the dealership I went with had a very low allocation for EUVs.
I have waited this entire time (which is not uncommon), and my car has finally arrived at the dealership. I'm slated to pick it up tomorrow and finish the purchase.
My concerns:
The dealership knows right now that they have me over a barrel. I've waited eight months for this thing. There is no other available inventory anywhere, as the EUVs sell immediately or, in most cases, are already spoken for before they arrive due to waitlists. People trying to get them complain about huge markups because of this.
I have a "motor vehicle purchase agreement" from the dealership from when I ordered the vehicle and made my initial deposit. That paper shows that I'll be paying MSRP for the vehicle, which I'm happy to do.
My question is: is the dealership going to try and make me pay something different, knowing that I'm not going to walk away from this? I feel somewhat comfortable that I have an agreement for the MSRP in black and white, but is that enough?
My other question is: is there some other way they're going to try to get one over on me? Something more subtle or that I don't expect? The last time I bought a car was ~15 years ago, and I pretty much stood there while my dad did the talking (also the car was used and super cheap).
I will be financing a loan through the dealership to pay for the car.
Basically, what can I do to make sure tomorrow goes as smoothly as possible? I'm hoping that it's easy, cut and dry, and there's no funny business, but I've also heard some horror stories -- especially from people trying to buy the particular car I'm getting.
looks at my cache of vintage automobiles like they all need to be put out to pasture
jokes aside, moving on...
Dealers absolutely love markups right now. They know the in demand vehicles can command exorbitant markups and if one person will not pay them, another person will. They very well may try this with you, that said...
...this, under normal circumstances, is an actual contract to purchase something (a vehicle) for a specific cost with little-to-no wiggle room for fees/markup, etc. I am curious if this is an actual contract or one of their non-legally-binding-tricks they like to play. If it's the former, then you're paying what's on the paper and you've already agreed to do so. If it's the latter, they'll likely play markup games.
There will likely be fees. Some are negotiable, some are not. If they are playing games, there will likely be "Dealer installed options" you did not ask for already on the car at greatly inflated prices. These non-optional options are even more likely if the above agreement is contractually binding and there is no way for them to weasel a markup onto the car.
I highly discourage this. Go through your bank/credit union if at all possible. I don't know where you're located in the US, but it's 3pm central when I type this up and there should be enough time for your bank to get you a financing offer based on the price in the agreement. If you show up at the dealer without financing in hand it is one more item they have to use against you and I have, on more than one occasion, agreed to a price, had the dealer go run the financing, and it came back financed at a different price hoping I wouldn't notice or be worn down enough from the experience to just go with it and whatever BS excuse they make as to why it magically increased in the previous 10 minutes.
If you do finance through the dealership, hopefully through GM Financing and not a 3rd party bank, you need to pay close attention to the price you're paying and the monthly payment separately. They will try to distract you from the high price with a low payment. Negotiate the price first. Then have the financing run to see the monthly cost options. They'll try to get you to do both at the same time to have you fall in love with a low monthly cost and ignore the total being paid.
Be ready to simply walk away, do not fall in love with the car, do not fall in love with the idea of getting a new car. Cars are not a rarity, they will make the car for as long as they can, and at some point supply will outstrip demand. You have waited eight months for this, waiting longer costs nothing, rushing into it can be very expensive.
My dad sold cars for twenty years. This is the best advice. While they might be able to find someone else to buy the car, they are paid on commission. They’d rather have a sale now than later. So being willing to walk away will give you a lot more ammunition.
Also, if you can get pre approved financing through someone besides the dealer, you’ll likely get a better rate and it also gives you more leverage to say you are ready to buy now and they don’t have to deal with the hassle of getting a loan approved.
That being said, it's probably better advice in the past or in the future. Although it's cooled off a bit, the car market is still incredibly hot, and supply still short. If you look up used car prices for economy sedans, they're still HIGHER than MSRP. If you buy a Corolla or Civic, and you paid MSRP, your car is worth MORE by the time you drive off the lot. Even moreso for economy crossover SUVs.
The dealer is likely more than fine selling to someone else, with whom they may not have a motor vehicle purchase agreement for MSRP, and that they can charge an extra 6k or 15k on.
Yeah, if I walked on this they'd have a buyer the same day, pretty much guaranteed. When I was shopping around before, one car dealer showed me his waiting list for the EUV specifically and said, "I don't want to give you false hope, but your name would be here" and pointed at line 20. Every single place I called had waiting lists. I also get the impression that my area has low allocations and inventory for EVs in general. I don't think I could get a different model from a completely different manufacturer without a wait either.
I hear this advice a lot, but I still have no idea how you're supposed to do this.
Of all the banks I've ever done business with when I look up auto loans all I ever see is them basically saying "No, we won't do business with you; you have to have the dealer call us instead." And naturally the dealers don't do financing through your bank. I've got accounts opened with Ally which is literally owned by GMAC, and this is still the kind of spiel they give me.
Is this advice supposed to mainly protect people from getting loans from shady sources with predatory terms? Perhaps I should count myself lucky that the last time I had an auto loan it was through Wells Fargo, even if they are an organization that I utterly despise.
I bought a new car for the first time in early 2021. I was 34yo. I have a handful of credits cards that I pay off every month and some student loans I pay on-time, above the mins. And I tried to follow that advice. Guess what? Almost every bank and credit union I applied at, even those I'm already a customer of, denied me. The listed reason? Lack of History of Installment Payments.
Only one big bank that I've dealt with for like 18yrs now preapproved me through some kind of special bank-dealership program (Capital One Auto Navigator). But the rate was still above 3%.
My uncle, who's a Honda dealership manager, let me know that Honda was running special financing; the lowest he'd ever seen it. 0.9% or 1.9%. Perfect, I wanted another Honda Civic anyway.
Since I had an actual dealer invoice (from my awesome uncle), and because I contacted the dealership's Internet Sales team, they gave it to me for the invoice price + like a $200 "documentation fee". They didn't even try that hard to sell me on warranties, GAP, and extras when I was finally at the dealership. I arrived at the dealership, test drove the car I was going to buy, cut them a massive downpayment check, did the financing -- got the 1.9% rate -- and drove off the lot in about an hour.
In this case, the dealership did give me the best rate. I think there may have also been some extenuating circumstances. Y'know, the pandemic. In Jan 2021, no one was buying cars. That lot was completely filled with cars. Months later, though, lots were empty.
(OK, I wasn't entirely truthful; I still had some derogatory remarks on my credit when I applied for my car. That was another reason on the credit denials. I wasn't very responsible in my early/mid-20s. I believe they've all fallen off my credit history now).
I've had that experience, but it was a long time ago and I honestly had zero idea what I was doing and thought I could afford way more car than I actually could.
That said, now I literally just log into my credit union account and go to the auto loans page and tell them I want an auto loan. They run through a pre-approval process and give me a range of amounts, terms, and monthly payments in those ranges ($10k chunks in each range). From there I go to the dealer, look at cars, agree upon a price, they ask about financing, I give them the bank's reference number for the pre-approval, they call the bank, give them the VIN for the car, few minutes later I'm signing paperwork from them and my bank. Haven't personally done this in awhile as I buy practical long lasting cars as my daily driver and keep it almost until it's dead (I hate making payments) and buy my fun cars in cash, but did this exact string of steps for my wife's car as her only car buying experience up to that point mimicked kfwyre's.
A friend of mine just bought her new Lexus by calling her bank, USAA, and saying she wanted to buy a Lexus through their financing. She went on some test drives, found a model she liked, called the bank with the amount, they gave the dealer the go ahead, and seven months later the car she ordered showed up.
Did you try a local credit union? Most banks wouldn't even look at me when I first arrived in the USA, but the credit union gave me a credit card, gave me a car loan... they are amazing.
The only credit unions near me are industry- or company-specific and therefore will not accept me as a member.
Have you looked closely at their membership requirements? I've seen quite a few that, while appearing to be industry/employer specific, also accept people who live or work in the same county as said employer, or in a broader metro area.
Odds are there's at least a couple credit unions that have "live/work in [your state/metro area/county]" as an eligibility criterion.
Some will even allow membership for a donation to a specified charity; the former Coors employee credit union has "give a $5 donation to the Consumers United Association" as a way to gain membership eligibility, for example.
Of course.
The closest one that would accept me is pretty inconveniently far from where I live, doesn't offer online banking services, and just simply doesn't seem that trustworthy to me.
Oof, that is rough. It is unfortunate that the quality/availability of these varies widely, but one that allows a simple donation to charity that has online services, even if it's not local to you, might be an option, especially if any of the local ones do that shared branching services that most CUs I know of have.
That is unfortunate. I suggest you marry someone whose father served in the military. They will hopefully have set up an account with USAA while they were a minor, and then you automatically become a member when you join their account. USAA has no regional banking services, but are otherwise the bees knees.
Very helpful, AF! Thank you. I feel a lot more equipped to tackle tomorrow.
It looks pretty official to me. It includes an itemized list of costs including fees for a full total. It also lists the leinholder as GM Financial. The document also includes language that it is not binding until signed by the dealer or its authorized representative, which it is. If they try to bullshit me on this, I'm going to lean HARD on that.
When I went in June I actually had financing from my credit union in-hand. At the time, the dealership was beating it. My credit union, while good, doesn't have the lowest interest rates, unfortunately.
My current car is in what I would call not-great shape, and that's not for lack of care (I have a family member who's a mechanic, so I get premium, quality service!). Years ago I told him to let me know when I should start looking for a new car, and he gave me the go-ahead last year, right before the price drop.
Also, genuinely, there is literally no other EV near this price point that I actually fit in. I avoid sharing physical descriptions of myself online, but suffice it to say that I am, uh, rather tall. Pretty much every sub-$40K EV is very tiny, very short, or both. I even had to rule out the regular Bolt EV because I could fit in the driver's seat but not the back seat (and it felt wrong to buy a car I wouldn't be able to sit in half of, even though I'm unlikely to ever be a passenger in it).
I also really don't want another ICE/hybrid. Like you, I intend to drive cars for a while (case in point: my current car), and the idea of having to keep buying gas for years and years puts me off. Plus, the fuel efficiency on my current car is so bad that it's effectively an affront to nature, so buying an EV now is like a penance of sorts. Furthermore, the market for all cars, EV or otherwise, is so ridiculous right now that I'm actually willing to eat a bit of a bullshit sandwich if it means I don't have to start from square one. I realize this makes me an easy mark, but at this point I'm kinda happy to be an easy mark if it means I have a new car tomorrow? I feel like it's better than my current car shitting the bed next week and me having to try and scramble to get something as fast as possible so I can still get myself to work each day.
Also, this is a full aside, I saw the sad news you shared in a comment on another thread, and I'm floored that with all that you have going on you took the time to type all of this out for me and share your wisdom. Your display of selfless kindness from within your own dark moment speaks incredibly to your character. I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm in awe of you and the support you give to others.
Yeah, the state of the US EV market is pretty bad.
Toyota finally got it's head out of it's rear end and realized that nobody in their right mind wants to buy a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, especially when there are practically no hydrogen fuel stations in the US, and finally brought a fully electric vehicle to the US market with their unintelligible string of letters and numbers. I learned about it when they did a display at a mall we were visiting on a trip.
The inside of the car is so small it's almost insulting.
I couldn't even start to get into it. My husband finds it a lot easier to get into most cars than me, and while he is a little tall he's no giant. He couldn't get in either.
Did you try the Hyundai Kona? It's also supposed to be an SUV so I would be surprised if you couldn't get in it. That's the model that is currently tied with the Bolt EUV on my shortlist of cars I'm pretending to be able to purchase.
My friend has a Kona that he let me test drive. It's a great car! He loves it. Not an SUV though. Unfortunately, its vertical clearance is super low. My head was in the ceiling, and that was with the seat all the way down.
I talked earlier like the Bolt EUV is super spacious by comparison, but it's really just barely big enough. Part of the reason I special ordered was because I wanted the upgraded trim but NOT the sunroof (which usually comes with the upgraded trim), which lowers the ceiling and makes it unusable for me. I made SURE with the dealership when I ordered it to double and triple check that there was no sunroof, but I'm half expecting to walk in tomorrow and see it there on the car.
Chevy did just announce a fully electric Equinox at a nice price point, which would probably be my pick if I were buying now. I'd prefer something slightly bigger than the EUV, but outside of the announced Equinox, there really isn't anything in that size for less than like, $70K.
Do so! Without seeing it myself, and I am not a lawyer nor do I want your personal info, it sounds pretty solid so long as there isn't some expiration or "good for 90 days" limit in there somewhere. I'm hoping all this prep is for nothing and they have you sign papers for exactly what's on that agreement and you walk out with a big grin, keys, and some new wheels!
Speaking of, I wanna hear your impressions if you do get it tomorrow. I haven't seen any of these in person yet.
Fair point and the agreement you have references GM Financial, so I think you're safe there, it's not Penny Pinching Paul's Predatory Pennsylvania Prime Rate.
I can never know the full situation of another other than what you mentioned (age of the car) and if it's in a state where it's on an accelerating downward spiral I can't fault you for chomping at the bit to replace it. Add in your height (hello fellow giant, mighty fine weather we're having up here) and finding a car you like and fit in just right, is great, especially coming from someone that had plans to get certain cars right up until he sat in them and realized they were meant for... uhh... normal people.
Most of all though, and I don't want you to feel like you had to or did, you don't have to justify your purchase to anyone; least of all some rando on the internet. I just don't like predatory dealers and wanted to give my experience/advice to make sure you come out as far ahead as possible.
Thank you kfwyre. I'm just a guy with a hobby that can be helpful in this instance. Plus Hank was an adventure kitty and loved car rides, so he'd be all for it.
Me too!
What you're currently seeing is me in my anxiety phase. I think I'm overthinking and overworrying about all of this. I'm hoping tomorrow everything goes super smooth, and I can go from stressed out to my HELL YEAH I HAVE A NEW CAR phase.
Some of this is the dealership's fault. I was expecting their next call to be "hey, your car will be arriving soon!" not "come get it NOW!" I was taken a little off guard by that. Also, I think I've been primed to think that car dealerships are out to get me, when most of the people I've talked to who bought cars recently have been like "the dealership was nice and there were no issues".
Also, an additional detail you'll probably appreciate. The speaker system in my current car has been shot for years, and I never felt like paying to have it replaced. As such, I've literally been using a bluetooth speaker that I keep in my cupholder as my stereo for like... a decade now? It is maximal jank. Just the idea of being able to play music through the car itself is like, a gigantic novelty for me.
Also even if the speakers weren't shot, it only has a tape and CD player, and I don't even have a way to burn CDs anymore. I feel oooollllddddd.
If and when I get the grubby little paws flanking my gigantic frame on my new ride tomorrow, I'll definitely report back with how it feels. I test drove one and really liked it, but they wouldn't let me take it off the lot (it was one of the models that was under recall) and I'm always nervous when the person from the dealership is sitting in the passenger's seat. Tomorrow will, theoretically, be my first "real" drive with it.
Yeah, that's extremely common. Happened to the friend with her new Lexus, happened with my friend who was on the list for a GR Corolla. I don't know what notification the dealer gets, but they sure don't give the buyer much notice.
Ha! Been there many times with jank stereo setups. At least the bluetooth speaker is safer than wearing headphones while driving (not that I'm admitting to have done that) and it's less than the murderous projectile the boombox I had bungee corded to the rear deck wired into the car so when the ignition was on the boombox was as well. No way to change the station, no way to adjust the volume, but at least it didn't leave me alone with my thoughts all the time.
Hey now, tape players can at least have headphone or bluetooth outputs! It's what I use in my old cars as I haven't found aftermarket stereos that don't look awful.
Based on the budget you were looking at I'll guess the answer is no, but did you ever test drive a Hyundai Ioniq 5? The styling gives me the 80's cassette futurism vibes that I crave and wanted out of a Cybertruck before Tesla's quality took a nosedive and Musk came out as a sociopath.
The Ioniq 5 was out of my price range, so I didn't look into it. It does look plenty big though. Not sure how I feel about the aesthetic. I think it looks nice in pictures but might look funny in the real world? (I've never actually seen one IRL)
I actually really like Hyundai's aesthetic with their most recent models, the Ioniq 5 included. It looks good, and IMO it feels like a brush with a cyberpunk alternate universe seeing one in person. I would never actually buy one, for… a variety of reasons… but I think the design of their cars is something they are absolutely getting right.
I really hope you can walk away and sleep on it if there is anything you don't like about the test drive, or if they surprise you with high markups or a high financing. The changes of them selling a car overnight is very small. It will give you a chance to come back and get some more feedback.
It's their job to pressure you to close you, and to maximize their commissions by maximizing their prices. They will do it nicely, but this is how they earn their money, the more money they get from you, the more they get paid. They will be friendly, but they are not your friend.
If you didn't get a quote for a loan, if your FICO is over 700 I think your rate should be under 7% for a 7 year term, but it could be as high as 14% if your FICO is under 620 or as low as 5.5% if your FICO is over 760. Don't quote me on that tho.
Did you try a Model 3? My 6' 8" friend fits comfortably in mine, despite his initial hesitancy. The base Model 3 is $43k before the $7500 rebate, and has a surprising amount of room. Plus you deal with none of the dealership crap. You pay exactly what you see and the process if pretty seamless.
Here's a video of a 7' 2" person driving a Model 3.
I didn’t. My goal was a sticker price of under $35K, which severely limited my options.
Also, I’d honestly have a hard time buying a Tesla now. I fully realize that the company is more than just Elon Musk, but he leaves such a bad taste in my mouth that it sours the idea of Teslas in general for me by association.
It’s a shame, because I used to think they were the coolest cars on the road. I genuinely wanted one for a long time.
Elon certainly sucks, don't really blame ya there. Hope your purchase goes well for you!
UPDATE
HELL YEAH I HAVE A NEW CAR.
I'm very happy. More on that later.
But first: the not happy.
Today sort of sucked, but not for the reasons I expected.
Things with the dealership were... mostly straightforward? No funny business on the MSRP -- they gave me the price we previously agreed to, which I was thrilled about. I did get screwed on the interest rate, which I felt should have been lower because my credit score is immaculate, but also interest rates kind of suck right now and I'm terrible at negotiating. I'm not too worried about it, as I'm going to pay off the car early anyway.
They did try some funny business with the extended warranty. When they started to sell it to me, it was actually kind of hilarious, because it had all these details that were specific for ICEs, not EVs. The guy running through it kept being like "well, if your car had this, it would be covered". They really need to update their pitch. Also, the one thing I would want covered in my EV -- the battery -- is explicitly NOT covered by the extended warranty.
I went in knowing I wasn't going to get it, so I sat there politely and listened to the pitch, and then I declined. He emphasized that it was only a small increase in my monthly payments, but that was kind of fishy, because the prices he was showing me on the screen for all the individual elements were definitely WAY more than what he was saying would be added to my monthly payments. After I declined, he then pulled up this SUPER patronizing list of potential issues with gigantic costs next to them and tried to scare me into saying yes with that. I declined again, but this time I was mad about how blatant the fearmongering was.
Also, a quick aside: sales tactics that intentionally refuse to respect a solid "no" feel like they're contributing to a larger culture of misunderstanding/ignoring consent.
Shortly after I fully confirmed that I was NOT getting any form of extended warranty, he "discovered" that the sales rep had passed along some options on the car that I hadn't asked for. I had watched the sales rep earlier put in NO options for my order on his screen (what I requested), so I was pretty sure this guy was lying to me. The guy then "removed" the options and said, lo and behold, that my monthly payment would actually be much lower!
I suspect, but can't prove, that there weren't any options added in the first place, and they had instead inflated the quote on my monthly payment so that the extended warranty looked like it was only a small upcharge. Either that, or the sales rep legitimately did try to pass off some options under the radar. Either way, not a good look for them.
Anyway, that got all out of the way and was relatively painless, but then I ran into issues with my insurance. The following hours were a comedy of errors that included four different calls to my insurance company (who I'm normally very happy with). Each call resolved an issue but introduced a new mistake or issue into the process, so I spent a lot of time debugging things with different representatives over the phone.
I should also stress that I had called my insurance company last night to get everything setup for today in hopes that it would go smoothly.
Needless to say, that did NOT happen.
The whole process ended up taking over 6 hours, most of which was me talking to my insurance company, waiting on hold with my insurance company, and then sitting around waiting for my insurance company to take care of things on their end. Not a good look for them either.
ANYWAY, after a long and tedious day of being quite stressed while mostly sitting around and not actually doing anything, I finally got to get in the driver's seat of my new car and take it home.
And it's WONDERFUL.
I've never driven a new car before. Everything I've ever had has been used and old. My current car is a 2003 rust bucket with a bluetooth speaker in the cupholder for a stereo. Literally any new vehicle would feel like heaven in comparison, but I'm particularly happy with what I got. The Bolt EUV fits my gigantic frame nicely, the drive is super smooth, and Chevy is paying for the home charger install. I love the idea of never having to buy gas ever again.
Also, I say this with no mechanophilia intended, but my car is... sexy? Like, it looks GOOD, y'all. I wish I could show off the glamor shots I took but don't want to upload pics of my location. I also feel inclined to call the car "she" instead of "it" not because I'm weirdly attracted to her but because she's my new gay goddess. Move over Gaga.
There are a lot of bells and whistles I've yet to explore (e.g. adaptive cruise control, and something called "one-pedal driving"), and I like the added safety features (e.g. blindspot indicators on the side mirrors). I don't have enough of a vocabulary or understanding of cars to adequately describe the ride and how the car feels on the road, but also I'm a no-frills kinda guy and if the car drives and stops like she should, then I'll be happy with her, which I am.
So, after eight months of broad waiting followed by six hours of acute waiting, I'm now back home with a new car in my garage and a smile on my face.
A big thanks to everybody who gave advice yesterday. I was definitely much more well-equipped for today than I would have been otherwise.
@PantsEnvy, you specifically mentioned yesterday arriving at 8AM and not leaving until 5PM, and yesterday I kinda blew off that possibility. I read it and was like "ehhh, that feels like an exaggeration and wouldn't happen in real life!"
I arrived at 9 AM this morning, and it was about 1 PM, when it was clear we weren't anywhere close to finalizing, that I had the profound understanding of "oh my GOD Pants you were RIGHT". I didn't actually get out the door until after 3 PM! I'm certain in my case it wasn't a sales tactic though (that was all wrapped up relatively early in the morning), and instead was just an insurance bureaucracy nightmare. Nevertheless, I'm sorry for doubting you. 😂
If none of us impressed upon you the idea that the salespeople will do absolutely anything to manipulate you into an upscale including outright lying to you, we did you a disservice.
By the way, you shouldn't be too anxious about the battery. It's got a huge capacity, which means you won't have to charge it as much and it will last a very long time. If you're worried about it you can change the settings so it only charges to 80% to increase the lifespan, but I think that feature is activated by default. To give you an idea of how little you will need to worry about the battery, my decade-old Leaf with it's relatively tiny battery and older chemistry gets charged to 100% every weekday since I've owned it and twice a weekday for the past 5 years still has around 75% of it's total capacity. Your car's range is about 3-1/2 times higher than mine ever was so you'll be fine for a long, long time.
Thanks for the perspective. I'm not particularly worried about the battery -- it was more that if I was going to pay extra to cover something, THAT would be the thing to cover. With the extended warranty excluding THE most important part of my car, it made something I was already prepared to decline an even easier "no".
It also added to the comedy of the situation of them trying to sell a plan clearly not designed with EVs in mind: "forget about the battery -- if your car had a fuel pump and that went out, then the extended warranty would cover that!"
Congrats on the new EV! Hope you have many miles of fun with it :) Did you get it with SuperCruise BTW?
Thanks!
I skipped SuperCruise. I'm still wary of driver assist programs; it was a high monthly cost; and from what I understand, the Bolts actually have older technology for SuperCruise in them which makes it not worth it in the long term (since that tech won't be able to be upgraded with what they're using for SuperCruise in new cars).
Fair enough! That's interesting to note about the monthly cost -- I wasn't aware it was like a subscription! And what you said about it being an older iteration makes sense. I'm guessing I had the Bolt EUV mixed up with their Blazer EV(?)
You replied to Akir, and not @kfwyre (who bought the car). ;)
My apologies, might have to get my eyes checked ;)
Congrats!
Sounds like I was right for the wrong reason however. Curiously my insurance company said I was covered to drive off the lot, I just needed to call them as soon as possible after purchasing a new car.
You know, I think you can refinance car loans.
Might need to wait 3 months.
Interestingly enough, going off of what you said earlier, I think we might actually have the same insurance company because I also married into USAA
Refinancing isn't something I considered. Might be something to look into. My interest rate isn't terrible (7%) but it's definitely not great either. I did get kind of screwed by the wait for the car and what's happened with interest rates since then. When I went last June, I was looking at 3%.
Interest rates are expected to go up by a percentage point over the next year, then start dropping by the same each year after. But we may never see 3% again. It's unknown.
Isn't USAA great? I've never really understood why they can't just decide to be great for everyone.
Up until yesterday I would have said yes, but they fumbled badly and repeatedly. I’m forgiving though!
Because then the elite club that we married into would be less elite, and I didn’t marry for lowly love, I married for a quality insurance experience. Don’t take that away from me! 😆
Also, does it ever make you feel like an impostor when the representative on the phone thanks you for your service? I never know how to respond.
I don't like to talk to people.
I do the online thing, my wife does the talking to humans thing.
I talked to USAA once, and it went like this.
Me: "I'm not qualified by myself to be a USAA member. Am I a member now?"
Them: "Yes."
Me: "Do I retain my membership no matter what?"
Them: "I am not sure what you mean, sir."
Me: "I mean, I am not military. But I am a member, and I will have all my accounts with you. Do I retain my membership no matter what now?"
Them: "I am not sure what you mean, sir."
Me: Exasperated at my failure to communicate with real life humans... "I mean, if my wife dies or divorces me, do I still get to stay as a member?"
Them: Frosty silence for longer than necessary. Then a very cold "Yes." Then furious notes as they type something into their system about how if my wife dies of mysterious causes, to follow up with the local police authorities.
To be fair, I would class your occupation as a public service. You should be thanked for it more often.
A public service in a very small, localized warzone nonetheless.
Just one crucial question: what color?
One piece of advice: if you live in a place where there's snow or ice and roads get salted in the winter, plan to wash it regularly through the season. It will help slow the progression of rust, which it's typical to care a lot less about on a beater. (Also the car will look nice when it's clean, as opposed to looking like a beater but shiny.)
As a recent owner of an electric car (a Crosstrek PHEV—which wasn't popular, apparently? Subaru halted production mid-year and canceled a bunch of orders, and isn't making it for 2024. It was basically our perfect car, so I dunno what's up with that), I suspect the thing about the driving experience that you're noting is that power delivery is extremely precise, smooth, and linear compared to an ICE (which, aside from the extremely nonlinear relationship of throttle position to engine power output, has a substantial discontinuity when barely moving as the clutch or torque converter engages). My driveway is steep and turns into absolute garbage in the winter, but I've been able to get up it without issues with the Crosstrek even when it's a sheet of ice by just creeping at very low speed.
Anyway, congratulations, enjoy, and I highly encourage you to read the manual cover-to-cover. ;)
Bright Blue Metallic
Also, for your and @AugustusFerdinand’s peace of mind, after I got home, the first thing I did was pull the manual from my glovebox, plop down on my couch, and crack open the cover. 😁
Yay!
It's going to be boring, but I honestly cannot stress enough to anyone who has never had a new car, doesn't follow new car tech, and is now in their first new car: Read the owner's manual, cover to cover.
Feel free to skip sections like 'how to put on your seatbelt', but it should cover how the adaptive cruise control (literally the greatest new car feature I've ever experienced) works and settings within, one pedal driving, where your spare tire is (if they gave you one) and where to jack up the car to change it. Things you'll want to know before you need to know them.
Right now your car is under warranty and is a brand new model, expect hiccups, flaws, issues, etc. You've also come from an older car that you expect to make various noises that you can have likely ignored unless something fell off. Do not do that with the new car.
If she develops any squeak or rattle. Take her to the dealer to be checked under warranty.
A screen kinda glitches for a second. Take her to the dealer to be checked under warranty.
The radio forgot one of your settings. Take her to the dealer to be checked under warranty.
She said something was wrong when it wasn't. Take her to the dealer to be checked under warranty.
A light that should come on but didn't. Take her to the dealer to be checked under warranty.
You hear a thunk and didn't go over uneven road. Take her to the dealer to be checked under warranty.
Solid advice. On my drive home yesterday I was taken aback by how quiet and smooth everything was. My
currentprevious car definitely has some recurrent roughness and noises that I’ve just sort of gotten used to. I also think age has degraded seals or something so I get some road noise at high speeds.There’s also probably something to be said for the quietness coming from, you know, not having an engine. Turning on the car is still weird for me because it feels like nothing happens — no familiar growl and hum of the engine.
It doesn't have a startup jingle?! That's mildly annoying.
There's an option to disable the jingle on my Leaf but it just felt wrong to have it not make a sound.
If it does, it’s not on by default (but I’m not done with the manual yet, so it might).
Turning on the car starts a low hum (which I think is just to alert pedestrians), but it’s very subtle inside the car. Plus, the dashboard and screen light up when I open the door, not turn on the car, so in some ways it already feels like my car is “on” before I actually start it.
Ooooh, one of the major advantages of EVs in my book is the silence! I hate how my current ICE revs when I step on the gas; I just want to accelerate, please don't protest, car! haha
EVs actually rev up as well. There's a safety law that requires they make noise to make pedestrians aware of their presence. They don't usually make engine noises (though that is an option on some of them). You might not be able to hear it as well on the inside, though.
Congratulations on your new car! I bought a Tesla Model Y last year in June after renting one for a road trip. Driving electric cars is such a new world!
I second that 1 pedal driving is awesome once you've gotten used to it; definitely make an effort there.
How's your home charging situation? One of the best parts of EV life is always starting the day with a "full" battery (my battery chemistry dictates that I keep it charged only to 80-90% most of the time).
If you're still looking for an EVSE, I can heartily recommend the Grizzl-E Classic. It's wired for 50 amps from the factory, but you can open it up and swap out the cable and dip switches to have it limit the current to whatever your location can safely supply. I'm renting at the moment, and to put a 20-amp outlet in my garage cost me $300, but to put a 50 amp outlet would have cost $2000+, so I changed out the plug for a 6-20R and limited the current to 16A. They're very flexible and very sturdily built!
I don't recommend buying random amazon EVSEs because they seem to have a habit of failing in "exciting" ways.
My state also gave me a tax credit for part of the cost of the EVSE and installing it. Be sure to check your local tax code for such things!
Coincidentally the last EVSE I bought was an Amazon Special with the brand name Voltorb. Yes, I based my purchase entirely off of the novelty of it being named after a pokemon. But then I remembered what it said in the pokedex:
🤦♂️
Thank you! And I appreciate the tip.
The Bolt EUV actually comes with its own EVSE, and Chevy pays for the installation of the 240V outlet. I actually have a tech coming tomorrow to look at my garage to plan out what's needed for that.
Oh yeah, most EVs come with a "mobile charger", but I found that I wasn't comfortable leaving my home without that charger in the car, for emergencies. So I found myself plugging and unplugging that charger a lot (I read that's not great for these things, it puts a lot of wear on the contacts), and packing and unpacking it from my car. This wasn't the hassle-free charging experience I was promised, so I bought a second wall-mountable charger for my garage, and keep the mobile charger packed away in the car at all times.
If you're happy with the included charger that's great! But you may find yourself annoyed with having just the one charger sooner rather than later.
This might be a silly question (because I've actually yet to charge my car), but I was under the impression most charging stations while out and about have their own plugs and I wouldn't need to use mine?
I can't imagine encountering a 240V outlet that I would plug into while driving -- but am I completely misunderstanding how this works?
Here in the US, charging stations have cables built in. In Europe they do not.
You can also charge via a standard 120v outlet. It’s just painfully slow. IIRC the EVSE Chevy provides you with works with either, but not all of them do so you may want to know this ahead of time.
IMHO it’s not terribly useful to have the charger with you because I don’t know any business that would have a plug available next to a parking spot, let alone give you permission to use it.
Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Being in the US, I’ve never seen a charging station without a cord, which is why I was confused.
You've got it correct! But I still like to keep the mobile charger in the car so that if I end up somewhere not near a charging station and low on power, I can find an outlet in a garage or something to charge up a bit (this will take forever as Akir said, but it's better than being stuck completely somewhere).
The charging infrastructure is growing so rapidly however that this habit may be getting outdated.
That's one of the reasons why I maintain a AAA membership. Roadside assistance is a really nice thing to have. Perhaps it might be cheaper to just hire a tow truck as needed but AAA is basically the only company I am willing to pay extra for simply because they offer great customer service. I've even got my insurance through them as well. It's probably a little more convenient when breakdowns happen because AAA can call their entire network to get whoever available nearby rather than waiting until the people you called can travel to where you are.
I'm honestly a little bit disappointed in public charging here in the US. There are just too many companies involved. Not all of them are willing to just accept credit cards right there and will require you to download an app and create an account. And then they are just kind of spread out with no real rhyme or reason. There are tons of chargers near my house which isn't in a terribly urban area, then when you go to the mall there is a Tesla supercharging station with plenty of spots but only a handful of stations that actually work with everything else. And then when I went to the hospital the other day, which is in the most urban area yet because it's literally between the intersection of two highways, the closest chargers were the ones that were nearly at my house.
And to take the cake, some places are actually removing chargers. It's a relatively long trip to see my grandmother and so I would charge my car at the Walmart near her and get some shopping done before my trip home. But then they took it down for no apparent reason. Maybe I was the only person who used it?
Have you had great experiences with them? How often have you needed a tow truck? I've read conflicting reports of some people waiting hours for a tow when they rely on AAA, and some getting very good results.
Nowadays it's very infrequent, but when I was driving an ICE car it was fairly frequent. There was at least one year where I used up their entire allotment of free towing. I've had to use it with my Leaf EV as well; the most common reason why I would have to call them was because the 12V lead acid battery was failing (it runs the accessories like the lights and entertainment system, as well as the circuitry that starts the whole car. It also only lasts a couple of years). To be completely honest I didn't know how to properly maintain the car when I first got it so things broke down faster than they should have. This past year I don't think I had to use it at all.
Towing service with AAA has always been very fast. I think there's probably only one time where I've had to wait more than an hour. One thing to consider, though is that AAA isn't a singular organization; they are a federation of clubs, and I would imagine that some of them do things a bit different. I'm also in a big megalopolis so there are tons of affiliated towing services available no matter where I am likely to drive; if I were out in the middle of nowhere things might be different.
I’ve had to call AAA maybe four or five times in my life (never for a tow though), and I’ve been happy with the service each time. Prompt and professional.
My new car has OnStar that I could pay for, but I’m keeping AAA over it despite OnStar being built-in, simply because I’ve had good experiences with them.
Also worth nothing that AAA also offers some valuable in-person services at their locations. My husband and I got our TSA PreCheck approvals through a AAA branch, for example. I know in some states they actually offer DMV services, so you could go there to, say, renew your license instead of having to go to the actual DMV.
How would you rate your overall experience with walking into a dealership and getting a car? I've heard some friends of mine raving about an experience like Tesla's where you skip the hassle associated with a dealership.
Poor.
Not only did I have a bunch of issues, but I hate that the car isn’t just a set price with a set offer. Having to go through a middleman who has a financial incentive against me and has whole systems set up in their favor is wildly imbalanced, because I only do this a few times in my lifetime, and they do it every day. Plus, it massively disadvantages people like me who are kind people pleasers.
Yay! One pedal driving is awesome and the future. Try it with an adjustment period and get used to it. You'll get more range out of the car and the old style of driving will start to be archaic.
If you've got any EV specific questions let me know. Been driving one since 2019 and I love it and will never ever go back to ICE.
This is what my wife did to me. "Oh, by the way, I am buying a new car tomorrow." I helped her negotiate an Accord for $20k out the door. I was the asshole on the other end of the phone. I was trying to get it down to $19k, but my wife hung up on me saying she was happy to pay the agreed price and wanted to buy the car right now and claiming her battery was about to die. But these are different times. According to this Chevrolet Bolt sells for 17% Over MSRP.
There are two ways you might get screwed. Paying over MSRP, and paying MSRP but paying a high interest rate which they hide from you by showing monthly payments and number of months.
You have two negotiation tactics regarding MSRP I can think of.
You can complain, or at least make credible threats that you will complain. You can complain to Chevy. You can complain to the CEO. You can complain to the news reporters. Dealers generally have a partnership agreement with their dealer networks, and while in normal times they risk losing rebates if they fail to adhere to the partnership terms, in this day and age I suspect they are more afraid of not being allotted as many cars as they ask for if they make too much noise.
You can threaten to walk away. You can walk away. You can walk back the next day. Or not.
So, first prepare.
Call Chevy. 1-800-222-1020. Ask about their policy regarding markups on top of a motor vehicle purchase agreement at MSRP. Ask what they are doing to pressure dealerships to avoid unreasonable fees. Ask about the complaint process. Then at the dealership, tell the rep if they don't adhere to the agreed upon price as OTD, you will complain to Chevy, and you are aware of the consequences the dealership would face if they get too many complaints. Take it up a notch. Tell them you heard they have a lot of complaints already, and are close to losing out. Take it up a notch even further. Chevy is owned by GM. GM's CEO is Mary Barra. Mary Barra's email is mary.barra@gm.com. Make it clear you will email Mary Barra and state your dissatisfaction with this dealership. CEOs will sometimes forward complaints to some EVP, who will always then forward to some GVP or VP who then will move heaven and earth to make you happy. Dealers know this. Lawrence Hodge writes a lot about dealers screwing over the little guy. Friend him on linkedin. Say you will be contacting him with your story. High demand is temporary, bad press will stick around forever. (Ask me how I know.)
Email all the dealerships in the broader area. If you do this right now, you should get responses by tomorrow. (Sign up for a throw away email address unless you like spam.) Get an OTD price emailed to you, for the precise car you want. Take a copy with you. Negotiate on the OTD price. If there is a substantial difference between the OTD price offered by your dealership and another, just say you want a comparable price, and let the sales rep take that to his manager who must approve all discounts. The worst they can say is no. Then you call your husband, tell him the bad news, and then tell the sales rep that your husband says you have to get at least some discount or you can't buy the car right here right now. Now the manager who you can't talk to is negotiating against your husband who the sales rep can't talk to.
If you think it wise, consider arriving only 3-4 hours before the dealer closes? Time is your enemy. Time pressure is your friend. It takes a suprising amount of time to buy a car even on a good day. But if you arrive at 8am, you may not find yourself closing until 5pm, after they have worn you down. It's not like they have anything better to do. And if they legitimately need all that time, that way you can get their offer, and go home and think about it, then go back early Saturday. The dealer will take as many hours as they can out of your life to beat you into submission. But once they agree to an OTD price, I dont think they are likely to renege.
In terms of financing, like AF said, Go through your bank/credit union if at all possible. But at a minimum you want to know for $x what the monthly payments are and for how many months you will be paying for. So get quotes online using the fake spam email address you already signed up for. Or see if you can get real time quotes on your phone. Charge your phone up before you go to the dealership. You don't want the battery dyeing on you. Or negotiate on the interest rate. Honestly, I am just spit balling here, I always get loans through a bank or credit union.
Just to be clear, you first argue like hell that they already agreed on an OTD price, then if that completely fails you agree on an OTD price that is comparable to other dealers. If you have financing sorted, you pay cash. Otherwise, you agree on financing comparable to the online quotes you have.
Good luck! (In spite of their bad reputation, the two times I bought a new car, the experience was time consuming but very friendly, so definitely hope for the best and try using charm first.)
This is funniest thing I’ve read on this website.
I realized too late.
Instead of threatening to contact the news organization, and email mary barra, say your husband insists he will email mary barra and contact the news organizations unless you get X.
That way you are the friendly one who uses your charm, and the husband is the asshole. Everyone should have an asshole husband on the phone when talking to car salesmen.
Good Cop, Bad Cop is an intimidation trope for a reason.
I'll bite. How do you know?
I got stuck in a highly unusual sort bureaucratic hell for years that involved lots of phone calls that never solved anything.
My story got picked up by the press because it was extremely amusing to those who weren't me (and it was funny to me too, when I wasn't waiting on hold to talk to another ultimately unhelpful government official.)
The good news is all the years of constant problems instantly went away after the reporter wrote a story about me in a big city paper.
The bad news is I have a very unique name. When you google my name, the news stories still appear. Above the fold. Two decades later.
Huh, well how about that.
So the story was specifically that you were caught in bureaucratic hell (don't want you to out yourself or anything)?
So sorry my prince, the story would be funnier if I outed myself, but I learned the hard way how hard it is to remove stuff from the Google.
No worries, my curiosity will be satiated by making up stories in my head where you're the guy Tom Hanks played in that movie about the guy that couldn't leave the airport.
I may post it under an alt in some indeterminate time in the future, and trust that either no one will out me, you all will have forgotten this, or I will have plausible deniability.
The main way they'll try to get you is via random fees that constitute essentially a dealer markup. Sometimes they'll try to disguise it (an "environmental" fee, for instance), sometimes it's just flat up listed as additional markup on top of the MSRP. I'll watch out for that; it's easy to hide because there genuinely is a bunch of random shit you're supposed to pay for on top of MSRP (title fees, tax, etc.).
If you've waited so long, I'd calculate now an acceptable additional markup. It's probably not zero, but it's also probably not $10k.
The other thing will be the terms of the loan.
What I'd recommend is just to literally make zero decisions at the dealership. Make every decision at home. Make a flowchart. At the dealership, follow the flowchart 100% strictly. They get you from pressure in person.
Exactly what I was going to suggest. It would suck to lose out on this vehicle, but they only have you over a barrel if you let them.
Also, EV's (and cars in general) aren't flying off the shelf quite as fast as interest rates rise.
YMMV (lol) : but I waited nearly 10 months for my 2022 Ford Maverick (which was custom ordered) and had a purchase agreement with MSRP, and my dealership didn't even try to gauge me any higher (outside of their gap insurance) or any other markup and no one else on the mav forums have mentioned it either. But this may just be unique to Ford and their strong arming on dealerships.
If that purchase agreement is actually a contract in which they’ve made an offer and you’ve accepted the offer, then (I am not a lawyer, have only taken law classes out of curiosity) you should be paying MSRP. Like others have said they might try to get you through some other nonsense though.
But does the contract have any deadline? If not, seems like they can delay even more while they sell this car to someone else.
I think the key is to be fine with waiting.
There's no deadline given on the document itself.
I gave some more details on it here, but it does specifically look like it's binding. I'm hoping that's the case, and I can walk in tomorrow without having to worry about them price gouging me.
Pinging @AugustusFerdinand, our resident car expert. Don't know if car buying is also part of your expertise, but I figured it doesn't hurt to ask!
Thanks for the ping, reviewing the post now to see if I can be of help.