My adventure first starts, as most adventures do, as a small thought that ends up exploding in your face and scarring you for life. That thought? I should buy a house.
Not just any house really, but the house I was raised in and currently live in. Logically it makes sense... I make plenty of money, I can easily afford it, so why not give it a shot and see what happens?
Just to catch everyone up, I'll tell you why this is a crazy idea.
I haven't had credit for over a decade. Well... not "haven't had" credit, but rather "haven't had good" credit in over a decade. Bad decisions, lack of money and a general feeling of "Well, nothing I can do about it" took my credit score and turned it into a freak show worthy of it's own crappy SyFy movie.
So, despite my abundance of funds available to actually make the payment, the bank turns me down based on my credit score. I can accept that... I mean, really? I doubt I'd trust me half the time.
That could have been the end right there... but, the end of one adventure is just the beginning of another.
In order to help make sure I had plenty of money to cover a possible mortgage payment, I got a POS car that I paid for in cash and was going to make work until I could afford a better car after finding out about the house.
So, house falls through and I decide I should rebuild my credit. First order of business when it comes to rebuilding credit? Get a new car.
I spent most of Friday night calling dealerships and looking up stuff on the internet. This wasted most of the night, caused me to miss a get together with friends to see a movie I wanted, and was already making me annoyed with the process. Little did I know what would be coming.
Why am I so impatient? Well... I'm pretty impatient when it comes to most things... and I could have put it off, but I just wanted to get it done. Plus it's going on about a decade and half of 100+ degree days and my POS has no AC. So yeah... ASAP....
All the research had paid off and I pretty much made up my mind on what I wanted. Either a Honda Element(used) or a Kia Soul(new).
Let's move to Saturday.
I get up early(like 10, but it's a weekend so shut it) and decide to start my day. And with that... I'm off to Jackie Cooper in Edmond.
Why there? They have a used Element and a used Soul. Figure I can kill 2 birds with one stone or some such.
I should tell you about my search for an Element. That's a story in its own, but I can do that later. Let's continue wasting your time on this...
So here's what you need to imagine. Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons... in a tiny car... with no AC... and driving for 30 mins... it wasn't pretty. Nor was it fun.
Finally, get to Jackie Cooper. Soaked in sweat, half delirious and just wanting some AC, I make my way into the showroom.
Pretty nice place. Got custom tables, stools, parts shop, gift shop(for whatever reason), Soda machine, big TV... it was nice.
I had previously called to make sure that the vehicles were still here(having learned not to just trust the website) and found the salesman I spoke with on the phone.
Nice guy, already busy with someone else, but they had brought the Element around and he gave me the keys and told me to go look.
I go look at it and it's pretty nice. I've always liked the Elements since seeing them at a car show back in 2002 or so before they came out. However, I had to check to see if I wanted this to own. For the most part, it was in good condition. Had a decent amount of miles on it, but that's to be expected. Elements are hard to find and I was lucky to find this one.
Yet, as I sat down and looked at it... it just wasn't comfortable. It looked cool. Was roomy. But arm rest was too low... there were odd nooks and crannies to do things with, but they just seemed oddly inconvenient. There was no center console.
More and more, it just didn't appeal to me as much as I was hoping.
I talk with him some and ask him about the Soul.
It was like I had hit him with a fish I pulled out of my pocket.
"We don't have any of those"
I reply with my own fish-slapped puzzled look, "According to your website you do"
"Well, I'm pretty sure we don't"
"Well, how about you check?"
<cut out the part of him checking, getting keys and giving them to me to go look at 2 Souls they have on their lot>
I first look at a Soul ! edition? or + edition... one of the two. (Yes, that's stupid to name your editions Base, +, ! and Sport. I don't work there, I just report it)
I walk around their lot and play the "Let's find the car by hitting the lock button a lot" game and eventually I use my geektastic echo-location to find it.
White... nice looking... open it up and sit in it. Not bad... decent layout of stuff. Looks like a fun little hatchback type thing. Then I see the seats. The seat backs have "Soulsoulsoulsoulsoul" all over them. I promptly shut the door and hope the other one doesn't have that.
Round 2 of echo-location brings me to the entry to their dealership where this nice red car is sitting just inviting people in.
(BTW, during the preceding 2 minutes, I had been playing Switchblade with the pop out key for the 2011 Kia Soul Sport. Hit the button and it pops out. Pretty cool)
So... I look at it and it looks nice. Red/Molten is a nice color on it...
Then I open it up. 2 tone interior Red and Black.
Dash, seats, all are 2 tone. It looked pretty cool...
When I sat in it, the arm rest was a good height. There was appropriate storage in good locations. Just everything felt better than the Element. So my mind had been made up. That's what I want.
Then we talk... and wait... and talk... and wait... all the while, I tell them my credit is bad, but I have plenty of money to make payment and everything. They assure me that it's no problem, they can get me approved and we'll just have to see what comes back.
Finally, after watching hours of Amy Winehouse death coverage and whatever else on Headline news, they come back to me.
"Well, we either need a cosigner or $2500 down."
"OK, well... $2500 down works for me. It'll tale me until Monday to come up with it."
And that was it...
I spent alllllllll Saturday to walk out of 1 dealership with nothing. I drive my POS back home, lose another 5lbs of sweat and am just frustrated.
The best price they could give me on this used vehicle was $18,850. That seemed high to me, and leaving gave me a chance to prove my suspicions correct.
Not only was it high since it was used and had over 4000 miles on it... their own website had it listed for $18k even. I wasn't happy with that.
Their "Best price" for me, was $850 more than their published price on the website. It was with that that I pretty much gave up on them. Little did I know, they had given up on me. But we'll come back to that.
So, Saturday night.
Spend most of Saturday night researching my ass off. MSP price vs Kelly price vs Ednumds price vs etc etc etc. Then, for that price, should I look at other vehicles? How about other, newer Elements? Maybe they're better...
Sunday night I made my game plan. I had already taken Monday off, so I printed off all kinds of pages of information. I was going for a Kia Soul, and that's it. Cheaper, safer and I really liked the Sport.
Monday starts out with me calling Jackie Cooper and not getting ahold of anyone. I leave a message and tell them I saw the price should be $18 or less. Eventually they get back and say they'll see what they can do.
Bob Moore in Edmond has the vehicle I want(Kia Soul Sport, Molten color), but it has a moon roof and I don't really need that. Plus it was more than I wanted to spend. However, I gave them a call and decided to see what I could do.
I get a salesman that sounds like a "good ol' country boy", and he just seems annoyed to be having to answer my questions. Basically, I knew what I wanted and knew what I wanted to pay and didn't care about any of the extra stuff...."I don't care about all the extra stuff, I just want to know what your lowest price is. I know that I built my own on the website and it came to a MSP of $19190. So why's yours more?"
He replies, "Well, not sure what the difference is, but this here is more expensive."
Me again, "OK, but what's your lowest price?"
He replies "Well, not sure what that would be, you'd have to come in and we can talk"
(Keep in mind my memory is sorta good and sorta bad, take all this with a grain of salt. Or a Margarita, whatever)
I proceed to tell him, "Well, I'm in Moore and am heading over to another dealer, I just wanna know lowest price. Find it and call me back please."
He begrudgingly agrees.
Right before I leave, I get a call and am told that their lowest price was $19950. This comes to be a very good piece of knowledge later on.
And with that... I take off for Big Red Sports in Norman.
What's that you say? You've heard bad things? Sure... I had too... but, I also knew someone who went there recently and had no problems.
The guy I deal with is a nice guy. We BS for a while, I tell him what I want and they don't have it. Not a surprise, I knew they didn't, but I was told "We're the #1 Kia dealer in the Region, so we can get whatever you want, no problem".
The guy I'm talking to takes my information and then some other guy comes over. He's Salesman #2 I guess? You probably know him better as the Sham-Wow! guy. Looked just like him and acted like him.
Again, he seemed nice... but he didn't seem to really care about what I wanted. "Oh? You want that, well, have you tried X? Bobby, go show him X. It has $1000 rebate and I bet you'd like it."
So, just to humor him, I go out and look at the vehicle... a mid-size, generic, silver, 4door sedan... WTF?
How is that even close to what I want? The Soul is almost like you told a kid to make a car. It's fun, colorful and if I'm going to pay a monthly payment, I want something unique. Not something that I don't even see the difference between it and any of the competition.
The guy I'm with sees the disgust cross my face, "Son, just get what you want. Don't let them bully you around. You're the one who has to pay for it and wake up each day to it" Pretty sure he knew I was just buying a car, not a wife, but either way... he 's right...
Back I go in and tell the guy "Yeah, no... I want the Soul Sport Molten. That's it."
I then spend the next hour or so going back and forth with him on what I want, or what I want to spend. Much of this time was just me watching a dog there that was the size of a pony or watching a hot young redhead there that could have been ridden like a pony....
Get your minds out of the gutter... I mean put a blinder on her, strap a saddle and go... weirdos.
Soooooooo.... eventually, they tell me that they only ones they can find have extra stuff I don't care about in it. So, just like the one up at Bob Moore. That I didn't want. And more than I wanted to spend... but... I decide to just accept it and move on.
I sign their stupid forms and finally make my way back to finance.
Before getting in there, I'm told "Yeah, we've got an agreement already set up, so we're good to go if you want, just talk to them and discuss the final points."
Keep in mind, I haven't been given a true price, nor an interest rate. They just go "We can have your payment at $405/month" OK, whatever, get me to someone who can actually tell me true numbers...
And with that, I get to finance and start the "fun" part.
He pulls all my information and goes, "OK, so, we're agreed to $405 a month huh?"
I look at him, "Uh, no... I haven't agreed to anything. I want to make sure you guys are worth it. I can go up the street and get 12.5% interest, I want to make sure you can at least match that."
He goes, "Well, I'm thinking 15% is more realistic, besides, you agreed to this amount."
"No, I never agreed to anything. I said that amount would get me in here and we can discuss things. Now, I was told you had an agreement pending, what's the interest rate?"
He scoffs, "What agreement? That's what we're here to do."
"OK, well... let's talk numbers then. I won't accept more than 12.5%"
We talk a little more, then he leaves and his boss comes in.
His boss... imagine a douche, but with a head instead of a nozzle. That's this guy.
"Mr Campbell, I hear you're not wanting to fulfill your agreement?"
I laugh, "What? I haven't heard the interest rate or anything, so I'm just tryin..."
He holds up a piece of paper I initialed before, "Well, did you sign this?"
Not liking his tone, I go "No, I initialed it, why?"
"Pshaw... well... this is an agreement. This is you agreeing to buy the vehicle for this price once you got in here."
At that moment, I should have done what I wanted and just walked and told them to go F themselves...
But I bit back the bile and go "Well, no, that's not an agreement. It's a proposal and I made sure when I initialed it that it wasn't binding. Salesman assured me it wasn't. So even if you thought it was for some reason, his assertion carries a professional liability that supersedes the document and would exclude me from any such agreement."(Working insurance for a couple years pays off sometimes.)
I could tell he wasn't happy, but we talked some more and then the other guy came back and I had my agreement for 12.5% interest.
I sign all the forms, give them my downpayment and we've got us a deal. I'm to get a Molten Soul Sport in the next couple days. I was assured that they had like 5 leads and 1 was just waiting approval of the deal before they could get it.
I drive off the lot in the POS finally glad that it's done.
Payments are more than I wanted, but it's done and I don't have to worry about it...
Then today happened...
Sitting at work, I get a phone call.
"Mr Campbell? This is (Forget his name, let's call him Dickface) Dickface from Big Red and I'd like to have you come in and discuss the deal we have."
Me, non Dickface, "Discuss? Discuss what?"
"Well, I'd like you to come in and we can discuss that."
"Or we can discuss it now... what's the problem?"
Dickface, "Oh, there's no problem... we just can't get a Molten color one and want to discuss some options."
Me, "Well, that's a pretty big problem there."
DF, "Well, we can discuss that and we can save you some money. So come on..."
I cut him off, "I'm sorry Dickface, but you're not getting it. There's no other option. No other choices. If the discussion is 'What color do you want?', we already had that. I won't accept another color."
He scoffs, "Well, there's just none available, to get that color is just unreasonable."
I doubly scoff, "What? Unreasonable? I'm pretty sure it was reasonable yesterday when we made a deal."
Eventually I said F it and told him I'd come in.
Being extremely pised, I walk out to the lobby at work and call Bob Moore. Speak with a salesman named Oz and he tells me "Yeah, that's not an unusual story with them. Come on up and we can see what we can do for you."
Again, Bob Moore is the place that had the exact vehicle I wanted, just with more options. However, when making the agreement with Big Red, I had to go with a more tricked out version anyway, so might as well try this one. At least I know they have it in stock.
I decide to take off work an hour early and head up there.
I left work at 4:30(just keep this in mind since I spent 6 hrs Saturday for nothing to show for it and 5hrs Monday with a crappy deal.) and head up there.
On my way... who decides to call me but Jackie Cooper? They now tell me they can't do anything for me unless I have a co-signer. Yeah... nothing. I tell him that I signed a contract, for more money, with less money down so maybe he needs to check with his finance people again. I hadn't ruled them out if I get a decent price. I didn't know what Bob Howard would be like.
So, I get to Bob Moore about 5 or so. Oz had left for a bit, so I had to wait a few minutes. Finally he shows up. Super nice guy.
We look at the vehicle and then discuss price. I didn't tell him I already had gotten a # of $19,950, so he goes and talks with his boss and comes back with a best price of like $19,800 or so after a $750 rebate I qualify for. So, I tell him that I was previously quoted the other price, so if he gets it down to $19k after the rebate, then we can go to finance.
This whole process? Like 20 minutes if that.
He gets it approved, we go to finance and then I meet the best person ever when it comes to cars. Eric P.
This guy used to be a lawyer, but due to an accident he retired and decided to do this. He was amazing.
He was completely upfront and honest(or if he wasn't then he was really good at faking it). And he really did work to get me the best deal possible.
I get all the paperwork done and he goes off to find rates. He comes back and goes, "So... they told you 12.5% right?"
Me, "Yeah. Signed a contract at that and everything."
I can see a look of just frustration crossed with hate cross his face, "Yeah... well, they're a Kia dealership and we're a Kia dealership. As such, I can see what they did and what rates they got. We have agreements so that in a similar case to yours, you could get the same rate wherever you go... and, well... they had an approval for you for 18%"
After I pick my jaw up from off his desk, I go "What? How? Why?"
He proceeds to tell me, "I'm not saying they would do this, because of course, I'd never badmouth a competitor, but some places will put you into a vehicle. Have you sign an agreement. Then a couple weeks later, call you and say 'Hey, we couldn't get that low interest rate, so you have to return the vehicle or pay higher amount.' and of course, by that time you'd shown your friends and family. The probably would have gotten rid of any trade in you had and basically just force you to pay more."
I thought back to what my oldest brother had told me, "But, once you have the vehicle, they cant' take it can they?"
He replies, "Well, some places will have you sign a (i forger the technical name) and with that it says that if they can't secure the loan for the rate, then you have to return the vehicle or pay the extra."
At this point all my frustration, anger and outrage just bubbled up... WTF? All this time wasted and I now I can't get any loan? Jackie Cooper told me nobody will give me a loan without a cosigner and now this? 18%?
I was thinking all that to myself and he goes "Now, don't worry yourself just yet. I'm still working on it, but I just wanted to let you know."
And with that, he climbs his white horse and rides off to save my deal.
He's gone a little while longer and then comes back. "OK, we've got two options. But really... I'm sure you'll like the first one..."
He takes a piece of paper and writes on it, "What do you think about this?" as he slides the paper towards me with a 9.99% written on it.
"What? You serious???"
He smiles, "Yeah... $2500 down and you get 9.99% interest." The other option isn't even worth me telling you about.
So... I about drop from shock... then he tells me my monthly payment. $353.26.
I'm flabbergasted... but, I tell him, "Well, I don't have the $2500 right now. They still have my down payment I gave them."
He replies, "Yeah, that's no problem. I already spoke with my boss. We'll put you into the car today. You can drive it down there and get it from them. We trust you."
Fuuuuuuck.... they trust me.... after days of worrying, being treated like trash, being pushed around and bullyed and basically insulted... here's a place that trusts me.
I left there at like 7:30.
2 and half hours, dealt with good people, got a better vehicle for $1000 less than the other place, got a much lower interest rate and was able to leave without even giving them any money down.
Hopefully that's the end of this horror story turned... uh... love story? Whatever this is...
I have to get the money from Big Red and hopefully that will go well...if not, I'll let you know.
I'm a ginger with a Soul....
--- updated to show BOB MOORE was good dealership. Had wrong name. It was late.
Isn't it refreshing to find to good people? They are so rare and difficult to find but once you find them they are so worth it.
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