It turns out that Bella, Paige’s cute white Freelander, has been slowly giving out and repair costs are more than the car’s value, which is a good time to move on. So, Paige was looking into other options, especially cars that get better gas mileage than an SUV.
Actually, we were proud of her email, but it also cracked us up because we didn’t expect Paige to give such a detailed account of the Freelander’s issues to the salesman.
Whenever we’ve sold a car to a private party we’ll give them the service history, encourage them to take it to a mechanic and try not to sugarcoat the car’s condition. Fair is fair.
But, if we’re trading in at a dealership we probably aren’t quite as transparent. Since dealers are notorious for ripping people off on trade-in value, we generally let them look things over and make us an offer (without offering excruciating details). It feels like it’s their responsibility to determine the car’s value since they offer, and we can’t set, the price. And dealers typically come up with pathetic trade-in prices, but to avoid the hassle of selling the car, many of us still go this route.
So, Brent and I had both coached Paige on how a vehicle trade-in works and Paige had zeroed in on a pretty good replacement. Then, in her email exchange (that she copied both of us on), Paige offered up all the problems behind Bella’s troubles. Which mostly made us laugh because I doubt very many car salesmen get people who actually tell them that their trade-in car is in terrible condition.
But, when all was said and done, Paige showed integrity so she doesn’t have any guilt about not being completely up front. Stay tuned and I’ll show you her Bella replacement tomorrow.
