The car market in the Tri-cities seemed tough to me. Meaning good for dealers, but bad for the buyer. If you want a Honda there is one dealership and you have to drive at least an hour to get to another. While this might just be a simple inconvenience for people intending to trade in their old car or have more than one car and know someone who is willing to put the time in to drive them to the dealership and wait, I had a different situation. I had a rental and only knew one person in town, but didn’t want to ask them to drive me around (just seemed like a hugh imposition).
So, I start making phone calls to dealers looking for a Honda Fit and soon find out that there aren’t any for about 300 miles. The sales guy at the Honda dealership in Pasco was pushy and wanted to get me in a used Civic, but I didn’t want a Sedan. Tri-City Motors, the local Toyota/Scion dealership wasn’t much more helpful. So I start making some phone calls. I just didn’t want to deal with a used car at this point. There just wasn’t time to get a good deal and do the normal dance. Talk, research, walk away, come back, talk, you know the drill, pain in the ass. So, I focused on a Scion xA.
Nobody has one. Seems that it’s a popular car and not enough are made, same story that I found with the Fit. I finally find a dealer in Yakima at Bud Clary Toyota (yep, I just have them a plug) that has one, just not in the color that I wanted. Most of the other options are dealer installed, so color was about the only thing I was picky on. Chad Russell was his name and he offered to try and broker a trade. Toyota tracks all of their inventory across the country. Chad could even see if a specific car had come off the boat yet. We go back and forth on the phone for about an hour and finally find one that fit the bill.
Now the only problem was that the dealer is in Yakima, about a 1.5 hour drive away. But, I can take a bus from Pasco. So, the transportation setup was that the car would be driven from Spokane (2 hours away from Yakima) and Chad would pick me up at the Yakima bus station. So, how do I get to the Pasco bus station that’s on the other side of the Tri-cities from where I am (keep in mind things are really spread out in this area)? By bus. Ends up on Saturdays the buses on most routes run about once or twice an hour. So, I walk downtown and in a hour I make it over to Pasco. There was cold and having to find a bathroom in downtown Richland on a Saturday to deal with as well, but that’s not in the main plot.
On top of this I have to get insurance, because you can’t drive a car off the lot without insurance. I’m on the phone with the insurance company and things are going well. “What is the VIN for your vehicle?” “Ummm, I don’t have it yet?” “Oh, the dealer can get it, who should I talk to.” It sounded simple, but the car was in transit and not at the dealer. Also, it was so new that the VIN wasn’t on record yet. The agent phoned me about 3 times during my bus trip. “Are you at the dealer yet?” “No, I’m on a bus” “A bus?” “Yes, I don’t have a car so I can’t driver there.” “Oh” It finally ended up that I had to wait until I got to the dealership to finish the transaction. Once the insurance company faxed a proof of insurance form we were all set. They were just going to email it to me, but I didn’t have an Internet connection at the time. Then I’d have to figure out how to print the damn thing.
So this got me to asking myself what people did before the Internet, FAX machines, and cell phones. Probably just planned ahead and took their time to get things done. Anyway, I got the car and the people at the dealership were good. The fact the Scions are a fixed price (no dealing) was really helpful in my case and removed a whole bunch of BS from an already annoying process. At least from the drive home I can say that I am happy with my purchase and would get another one.
