Our second-oldest son, Tim, has been saving for a car since he got his first job about a year and a half ago. He and two of my other sons had attended FPU under duress (yes, I forced them 
), though they enjoyed it more than they’ll admit.
Tim has been looking hard for a particular sports car (Mitsubishi 3000GT.) He’s become a real authority on what they’re worth depending on condition, year, mileage, etc., and figured out exactly what he was willing to pay, leaving enough slack to do any needed repairs or upgrades he wanted. He’d saved up just over $7,000.
After a few false starts and a near-encounter with a scam, he found one at a nearby dealer for what looked like a very good “special sale” price. We had the car checked out by a mechanic and got a repair estimate on a few mechanical things, so when we took the car back to the dealer, Tim knew exactly what he’d need to put into in on top of the purchase price, and by that set his limit on what he would spend, which was about $500 less than the “sale” price on the car.
Our salesman, Ben, upon hearing that Tim really liked the car and wanted to buy it, went right into the financing pitch with me. I started to say something when Tim chimed in and said “No, we don’t need any of that; I’m paying cash.” Now, Tim has always been good with math and something of a miser with his money, but until this day I never realized just how closely he paid attention to the negotiating lessons in FPU. Right off he said “That price isn’t good enough. I won’t pay that. I’ve got to pay for repairs on this car. I need the price to be $4,000 for everything, including tax.” Ben just stopped and looked at him; it was priceless! Ben said, “Well, I can’t do that, but let me go talk to my manager to see if there’s anyway we bring the price down a little. This is a sale price already, you know.”
I felt a little sorry for Ben — Tim sent him back to the “manager” 4 times! After the first time, Ben’s apologized and said they couldn’t budge on the price. Tim reminded him that the car needs repairs (a bit more emphatically this time), and really isn’t worth what they’re asking, so could Ben please go check with the manager again.
While Ben was out Tim and I talked about this; Tim was firm; he wasn’t going to pay more than $4,000 – about $3,500 for the car, with the rest covering taxes, title, and dealer fees. All I said was “Go for it. It’s your money; do what you think is best for you.”
After the second time Ben came back with an offer of $4,250, which he thought was incredible, but of course still wasn’t good enough for Tim. Ben used the “Are you really going to let this car slip away for only $250?” line. To which Tim responded (almost verbatim here) “Are you really going to let this sale slip away for only $250?” Ben just smiled.
So back he went to the manager. After the third trip they were only $150 apart, and Ben insisted that they just could not go any lower, that they’d be losing money on the car, and that the manager just would not authorize anything less than $4,150 cash walk-off price. Tim stood up and said, “That’s too bad. Let’s go, Dad; we’re done.” I’ll bet we’d only moved two steps before Ben waived his hands in the air, pleading with us to sit back down.
So guess what? After the fourth trip to the “manager,” Ben came back in, shook Tim’s hand, and said, “I can’t believe it; you just bought this car for $4,000, everything included.”
I can’t tell you how proud I was (am!) of my kid. He used (a) the power of cash, (b) thorough product knowledge, (c) “that’s not good enough”, and (d) walk-away power. And most importantly, he kept his emotions in check the whole time. I’m telling you, he wanted that car; it’s really sweet. But at the dealership he stayed cool, calm, and in control.
And here I wondered if my teens were really getting anything out of FPU!