[njsteve]

Oh, I love when they do that.

At that point I know inside I won't buy anything from them but I then make it my single-minded goal to waste their time for as long as humanly possible. I'm really good at it too: I pride myself on the fact I was once threatened with a trespassing arrest if I didn't leave the dealership after 6 hours of "negotiations".

It was actually the first real date my wife and I went on. She needed to buy a replacement for her 1980's Dodge 2.2 Charger down in Florida. We found a VW Jetta at a local Dodge dealer used car lot. They wanted $8,995 for. All she had in her savings was $4,500 and her old 2.2 Charger which was barely worth $350 (no A/C and 200,000 miles).

I drove them nuts. Everytime they brought a new offer back from the back room I would get out my giant Sharpie and cross out their numbers and replace them with mine. They always love using those thick Sharpie markers - like it gives them some "look, mine is bigger than yours" mojo. HA!

Anyway after 6 hours I had them down to $5,005 dollars and we still refused, saying all she had was $5,000. That's it. They then tried the divide and conquer scenario, asking her what kind of man wouldn't loan his girlfriend $5 to buy a car. She looked at me and then looked at him and laughed. (That's when I knew she was a keeper). At that point they said that we should leave or they'd call the cops on us.

That's when we took the $5,005 deal. It was a great car too. Coldest A/C I've ever experienced in a car.

We made them so crazy that in the ensuing 5 years we bought six new Dodges from them, including my original 1993 Viper and a 1996 Viper as well as a Ram diesel dually and several Intrepids for my kinfolk up north. The original salesman we tortured and I, ended up coming to an understanding. Whenever he saw me coming in the door, he would just set aside a table, leave all the blank forms there and dealer info and let me fill it out. He ended making quite a bunch of money from us (via dealer incentives and holdbacks and the $500 over cost I would write in).

I miss that salesguy. The dealership was Tom Edwards Dodge in Lakeland Florida. I even put their decal on the back of my 93 Viper race car as an unofficial sponsor. I think they closed in 2009 when Chrysler pulled franchises from the little small town dealers across the nation.