more car shopping, including some surprises

[cellio]

Questions I never thought I'd ask #1: Where in Pittsburgh do you buy diesel fuel, and how much does it cost? Is it common? Hard to find? The two gas stations on Murray Avenue don't seem to do diesel, but that's as far as I've explored so far. My Google skills are not up to this task, apparently.

Questions I never thought I'd ask #2: Are modern diesel engines considered bad for the environment? My BS-detection skills are not up to this task, apparently.

Ok, that said... I might have a winner. Tonight I visited VW in search of a Golf. It actually took them a while to scare up a non-busy sales person; I wonder if the person I got is actually a manager. He wasn't as, um, slick as most of the others I've talked with, which might be consistent with not doing this on an hourly basis.

The Golf is very comfortable, and it has good interior space. I was able to find seat and steering-wheel positions that made me very happy. (This was, in fact, the most comfortable driver's seat I have sat in. A lot of them recline too much, which makes my lower back unhappy.) There's enough space in the hatch, and a lot more if you fold down the back seats. The ride was comfortable. I drove an automatic tonight; I need to drive a manual to make sure that the under-responsiveness I sometimes experienced is due to the automatic transmission rather than to something else. I think so, based on the obvious shifting that was happening.

Visibility is quite good IFF you remove the headrests from the rear seats. You also have to remove those headrests to fully fold down the rear seats; I think that's a design flaw. I can see how this will play out: the rear headrests will share the fate of my current hatch cover (the "lid" that blocks hatch contents from view if the rear seats are up): they will sit in my garage except when I specifically think I'll need them. I'm probably ok with that, though I wish the seats folded down without removing them so they remained available. But hey, how often do I have multiple passengers anyway? :-)

The instruments are in general clear and easy to use. There are some locational quirks, but nothing that'll be hard to get used to. The steering wheel did not block my view of anything I cared about, which hasn't always been true.

The car comes in two flavors. The "regular" one gets 24 mpg city (31 highway, I think), which surprised me given the size of the car. (It's pretty similar in build to the Focus, which does better.) But there's also a "TDI" flavor, which the dealer claimed gets 38/49 (though I see this is not in the literature, so I will ask to see that in writing). It does this by using a diesel engine. Hence my questions about that. I always thought that diesel was for trucks, buses, and Mercedes; I didn't know anyone else used it.

Ok, on the one hand it may be silly for me to worry much about gas mileage; 24 mpg and 3500 miles a year (rough estimate) is about $250 in gas, so we're really talking about tens of dollars annually here. On the other hand, I do actually care about use of non-renewable resources, at least within reason. I'm not going to do without a car for six months so I can buy a Prius, but I will pay attention to fuel-economy figures.

Note to self on reviewing spec sheet: must remember to have the dealer disable the automatic locking of all doors at 8mph. I'm fussy about things like that; I want things to be in the state I explicitly put them in, thank you very much. I'll lock my own darn doors; I have no kids to worry about. (I want my headlights to turn off when I turn them off, too. I know; I'm too demanding. :-) )

I also decided to try this modern fad of requesting car price quotes via the net. I sent off queries for the Golf and the Focus, which are the front-runners at this point. I haven't heard back from a VW dealer yet, but my experience with the Ford dealer who fielded the query was surprising.

I got email within the hour (not surprising), asking me to call him to talk about options. I called and he asked when I could come in to the dealership. I said "isn't the point of doing this over the net that I don't have to make as many trips to physical dealers?" and he granted that ok, he could do the first part of this remotely.

I said something about price, and he said "oh that's not the hard part at all -- the price is 1% over invoice, period. But I have to find one with the exact options you want; that's what may take a little while." (I got email tonight with a candidate car, so it didn't take that long.)

Now read that again: 1% over invoice price. While I have not talked numbers with any dealer yet, I've gotten the impression that I should expect to pay around 4-5% over invoice if purchasing through the conventional salesperson. Yes, of course everyone who isn't a Luddite has the invoice price; we all know how to get that. But I thought they would choose "no sale" over a 1% profit. I'm surprised. No wonder the sales people hate the Internet.

I wonder if VW has a similar pricing policy, and if so, if I can get that price without screwing the salesman who helped me tonight. I did get some benefit from him, after all; I'd never driven a Golf, and I'll need to drive one more before buying. He should get something from the sale. But if his best price is substantially higher than a net-quoted one, that poses a difficulty. If buying via the net cuts him out entirely, and that's the only way to get a good price, I wonder if he would get in trouble with his dealership if I tipped him.

Comments

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

I wonder if VW has a similar pricing policy, and if so, if I can get that price without screwing the salesman who helped me tonight.

It doesn't screw him. Cary and Seth gave better answers than I plan to. But just to throw my hat in the ring, if you get a better quote over the internet, bring it to the salesperson and see if they can beat it. If they can at least match it, then there you go. Don't worry, they'll find a way to match it, in all likelihood.

[cellio]

Thanks. Sounds like the right approach. :-)