If we don't buy a car today, there will still be cars to buy

Brian and I are in the market for a new car. New as in not currently owned by us, not new as in a 2009 model. We have never gone through the car buying experience before, so Saturday we thought we would just get our feet wet and go visit a couple of dealerships. We had no intention of bringing home a car, just wanted to feel it out. We did know enough not to act too excited about any car.

The first dealership we went to was a Ford dealership. We are interested in getting a Focus, we told them. But there we acted too unexcited. The car salesman hardly said a word, and we had not thought ahead about what kind of questions to ask, so we were there just a few minutes staring at random cars in awkward silence. We spent more time getting Joshua bundled up in the stroller, than we did actually looking at cars.

The next dealership we went to was a Honda dealership. They were super nice there. When we came and when we were leaving the sales manger came out to talk to us. Didn't pressure us at all, just asked what we were looking for, and took our name and number in case something came in. Unfortunately everything there was out of our price range. But if the only difference between two cars was the dealership, we would have bought the car from there.

On the way home we stopped by a Hyundia dealership. Now with the first two dealerships the salesmen worked both the used cars and the new cars. Here we ended up in the new car section. The salesman started asking us how much we wanted to pay per month. We said we didn't look at the monthly payments, we look at the price of the car. He kept trying to get a number out of us, and then I asked if there were any used cars. He all of the sudden got an annoyed look on his face and pointed to a used car lot next door and told us to drive over there. I didn't want to put Joshua back in the car for 30 seconds, so we left our car in his lot and just walked over there.

At the used car lot we met the sterotypical used car salesman. We told him what we were looking for a reliable car that got good gas mileage. He walked inside to get a key to a "perfect car", and then came out and started showing us every random car in our price range. The cars were not at all what we were looking for. One was kind of close, and he wanted us to drive it. We were starting to get ancy and wanted to leave. Then he took us to the "perfect car". We said we were not planning on buying a car today. He told us we needed to drive the "perfect car". We said that we needed to leave soon, and we were just looking today anyway. He told us that since these were used cars that they would not necessarily be there next time. He kept hounding us acting like if we did not buy that car today, we would never have the chance to buy another car.

We just left because Joshua needed to eat anyway, but this is what I would have liked to tell him. Mr. Salesman, if we do not buy a car today, it will be okay. There will still be cars to buy in a week, even in a month. If we do not buy a car today, we will not be stuck going back to horse and buggy. No we will be fine and will be able to buy a car when we are ready.