The New Car

Another episode in the life of Lou/ise.

For about a year I have been scanning the Toyota Certified used car sites for a new Toyota XLE they also make an XLE Limited edition and even though I was in the business I was more of a "general surgeon" and not 100% aware of every model of car, after all there must be 600-700 different styles and models according to a quick Google search.  I addressed repairs as they came in regardless of type, but still didn't know all the models.

Never the less I was looking specifically for a Minivan from Toyota that had a radar controlled cruise control but I wasn't sure of the exact name it was called, I later found out it's called DLCC (Digital Laser Cruse Control) and that wasn't because the sales person at the dealership told me, he didn't know either and that's why this had developed into a fiasco.

After finding two 2013 Toyota XLE Minivans in Runnemede, NJ I called to ask if they were equipped with the option of Cruse Control that had the option of setting the cruse to a specific speed and it being able to slow down and speed up as cars in front of me dictated, I was informed yes. I said I would be up to look at them and was told the 2 cars would be waiting for me.

My wife and I took the 50 mile ride with our title and a check in hand. The dealer has a greeter at the door and escorts you to the next sales person in line, ours was a nice person about 40's, he was very polite and had mentioned he had been at this dealership about a month.

After some chit chat to qualify us (I guess) he took us to the first car, we weren't very impressed by the color or interior so he said I'll get the other one. He pulled it over to the side of the building and we check it out, it was exceptionally clean. Being about 10 years newer than our car I wasn't sure of all the buttons and controls, for example we have a separate roof mounted control center for the garage door opener and a couple other options on this car they were mounted on the mirror and were unnoticeable until you actually saw them. I was also quite disappointed the backup camera was very small, about the size of a point and shoot camera screen, if you have the option of the built in navigator then it's much larger.

I then ask again about the cruise control and where the radar was, ours is in the lower front bumper and you can see it.  Being unfamiliar with the car I figured they hid it somewhere else and the sales person said it's built into the back of the mirror, there was a little white thing there, so I figured that was it, but questioned that and he said I'll check to make sure, which he never did. Now I could have taken the car for a ride, but we would have had to get on a highway to test the cruise with could have taken about 45 minutes, we had been there about 3 hours by now and my wife wanted to get to work, besides, we had his professional assurance it was equipped the way we wanted.

It took another 3 hours between paper work and other conversation and negotiation before we finally left exhausted about 7:30 at night, seven and a half hours to buy a car, it was almost the same when I bought my own car a year before.

We stopped for a pizza dinner and were on the road by 8:30. I set the cruse but couldn't locate the controls for distance, there had to be something somewhere for that, it's an integral part of that type cruse. I asked my wife to check the manual, she said it's right on the front of the horn button where the radio and controls are, you guessed it, the option was not there.

I called the sales man and told him the most important option is not on this car, he said OK, bring it back in the morning, I'm not going to stick you with the car. Fair enough, we were tired anyway and it was almost 9 PM.

The next morning I called the salesman and said I was on my way up and wanted to make sure he was there and there would be no difficulty, he said he would come in special, he had to bring his kids because Thursday was his day off and he didn't have a sitter. I apologized but I needed to take care of this as soon as possible. As I was driving up, I get a call from the sales manager, he informs me all sales are final, I said look, the car was supposed to have this option and it doesn't, he said in so many words, you bought it, you should have looked, I said I relied on your sales person, do you have unreliable people. I also mentioned I stopped payment on the check.

I get up there, the salesman is there with his 2 kids and the sales manager, a no game player guy comes over and says look, we're not taking the car back, we go back and forth and I say look, the car was misrepresented, I was VERY specific of want I wanted, I could have bought a car near me if I wanted something different. He said let me talk the GM, he comes back and says we'll take another 1600.00 off the price, I said that's generous, but I'll give you 500.00 to take it back for your trouble and your salesman's time.  He thinks a second and said we'll wipe the deal, give him his car back.

As I leave, I ask about any paper work, I'm pretty much in shock at how accommodating he was and wasn't expecting such a quick decision he said we didn't do any title work so you can just go but I forgot to ask for my title back. I get home and see the other title for my other car on the desk and said "Oh Shit", I give a call and the salesman says I'll get it in the morning. Since I wanted to go away Friday en-fem anyway I decided to drive up as Louise. As I walk up to the door, someone rushes over to open it for me, as I walk in a guy from a few desks back comes running over and says "I know you, you're Louise from Margate, my Mom and I were customers of yours". All the salesmen and managers are gathered around with big smiles on their faces as if I was some celebrity, but in the mean time, I cost them almost 8 hours of effort and compromising on their policy of taking back a sold car.

I need to give a high recommendation to the Runnemede Toyota for their integrity and honesty in doing the right thing, this could have been much worse and gone to court, I think the decision would have been "contributory negligence" I was as much at fault as the dealer, they did the right thing in my book and I took care of the salesman for his time and effort so everyone was happy.

As my quote states

"Everything I do right turns out wrong"