TAKING THE BAIT

I mentioned in an earlier post that we are thinking of buying another car. We live about a half hour from town in an area that has no public transport so a reliable vehicle is a necessity. Initially I was thinking of a replacement vehicle but having one car between the two of us can pose problems. The Old Girl is driving to Auckland next week and will stay there for a week leaving me with no vehicle - stranded. Now, while this isn't often the case it does create inconvenience hence the thought that a second car might be a good idea.

The other consideration leading me tho think this is that the resale or trade in value of our current very reliable car is likely to be quite low given that it has a few dents and scratches. It's a 2016 Toyota Corolla hatchback with low mileage and is likely to run well for years with proper servicing so it'd be a shame to sell it off cheap.

We are looking to buy a hybrid vehicle as we don't want to go the full plug in electric way and have been checking out Toyota options with a view to buy maybe at the end of the year. The Toyota Corolla Cross appeals to us.

Last week I saw an advertisement for another car brand advertising ex-demonstrator cars including a couple of hybrid models. The advertisement had local contact details so I applied for information on-line. I was interested because back in 2007 we bought an ex-demonstrator car, a sporty Peugeot, that was virtually brand new having only just over a thousand kms on the clock and was thousands of dollars cheaper than the 'off the showroom floor' ones. The next day I received a phone call from a salesman for the local dealer. In conversation he told me that they did not have any ex-demonstrator cars but was keen to show me the new ones and to discuss my requirements. No mention of any deals was made. I said I'd think about it and maybe get back to him.

After I concluded the call I wished that I'd told him that I wasn't happy with the 'bait' advertising that they'd done - advertising product they didn't have to draw interested people in. Today I received another call from the same guy. I flat out told him that we weren't interested and were going to stay with Toyota. When he asked why I told him that the bait advertising they used pissed me off and was misleading. The guy made lots of excuses saying that the advertising was national and that the company was clearing out ex demonstrator stock to make way for the new year models but that there were none in Whangarei. I in turn reminded him that the advertisement I responded to was in the local press and had Whangarei contact details. He then had the cheek to say that he had tried to get me interested in a new model with the intention of then discounting it back to the price of an ex-demonstrator. I was flabbergasted and asked him why the hell he didn't say that at the time. It was obvious that he was full of bullshit so I ended the call.

I'm annoyed by this and, while Hyundai is a trusted brand and I had a Hyundai Santa Fe as a company vehicle in 2008 I will not consider this brand in future.