Of Buying Cars and Candy Bars
Of Buying Cars and Candy Bars
Q: Thanks for meeting with me today! When I was younger and my parents went shopping for cars, they’d usually go to the nearest used car dealership and buy what seemed good — which I thought was odd for an engineer to not evaluate things like at reliability, repair ratios, longevity, and things like that. So sometimes we’d end up with vehicles like a Dodge Caravan that we’d have to push around town or like a Dodge Colt, hatchback with 4 gears and a stick shift — which is kind of an interesting choice for mountainous terrain but it did run longer than Ford’s — not Ford trucks which are great but like Ford cars which…meh. What process do you go through when you buy a new car? What event starts your buyer’s journey?
A: Well, we usually start looking when the primary car we drive needs repairs we won’t pay for — or when the radiator gives out, which is usually right before summer or during the summer, with all those road trips.
Q: Ok. That sounds good. Do you follow, in general, the method your parents followed when they bought cars? What did they do when they needed to buy a new car?
A: My parents would usually buy a car from the classifieds in the newspaper, before the internet. Or my Dad would buy a car from the Boys and Girls club in Denver where he worked.
Q: Ok. And do you follow a similar method?
A: Not really. We buy from Craigslist after making a small chart in Excel that lists mileage, age, price, make and model of the car. Cragslist is SO much cheaper than everybody else and it has so many more options (older cars, makes, models) than everybody else in the price range we want. One time we almost bought a 1988 Chevy party bus for $1,100 but we coudln’t find any local mechanic who was even willing to look at the stuck rear drum brakes. So…
Q: So you buy whatever’s cheap and close?
A: Yes. We don’t like to drive too far because you never know what your going to get from some sellers on Craigslist.
Q: Do you look for a certain brand?
A: Mostly just Honda Odysseys because they have the best mileage, safety record, and the best ability to handle our large family. We thought about getting a Honda Pilot last time but the trunk is infinitesimal in the older versions. We had found one that was the same price as an Odyssey but the trunk was like 6 inches.
Q: So you try to find good prices on new or newer Honda Odysseys, near where you live then?
A: Not really. We search for the oldest and cheapest we can find. So we usually have 15 to 20 year old cars. We tried a Volvo Wagon but it needed constant repairs. We LOVED the turn radius but the problem was the rear-facing seats int eh thrid row had a 100 pound limit. So once your kids weight more than that, it’s not really safe for them…and it’s tricky to get a group of two of your kids to grow at a congruent rate of weight, across genders after being born in different years.
Q: Hmm…why not use Carfax like you said some of your friends use? Or Carvana? Or go to a dealership?
A: Carfax doesn’t list cars that are of the age we usually look for. We look for older Honda Odysseys due to the reliability of Honda’s, the passenger capacity for our family, and the lower car insurance payments each month.
Q: Sounds good but what do you think about the inconvenience of taking older cars in for repairs more often than you would have to with a new or newer car?
A: Lesser car insurance payments plus repairs equals less than newer car plus loan payments, assuming no repairs. I don’t usually like to take out a loan on a constantly depreciating but not depreciable, non-deductible “asset.”
“ The average cost of car insurance is $1,502 per year, or $751 per six-month policy ($125.16 per month). Auto insurance costs vary widely based on individual rating factors (theZebra.com, 2019).”
Q: You mentioned something before we started the interview about how getting copies of keys had different prices?
A: Oh, yeah. When we got a copy of the key for our 1997 Honda Odyssey it costs like $4. When we got a copy of our 2004 Honda Odyssey, it cost $52 — and that’s not gettign a copy of the key from the dealership but getting it from Home Depot, the cheaper option.
Q: So you don’t buy the idea that convenience trumps price?
A: I don’t really buy that but the way I shop for cars is probably not like the way most people do.
Q: Ok, thanks. Individuality is important. And like you said, the price of repairs for cars with additional software and hardware might be more convenient — but those repairs are much higher than reparis for, say, an older car?
A: Exactly.
Q: Ok. Thanks! Can you tell me about your car rental experiences this last summer and maybe the summer before that?
A: The Sienna SE minivan we rented was really cool — the way it could like have the shades you could pull up over the windows and you could roll down the windoes in the middle row. My little girl always loved that.
Q: Isn’t that the Swagger Wagon?
A: Yes and we rented that this summer when we visited my parents in Colorado.
Q: Great.
A: So we needed a better car for the mountains because I was driving from Colorado to Utah in the summer of 2018.
Q: Was that Expedia or like which rental agency was it?
A: I don’t remember. It was one agency that was really cheap. I know it wasn’t Fox Rental at the Denver Airport. They make you rent two weeks in advance, and you can get a car for half the price but then you ahve to wait an hour after you and your kids are all jet-lagged. And the agencies have to handle 10 or 20 customers all at once when the shuttle brings them in. I told the GMC Acadia rental agency I needed a bigger or better car for the mountain drive. They told me it was a five-seater but when we were putting in groceries from Wal-Mart, we saw there were two extra seats — that were folded into the floor. AND they were designed so that one seat could fold down into the floor while the other seat was up, so we could store the stroller, and other stuff in the trunk.
Q: Ok. Can you tell me about the last time you bought a car? What happened?
A: So, last time?…the last time we took a Honda Odyssey to a mechanic, to get a better idea about it, he said it was fine and that we were saving $600 at the price we were offering. After we bought it and took it to our mechanic for a safety inspection, he told us it would cost at least $3,500 to get the car everything it needed to pass! He told us it didn’t have a catalytic converter or an O-2 sensor. Those are only $200 but you have to know where to find them, and we do — and you have to know how to install them, which we are learning how to do with DIY videos. So we’re kind of tired of Craigslist but also we were like: UGH! Scam artists on Craigslist, like once we bought a Honda Odyssey and it started smoking — not when we test drove it but a few weeks or maybe days later. There was a pinhole leak from the coolant system which blew antifreeze/coolant smoke into the interior of the car.
Q: Wow! So what did you do?
A: Had smoke up in my lungs. :) No, we donated it to Kars for Kids charity and moved on. They fix up cars like that, then resell them, kind of like the Boys and Girls Club does. And they send us an email saying something like: Thanks for your donation! You can use this letter to deduct $300 from your taxes. They also include some type of vacation voucher at hotels that are too expensive for me and my family, even with their discount. We love them though and so we’ll keep donating.
Q: Great. Last question — what do you think of candy bars and shopping for them?
A: We don’t shop for those. They’re just too unhealthy. If they don’t have artificial colors and dyes, there’s too much sugar. If there’s not too much sugar, there’s too much fat. Usually you get all three — and at a price of buy one get one free.
THE BOTTOM LINE
HOMEMAIDE helps you sell your style and buy the things that make you smile, seamlessly.
Any item you pass in your daily routine (cars (new ones and old ones), candy bars (healthy fiber bars and non-healthy candy bars), contact lenses, pens, hens, iron supplement gummies, Omega-3, ice cream, cars,), any fun detour or side attraction you stop at while on a road trip (Wal-Mart, CostCo, Optometrist outlets, a petting zoo, Soft Serve Ice Cream, museums and their never-ending gift shops) — ALL you have to do is upload a picture or paused video screenshot of that to your existing social media sites and Homemaide will send you a commission for every purchase your friends make.
AND — they don’t have to buy a luxury car for you to earn a commission (but if they do, YOU will earn a commission from Homemaide on those larger purchases(!!!). Think about that for a second:
HOMEMAIDE helps you sell your style and buy the things that make you smile, seamlessly.
That’s not a bad commission based on you posting pictures, videos, and other content on social media sites. If you’re wondering how you might get paid a commission for such a sale — or if your friends buy real estate near where they see a picture of you vacationing — you might be wondering: “how can I get a commission from a sale like that? I haven’t paid 7 levels of Realtor Board dues (City, County, State, Regional, National, and more) or car sales licensing board dues.” Fortunately, Homemaide doesn’t use over-regulated, Centrally-controlled fiat currencies who’ve been debased more than the ancient Roman Denari to give you your commission. So, no worries! Reach out to us today to learn more!
If you’re friends rented the cheapest economy car or the cheapest car they could find off of Craigslist, or the Rocky Road that’s on sale at 2 for 1 prices at the local grocery store, you’d still earn a commission off that. If they bought the item that was in your picture, video, or voice-automated update (like a rental car, Airbnb lodging, hotel stay, Lyft, Uber, Via trip) — they can purchase that (even as a e-giftcard) and ship that to a family member, relative, or friend. And after that purchase, yes, YOU will also earn a commission from that purchase.
If they bought stock in Honda, Toyota, Tesla, Ford, GM or one of the top Rocky Road Ice Cream producing companies (Nestlé USA, Dean Foods Co, Saputo Inc, Land O’Lakes Inc, Dairy Farmers of America Inc, Schreiber Foods, Kraft Foods, Agropur Cooperative) — YOU would earn a commission off of that purchase. If they bought any item from the pictures you uploaded, you’d earn money. That’s the magic of Homemaide.
If you’re friends rented the cheapest economy car or the cheapest car they could find off of Craigslist, or the Rocky Road that’s on sale at 2 for 1 prices at the local grocery store, you’d still earn a commission off that. If they bought the item that was in your picture, video, or voice-automated update (like a rental car, Airbnb lodging, hotel stay, Lyft, Uber, Via trip) — they can purchase that (even as a e-giftcard) and ship that to a family member, relative, or friend. And after that purchase, yes, YOU will also earn a commission from that purchase.