my dad rocks

I love my Dad.

Dad knows stuff. Dad can listen to an engine rattle and pick out which whatsit needs to be replaced, or if we just have to realign the thingamabob. He can wire phones and muck with the plumbing and fix radios. He's a whiz at Trivial Pursuit, and knows how to keep you alive if you have a sucking chest wound.

He's a laid back quiet fellow who has no enemies and manages to run into an old friend wherever he goes. He's friendly and helpful and never complains when one of his kids needs to move or be towed across the city. And when I say 'kids', I don't just mean the two that are his own, but also the legion of young people who he led through many years of Boy Scouts.

He can tie knots and row boats and put up walls and chop wood and build retaining walls and drive school buses. He makes the best French toast I've ever had.

But he can not negotiate a car deal.

isn't it pretty?

We finally decided on the car we wanted. A 1993 Ford Taurus GL. Not the most amazing of cars, but it was mostly within our price range, had the features we wanted and seemed to be in great condition. Lisa and I had taken it on a test drive, and liked how it feels and moves.

Dad and I went down last night to take another look and begin 'The Deal'. We took it for another ride with Dad driving.

That was great. Dad checked every thing. The lights, the engine, the tires, the spare, the seatbelts and power windows and cruise control. He doesn't miss a trick, my Dad. We collected a small list of things that needed fixing (new wipers, a broken bulb in the dash and another in the rear dashboard brake light) and headed into the building to do some haggling.

Next time, I'm going to leave him to poke at the new cars while we haggle. Why? I'll give you a couple of examples:

Example #1

SALESGUY: So the ticketed price is $8,995*, and we can talk a little depending of what payment option you go with...

ME (Reluctantly): Well, with my folk's help, we've been able to scrape together some money, and we're going to try to do this all by cash if we can.

SALESGUY: Oh yeah? That's great.

DAD: Yeah, we've got a big line of credit, so we're okay.

Example #2

ME: (A bunch of stuff about how I did research in price guides, and found that $6,000 is a decent price for a vehicle of this model and year, and how they have a similar one at another shop for $5,500, although it's got a lot more miles on it. Basically setting $6,000 as the lower limit of the negotiations.)

DAD: How about you tell us your end? How far you think you can go on the price.

SALESGUY: We-ell... We might be able to take it down to high 7's, low 8's... (Setting a new high end)

ME: (About to say we can possibly squeeze a bit more and go $6,500)

DAD: Okay, why don't we just talk about $7,500.

SALESGUY: (Gleam in his eye) Oh, I don't know about that...

He offered to take $7,500 to his manager. Now, as everyone knows, the whole 'going to a manager' bit is as much a bargaining tactic as my 'frightened, poor young guy' pose. The guy knows in advance exactly how much he can take on each car, and if it's a solid no, he'll tell you so.

If he goes to the manager, it's because he can take what you've offered, but is going to try to wiggle a little more out of you.

I did well myself. At that point I went all wide-eyed and pulled off an Oscar-caliber performance on 'Oh! I forgot all about tax on it! Is there any way you could see if we can the GST included?' (The GST on $7,500 is another $525, which I did NOT want to pay.)

He hummed and hawed, but I think he bought it, and off he went. Came back with an offer of $7,830, including GST, which we took.

So the final price on the car was $7,300 altogether, which is $1,700 down from the ticket price. I think we did pretty well. I think I could have squeezed another 2-300 dollars off the price, but that's okay. Just having my Dad there helped me keep calm and relaxed, despite all the millions of butterflies in my stomach. That plus his mechanical expertise must be worth at least $300.

It certainly is to me anyway.

Could you have done any better?

You were very apologetic yesterday.

Does anything ever get you mad?

Take me home, big fella