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  • 96 Comments
Joined 4 months ago
Cake day: May 26th, 2024
  • ValenThyme@reddthat.comtoNews@lemmy.world•A Student Kicked A Field Goal To Win A Car, The Dealership Tried To Weasel Out Of ItEnglish
    121·
    6 days ago

    I hate them, but if you treat it like a game and operate within their rules it can be fun instead of a pain. I think if it a lot like poker. I sure would bluff my own grandma to win a pot. Same thing in car buying. They aren’t your friends but your adversaries.

    I have bought 7-8 cars of my own over the years and helped 4 friends buy cars because they know I love doing it.

    First, if at all feasible bring several thousand dollars cash, no matter what your goal is. When you buy a car without cash the sales people get their cut at the end of the month in a lot of places but if your cash down payment is large they will usually get their cut immediately and this puts them a little more on your side at the close. Make sure you show them the cash when you’re safely doing a test ride and tell them you want to give it to them! Don’t do this if you can’t do it while feeling safe i’m very large and do car shopping mostly in big safe city areas.

    Second, don’t ever fall in love with a car. You always have to be prepared to walk away from a bad deal. And in fact you will find that your willingness to walk away can often get you a better deal. I balked once over a $300 dealer fee, that only popped up while signing paperwork. They bitched at me, a lot, (we had been at the deal for about five hours) but they got the fee worked off.

    Third, do not ever let them get you into the ‘four square’ that’s a suckers game. Negotiate the price of the vehicle directly or go to another dealership that will. I have been forced to leave when the sales guy told me flat out the four square was a requirement at their dealership. Smart for them but lame for you it’s like playing a complicated game for the first time against someone who plays it many times a day and is hugely financially incentivized to confuse you with it. Refuse it.

    If you are buying a new car (which i don’t really recommend) wait until they have given you the absolute rock bottom lowest price. Then tell them that you think there’s still a little room. On speakerphone call other dealerships in your area and tell them the price you’re getting offered on that exact make and model. If it’s actually a good price they will tell you they can’t beat it. I have been invited across town to save $1,000, whereupon the now angry sales manager agreed to match that price. You gotta do it on the speakerphone with them hearing the better offer though or you’ll have to drive to the other dealership. They have heard that ‘it’s $1000 cheaper over on the eastside’ before.

    Don’t be rude, don’t be an intentional dick, but play their sleezy game with their rules and you can save a lot of money.

    It’s a shitty system that should be abolished.

  • ValenThyme@reddthat.comtoShowerthoughts@lemmy.world•Why don't humans have paw feet?English
    18·
    1 month ago

    personal anecdote; I spent a year barefoot as a teen after dropping out of high school. The only time I had anything on my feet was orthodontist visits they said i couldn’t go on without flip flops but nowhere else cared.

    After about a year of this the callous on the bottom of my feet was so thick i could walk a few hundred meters on summer asphalt without a break and once got a small square of windshield glass embedded in my foot and it just plucked right out and left a square hole, zero pain at all. The pads were about 3/4 cm thick at the ball of my foot and 1/2cm at the heel.

    I did this after reading about this effect in a book and wanting to see if it was true and it really was!

    edit: also if you try this i should mention that your feet pads turn black and are impossible to clean really just get to a less dark black. most other people find this offputting.

    cw: gross, blood

    Tap for spoiler

    don’t read this part if you’re squeamish

    I would often have to pick tiny rocks and slivers of metal out of my feet when I did this because I walked to my friends house all summer and there was no sidewalk so it was on the streets.

    So i had my dad’s tools like these little snippers and needle nose pliers to grab the stuff and pull it out. So one day i’m like picking at my toe where the callous is really deep and I see something black embedded in it so I start digging for it. And damn this one is deeper than most I’m snipping into the toe deeper and deeper with the metal snippers and i can’t quite reach it and it’s starting to get to sensitive tissue.

    And that’s when I snip some little blood vessel in my toe that i had mistaken for embedded road debris. Ooze not squirt so i suppose it was just a big old capillary but oof it hurt and was a mess and that was the end of my messing around with my feet I started wearing shoes and socks again after that!

    Thank you for reading my barefoot memoirs 😂🦶