Not that it has been easy. The stress of dealing with the dealers was enough to make a usually tranquil guy like me tighten up like a vise. I tried to relax using breathing techniques I had learned as a public school teacher working with special needs students. I am a patient man and in 20 years in the classroom, I have worked with some terrifically challenging kids—and their parents. However, like a steady tide inching its way over the sand, the tension gradually took over. The whole experience ranked right up there with being kicked in the head by a mule, an IRS audit or maybe a root canal without the benefit of anesthetic.
How did they try to stiff us? Let’s count the ways. One unscrupulous salesman tried to convince my daughter to take a loan that just didn’t add up. “We can make the payments work,” he insisted. " You really don’t have to worry about the price." Really?
When we insisted that price was, actually, in fact something that we were quite happy to worry about, we discovered the man was planning to charge 25 percent interest. “Our rates are quite competitive,” he said when Naomi balked in favor of talking to her credit union the next day, where she qualified at a rate of a little more than 7 percent. How much, I wonder, is the kickback associated with selling 25 percent loans to starving college-aged kids if you can manage to get away with it? How can somebody take advantage of another human being that way and still sleep at night?
Another sales manager tried coercion. He asked for the title that proved Naomi owned her potential trade-in. Then, when he failed to close the deal, he simply refused to return the important legal document. He essentially held the title hostage. We never did get it back.Yet another dealer tried to make my daughter sign a purchase order before she test-drove a vehicle. The late model import looked too good to be true and spending just a few minutes behind the wheel confirmed our suspicions.
Buyer beware? That’s not the half of it. But while my daughter and I were disappointed to discover how readily integrity can be set aside for just a few extra dollars we did affirm that it certainly pays when consumers to do their homework. We finally found something acceptable. The dealer tried a few tricks, but by this time we were too savvy to bite, and three months down the road my daughter is still happy with her car, a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am. “It’s definitely a ‘Naomi car,’” she says, pleased with the cool look and the smooth engine.
Still, as glad as we were to find something, it was a somewhat hollow victory. My daughter will still be in the situation so many young adults face every day. She’s balancing an apartment, groceries, school, job, insurance and a car she prays will keep running at least until her loan is paid off—too many responsibilities that allow manipulative people to take advantage.
Naomi learned the importance of keeping her guard up, and I was reminded that it can be treacherous for a young person getting her start. But I also found out that either at home or out on her own, Naomi still needs me. As glad as I am to have opportunities like this in which to protect my daughter, I only wish the world were forgiving enough that I wouldn’t have to.
