It’s a shame that I completely forgot the old saying “Forewarned is forearmed‘!’ or ‘Caveat Emptor’ in Latin, when I was recently buying a car at a Toyota dealership. I’ve learned a lot from my experience, and I have a few tips that could make a big difference when you’re buying a car.

It was time for us to buy a car and ours was on its last legs. So we visited a Toyota dealership near us. We were interested in a hybrid car and they have a few models that would suit us. Although they primarily sell new cars, they also sell used cars, and that’s what we were looking for – a used car in good condition.

As soon as we got out of our car, a salesman came up to us with his hand outstretched.

“Hello, how can I help you today?” he said.

“We’re looking for a used hybrid car and I saw on the internet that you have a few of them here!” I said.

He showed us the cars we were interested in, and one of them ticked all the boxes.

“Thank you,” I said. “We’re in a hurry right now but we’ll get back to you if we have any questions.” I wouldn’t buy a car without thinking it through first.

“Okay,” Perry said, “I’ll be here. Here’s my business card!” He gave me his card, and we went home.

I did some more research at home on the internet, and we decided to go back the next day, to at least take the car for a test drive. I called Perry the next day and negotiated a lower asking price in advance. I was quite happy with the price we had agreed upon, and I immediately went back to the dealership.

Sleight of Hand

Perry was waiting for me with the keys and we went on a test drive together. Perry was friendly and chatty in the car. While that was nice in one way, it took my mind off the work I had to do – test drive the car to evaluate it on various criteria – handling, operation, performance and the like. Toyota had certified the car for 160 criteria, and a few changes had been made as a result. Despite Perry’s gabbing, I was able to complete my test, and I was satisfied that the car had no major problems in terms of driving. In addition to everything else, there were also a few warranties included which was attractive. I was ready to take the next step, and I told Perry so. We shook hands, and we went to the office of the finance manager, a man named Awverak.

“Don’t worry at all!” said Awverak. “It won’t take us long to finish this job! Sit down at the table!”

He then asked me a question.

“I can offer you a security system at a big discount, down from $1195 to $795. Would you like to buy it?” said Awverak.

“I don’t want to - no!” I said.

“We’ll disable the alarm then.”

Then, he tapped the table in front of us with a stylus, and a sales contract appeared on a screen on the table surface.

“We’ll do everything on the computer!” said Awverak proudly.

Then, he gave me a stylus, to write my digital signature on the screen. He pulled up form after form on the surface of that table, with boxes to put my signature in and other boxes to write my initials in. My head was spinning as the forms came up at lightning speed with the many boxes in them waiting for me.  

Awverak told me what the forms I was signing involved, and I had complete confidence in him. It wouldn’t have been easy for me to read each form, especially since it wasn’t easy to even see the screen at a sharp angle.

Awverak was also friendly and chatty, telling me personal stories about his own life during the process. His spontaneity was enough to distract me, but couldn’t I trust this nice guy to do the right thing, being an employee of that trusted company Toyota? We had everything done in a flash and I had the keys of the car in my hands! More to come…