Welcome and thanks for making another appointment with the Doctor's Prognosis! I am your host Dr. C-Los.

Last time I reviewed Batman: Gotham Knight and talked about finding my car. Well this time I got a little review on Hellboy II and I will let you in on how I negotiated for my car. Let's begin!

Hellboy II

I saw this one last night with a couple of my friends and we all ended up liking it. I should warn that it starts off a little slowly but once the action starts it gets pretty fun. One of my friends actually looked like he fell asleep in the beginning for a few minutes. :P

The visuals in this film were the highlight for me. It looked like Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, and a TOOL video meshed together. Very good imagery and definitely the kind of stuff that can inspire.

If you liked the first film well this one is better so no question on if you should see it. If you didn't like the first one, well this is a fun film and very entertaining so you should give it a chance. Big thumbs up from me.

My Car: Experience and Tips Part 2

The Real Deal

Anyway, now back to my crazy car buying tale..... Last time I let you in on how I found my car and this time you will see my entire negotiating ordeal.

Ok so the dealer, named Chris, sat down with me and my family to talk numbers. Here is another tip: bring as many people as you can with you. Dealers try to intimidate you and you need the back-up. My family didn't do any talking but having them there is good because now instead of me against the dealers (a losing battle), it's me and my family against the dealers which is an easier battle.

Second, NEVER negotiate the monthly payments of the car. Only negotiate the PRICE of the car itself. The reason is because it is much easier to negotiate the price of the car than monthly payments. If you negotiate monthly payments, it can get complicated with the dealer changing the amount of the months you will be financing which can become confusing. Once you agree on the price of the car, the monthly payments are easy to calculate.

Anyway, Chris started at $30,000. I told him that was too high and he came down rather quickly to $28,000. The fact that he gave a second number without me having to give him mine yet showed that he really wanted to sell and put me at an advantage. I knew I could get more out of him.

I then told him what I wanted the car for.... $26,000. I lowball on purpose knowing that I can't get that price because you have to think that we are going to meet in the middle. He left to "talk" to his supervisor or whatever they pretend to do and came back with $26,900....... but AFTER rebates.

He included the $1000 financing rebate and a $500 graduate rebate because I have a college diploma. I told him that he raised the price. Chris was confused because he insisted that $26,900 was less than $28,000. But then I pointed out that if you add the rebates back into the price, it came out to $28,400! So he actually raised the price and tried to make it seem like he lowered it. He then "realized" his mistake and made the appropriate changes. But the problem is that Chris seemed unsure if he could get me the graduate rebate so I refused the rebate. You might think it is stupid to turn away $500 but the truth is that if it fell through, I would have to go back and renegotiate and you NEVER want to go back to renegotiate if it can be helped.

Anyway, it seemed as if Chris wasn't going to move from $28,000. So I told him that 28,000 was the highest offer I had been given. He asked what was the best offer I was given. I lied and said 27,800. He asked why I didn't take it and I told him the other dealer didn't have a car to show me. So he said that he would give me the car for $26,800 after the $1000 rebate. In all honesty, I would have taken 28,000 but I just wanted to see if I could get him lower. In the end, I got him lower than all the other dealer quotes I got. Done deal!

Or you would think!

Financing

Chris brought along a friend with the monthly payments at a whopping $277 a month! He had added extras like extended warranty and such. I told him I didn't want that and then lowered the price to $232/month. I already knew my payments should be around $175. I told him that I didn't see the car price on the paper he was showing me and I didn't know where he was getting his numbers.

After some arguing he left and came back with $196/month. He said he did something wrong on his computer and apologized. I told him that it was still too high. And I would prove it by pulling out my cell and going to Edmunds.com and showing him the numbers. While I was doing this he said that the numbers were right and the deal was over.

My family and I were about to walk out when suddenly Chris stopped me and asked what my numbers were and how I got them. The fact that they stopped me told me that they didn't want me to leave. Them saying that the deal was over was an intimidation tactic to get me to cave in to their numbers. But I knew I was right because I did my homework.

Anyway, I explained and showed Chris my cellphone with all the numbers as I put them in. Chris said he'd show me his computer to show me his numbers. I agreed to look and we got stopped by a third employee. He asked me what I was financing and what I thought I was supposed to get. I told him and he left and came back with a piece of paper. He said $174 a month. Deal!

Then Chris and his financing buddy came back and said they don't know what happend to the computer but that I was right. The computer messed up.... yeah right.

So I ended up leaving with my car much cheaper than anticipated. $26,800 with $173/month! I put my address as my mom's house so my monthly payment came out cheaper by a buck because tax is cheaper in her area.

I was pretty happy and you think this would finally be all over.... It wasn't.

What could possibly happen more? I will go over that on my next blog with Part 3, the final part, of my car buying experience. If that isn't enough to tune in then I also have a bit of surprise announcement for next time that deals with E3! What could it be? I will tell you next time. ;)

Cosplayer of the Blog

Another blog, another hot cosplayer. If I don't find these then who will I ask? Today we got the lovely Princess Leia in slave garb. Wouldn't you love her helping you out at home? I know I would. I do it enough at work that I don't want to do it at home. :P

Thanks again for making another appointment with the Doctor's Prognosis! Next time I will have the 3rd and final part to my car buying experience and an announcement about E3 and.... me? Find out next time! ;)