Put in this little extra effort when buying a new car and you will end up with a lot better deal and peace of mind

Hey, folks, Lenny Lawson here, the Car Guru.

Today I am on pickup duty at the elementary school.

Yes, it is my day to pick up three of the little rascals

at the same elementary school.

So I've always got to remember to get the little cards,

like my grandchildren's.

Well, two of them are Lawson's and the other one is a Nelson.

And I have to have their correct tags hanging

from my rear view mirror so that the lady that's

calling out the names can see it and then call out

my little Rugrats.

So, you know, it's fun.

You have to get there at a certain time,

and if you're not there early enough,

then you're way at the end of the line

and the grandkids get upset.

So you finally get up to the front and put it in park.

They open the doors, and they say, pop, pop,

because they're not expecting me.

They're thinking Nanny's going to be there.

So they're excited and said, where are we going?

And I know what that means, because they expect either a,

what is that place?

It's some type of a snow cone place

that I just don't get it, folks.

I'm sorry.

I mean, they just love them, though.

It's from some kind of New Orleans shaved ice

snow cone thing.

They just got to have it.

You know, I give them the choice.

How about Dairy Queen?

No, we want snow cones.

Are you kidding me?

You would rather have a snow cone

than a dip cone from Dairy Queen or a blizzard?

What's wrong with you?

Maybe it's a generational gap.

I don't know.

Who cares?

I just want them to be happy.

I want you to be happy, too.

I'm happy.

Well, I was not quite happy last night.

So I bought that 1957 Chevy Bel Air two-door hardtop.

I'm excited about it.

It's in, what was the name of that town?

Bloomington, Illinois.

And so I sent a guy after it

and he left real early this morning.

I think he said he left at 3.30 a.m.

That's early.

But I found out that there was a problem

with my bank wire.

Oh, we did everything right,

but the guy who gave us the numbers

from the other or from the dealership,

it's a Chevy dealership that has this 1957 Chevy

as part of their collection.

And they left off two digits of their bank account number.

So I'm glad it didn't go to somebody else's bank account.

See, whenever I buy a car or bring a trailer

or a sell a car on bringitrailer.com,

I always insist on a bank wire.

I don't want no checks.

Checks can be forged.

Even bank checks, like a certified bank check.

I don't trust them either.

So we wired the money, but it bounced back to us.

My wire didn't bounce.

It just, there was no such account.

So they rejected it.

So I get this email from my bank

stating that it was sent back.

And so they called me this morning and they said,

well, we'll do it again.

We got the right account number.

I said, well, good.

So they said, we have to send you another email

which you have to respond by saying approved.

And then one more step, we have to call you

and you have to acknowledge that it's okay to send the wire.

And I said, wow, extra step.

Didn't know that was going on.

Yeah, it's just, you know, bank fraud.

And we just want to make sure that we're sending,

if we send money out on your behalf

that it's going where it needs to go

and that you are authorizing it.

That happened one time to me several years ago.

I had a dishonest sales manager and I was on vacation

and he talked to my office manager

into sending a wire on his father's behalf

for this motor home that he was buying for his dad.

And so why she agreed to do that?

I have no idea.

I was at Hilton Head

and I guess she didn't want to bother me.

So he convinced her to send the wire.

And when I got back, they said,

they called me to the office and said,

Lane, we got a problem.

I know what that means.

This weath stuff.

Now, Lenny, you have a problem.

We sent $36,000 a year money to a bank account in Atlanta

and a motor home was supposed to show up on Saturday

and it never did.

So I said, well, can we reverse the wire?

And I did some checking.

Nope, it's gone.

So it was a fraud.

My sales manager apologized.

Thank you very much.

And he said his dad was gonna reimburse me.

So about three weeks later,

after I had to ask about 50 times,

when's the money coming?

His dad dies.

And that's bad enough.

So I gave him another month or so.

And then I said, what about the motor home money?

He said, well, I'll pay you back somehow.

And this was on a Friday, on Monday.

He didn't show up for work.

And I called him.

I said, where are you?

He said, well, I'm in Texas.

I said, Texas.

Yeah, I'm headed back home,

but I'll pay you back for that camper or that motor home.

No, never did.

So I sued him and I had to sue him in Arizona

because that's where he was going.

So I got judgment in Tennessee.

And then I had to hire a lawyer in Arizona

and domicile the case.

That's what they called it.

Domicile the case in Arizona,

which I did, that was several thousand dollars.

And then they found where he was working

and garnished his wages.

Two months later, he fouls bankruptcy.

I think I got two $900 payments on the 36,000.

I think it was 36,000.

That was it.

So even bank wires can be abused.

You just got to be careful with the money.

You also got to be careful

about buying something sight unseen.

This can be a big problem.

We'll talk about that here in just a minute.

Okay, I am back.

I've got this space in a 30,000 square foot building

that I own.

It's in a great retail location.

I operate a tractor and lawn mower business there.

We sell a lot of tractors, a lot of lawn mowers.

It's called Green Outdoor.

And so it's been a pretty good business.

I haven't lost too much money.

And I had a body shop tenant in there and he left.

He had to close up shop, couldn't make it.

So I just put it on Facebook and I got a call,

or not a call, but I got an instant message

through Facebook.

And this guy was interested in the space.

So I met him the other day and young guy,

he is operating a business in, well, let's say,

I would say 20 miles from here,

and he wants to really get serious

about the body shop business.

And he's been smart about it

and wants to lease the property on a short-term basis,

six months at first.

I said, fine, whatever.

And he wants to give it a try

and he's gonna pay rent, of course.

And so he wanted me to draw up

some type of an agreement.

I've drawn up a lot of agreements in my life.

I know how to draw them up.

So I drew up this lease agreement

and it was close to six pages long.

And quite frankly, I copied it off of the last lease

that I had with the previous tenant.

It's got all of the legal mumbo jumbo in there

that you need to protect yourself

that lawyers say you need to protect yourself.

But there's always some kind of a loophole.

So he said, when can I come sign the agreement?

I said, well, I want you to review it first.

Oh, okay.

So I sent it to him and sent it by,

let's see, I texted it to him

and that's what he wanted, so I texted it to him

and he called me back within like,

I don't know, three minutes.

Said, looks good to me.

Folks, you know, you just really need to take your time

when it comes to reading and signing documents.

Because I want him, I want to make sure

that we have a clear understanding.

My dad used to say, good fences make good neighbors.

And I always took that to mean that

if you want to have an agreement with another person,

a handshake is not good enough.

I know it should be, but it's not.

I've seen them fall apart too many times.

And if you're young and a trusting individual

and you just don't want to upset somebody, you know,

you don't want to hurt their feelings

by asking them to convert something to writing,

then you are being foolish.

And that is not the prudent thing to do.

You're not going to hurt somebody's feelings.

Well, you might just a little bit,

especially if they're close to you, you know,

like they're a cousin or your uncle.

But still, put things in writing

and they'll understand, say Lenny Lawson's dad

used to say, good fences make good neighbors.

So that's why we're going to do it.

What's that mean?

Well, it's just that, you know,

we know where the property line is

if you put up a fence.

And so I don't want any disputes in the future

between us.

I want to keep our relationship good.

So let's just putting in writing.

Fair enough.

If they're not willing to do that,

maybe you don't need to go into an agreement with them.

But this young man was willing to sign this lease

after reviewing it just for a few seconds.

Why do you think that is?

I think it's because he's slightly intimidated by me.

And of course, in person, you know,

I can understand why somebody might be intimidated by,

I don't know, a successful businessman

or somebody that they've seen on TV

or some of this stuff,

but that's just not a healthy mindset.

And I never want anybody to be intimidated by me,

especially going into a business transaction,

I want them to feel comfortable, be happy.

You know, if you're not feel comfortable,

ask questions, you know, get down to the brass tax.

And if you need time, then take it, think about it.

It's one of the most important things

that I think a car buyer can do is to,

well, if the dealership will let you take the car

on a test drive by yourself or keep it overnight

or something like that, that's great.

At least that way you get to see how it fits

in your garage, how it feels when you wake up

the next morning and you look out there,

do you feel good about it being there?

But the most important time for you to reflect

is once you know what the numbers are,

so that you can take that home and look at it

and think about it and ponder it.

Oh, if you don't buy it today,

that price will not be good tomorrow.

Bologna, it will be.

Now, you know, if it's the last day of the month

and a rebate is getting ready to drop off,

I'd verify that before I fell for that line.

But yeah, you need to think about it.

Get them to print out a copy of the contract,

do not sign it, make sure you have a copy

of the sales contract or buyer's order.

Take it home and review it and think about it.

If you still want that thing in the morning,

it'll be evident, you'll know it.

You know, sometimes here's the way it goes.

The excitement and exuberance of buying a new car

will overwhelm the logic when it comes to the numbers.

Emotion does that to people

that it makes them make bad decisions

or decisions that have not been thought out well enough.

So once you have both,

they may not let you take the vehicle home,

but once you have driven it enough

and you like the way it looks and feels

and you can see out of it, you can park it,

you know, it's quiet on the road,

all those different things that you look for.

Then you've got the paperwork in your hand

and you take that home and you think about it.

It's the best thing you can do.

You know, if you don't have that much time

and you're shopping for a car in the morning,

leave, take the paperwork with you, go out to eat,

you know, just look at it, read it, digest it,

along with your food.

Then go back a couple hours later and seal the deal.

If it works, if it doesn't work,

then just say, well, thank you for your time,

but we're gonna, we need more time

to think about this and process it.

You know, if the heat really comes,

if they really start pressuring you at that point,

then that might indicate that you're at the wrong dealership

because they're all different.

They're all independently,

well, not all of them are independently owned.

Some of them are owned by big corporations

and they own multiple dealerships.

Matter of fact, most car dealerships

are owned that way by large groups

and they might bring the heat.

If you, you know, start the back out of a deal

or you start to walk, you know, what's their fear?

Their fear is that you're gonna go somewhere else.

Go to another, let's say you're looking

at a Ford Bronco here.

I might be afraid you're gonna go to a Ford Bronco

at one of my competitors.

And, but that fear shouldn't impact you.

The free My Car Guru guidebook will insulate you

from that kind of pressure

because you know it's gonna come

and you know how to recognize it

when that manager that you haven't seen

all of a sudden shows up,

salesman, where'd the salesman go?

Where'd Bob go?

Well, Bob is over there taking a smoke break

while I come in here and try to close you.

Of course, he doesn't say that.

He says, how you doing folks?

I'm Harry and I just wanted to come in

and see what we needed to do to earn your business.

Well, we told Bob, we just wanted our car keys

so we could leave.

Well, I know you told Bob that,

but you know, I'm Bob's boss

and I just wanted to come in

and see if there's anything else we can do

to earn your business today.

Right now, do you feel the pressure?

You know, you don't wanna upset Bob or Harry,

but you really shouldn't care.

You should just get up.

If he keeps that up, say, excuse us.

And once you get your keys,

just get in your car and leave.

You know, this kind of heat is gonna come

at certain types of dealerships.

There's a few in the Tri-Cities, our market area,

that are that way.

They're the ones that have the most balloons up,

the most signs up, the slickest-looking salespeople.

You know, they're high pressure.

There's probably a money machine in the showroom

where you can jump in and grab for dollar bills.

They have tables all set up.

They have police tape.

You know, it's just like they're getting ready to close.

And there's a lot of energy

and they're announcing, Bob just bought a car,

you know, over the intercom system

and it's just a carnival atmosphere.

Get out of there.

Because if you don't, you're gonna end up buying a car

and you're gonna end up paying too much for it.

So that's why it's important.

You can slow it down at any time or stop it.

So let's say that you say, okay, we give up, we'll buy it.

The next step, I mean, you haven't bought anything yet.

The next step is you're gonna go into the finance office.

And there's that really slick talker

in the finance office at some places.

And he's gonna present you

with all kinds of beautiful options to buy certain things.

Extended warranties and gap insurance and mop and slop

is what they used to call it.

It's, you know, paint sealant and fabric shield.

You know, a lot of the products are, they're okay.

They're just overpriced

and they are negotiable by the way.

You know, somebody gives you a price on a warranty.

He may actually quote you a payment and say,

well, this includes an extended service contract

that will protect you up to six years or 150,000 miles.

Really?

And it's only $48 extra a month.

That sounds like a lot.

How many months are we financing?

Well, this is just 84 months.

Do the math on that.

So I'm not paying that for an extended service contract.

Lenny Lawson, the car guru said

that that was way too much.

Who's he?

Well, don't worry about that, but he says it's too much.

And we'd like to have it,

but we won't pay more than $2,000 for it.

That's it.

Well, I can't sell it to you for that.

Well, okay, then I won't buy it.

Now, at that point also, you can read the contract.

You can look at it and you can say, no, no,

not paying that much interest,

not doing that long of a term,

not buying all this extra stuff either.

And you're not giving me enough for my trade after all.

So we're just gonna leave.

See, that is not what they wanna hear at that point.

They think you've bought the car.

You're in the finance office.

Nobody comes out of the finance office

without having signed the paperwork,

at least that hasn't happened in the last couple of months.

You may be the first.

And if you thought the heat was hot before,

wait, do you see this heat?

Because then they're gonna start to act

a little angry in some case.

What do you mean you're backing out of the deal?

I mean, we had an agreement.

No, we really didn't.

I just don't feel good about it.

I wanna go home and think about it.

Let me ask you this.

Is it easier to go home and think about it

than to buy it like on a Friday or Saturday

and try to bring it back on Monday

after you've already signed all the paperwork?

That is DEF CON 4.

Is that the worst DEF CON?

Maybe DEF CON 1 is.

I don't know which is worse.

That's when the nuclear threat is really, really high.

They go to some DEF CON.

Well, that's DEF CON whatever in the car dealership.

Yeah, you try to bring a vehicle back on Monday

at some stores and it's like, oh no, no,

you can't back out of this deal.

We've already sent the paperwork to the bank.

We've already paid off your trade.

Matter of fact, some dealerships

will actually say, we even sold your trade in.

They didn't.

The contract is probably still in the office.

They could go right back in there and say, well, sure,

if you don't feel comfortable with this,

then we'll just grab that contract and tear it up

right here in front of you.

And we hope that you guys are happy,

but that's not what's gonna happen

because this isn't target.

This isn't Dick's Sporting Goods

where you just go back in and say,

you know, I really don't want this baseball glove.

Oh, it's not a problem.

Let me have your credit card number you receive.

No, it doesn't work that way.

You can have your contract and everything

and they're gonna say, no way

that we're giving you your money back

unless you come to me.

Because I've been through this more times than I could count

where a customer buys a car on Saturday

or Friday or Thursday even and comes back on Monday

and says, you know, I just,

we've really made a big mistake, what do we do?

And we talk it through, find out what exactly

they were trying to accomplish to begin with

and where did we go wrong?

And then I let them out of the deal

because what I have found in my life in general

and in the car business is that if you treat people

the way you want to be treated,

then there will be a reward.

And I would be willing to say that more than half

of the time that those people came back in a week

or a month or six months later

and said, you know, you were really nice to us

and we decided if we bought a car

we weren't gonna buy it from anybody else, but you.

And that's the way it works.

If you take care of people the way you want

to be taken care of, then you will be rewarded.

Not by all of them, but by enough.

Okay, I'll take my last break,

I'll be back here in just a minute.

Okay, if you want the MyCarGuru guidebook

which is absolutely free, it's 32 pages long,

I can print it out for you and mail it to you

or better yet, send me your email address, text it to me.

My cell phone number is 423-552-2020,

it's the only cell phone that I have.

Or you can email me, lennielawson2020 at gmail.com

and I'll send you a PDF, you know what that is?

It's a digital, some kind of a digital thing,

but you'll be able to open it up

and you'll be able to read MyCarGuru guidebook

and print it out on your own.

Roll it up, stick it in your glove box

and when you get ready to do something,

like buy a car, sell a car,

all the different things that you can do in your car life.

Just pull it out, read that section

and you will be insulated from a bad car deal.

Well thanks for listening to this edition of MyCarGuru

and I will see you next time.

Put in this little extra effort when buying a new car and you will end up with a lot better deal and peace of mind

Chevrolet Bel Air

Ford Bronco

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