Heart vs. Head--A buyers guide

"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94) 09/14/2015 at 10:30 • Filed to: Pointless stuff

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OK, not a guide. But a buyers perspective/reflection doesn’t have quite the same ring...

Whenever one goes to buy a vehicle (or anything, for that matter), there is a struggle between the heart and the head. How many of you have almost made a terrible decision because you let yourself get your heart set on something? Trick question, all of you. You’re on Oppo after all.

It’s easy to say what everone says about a car purchase (that’s why everyone says it—duh!), that you should take your time, do your research and buy something that suits your current needs, something you can afford. How very responsible. Responsibility is soooooo boring isn’t it. Sure, we could all go out and do that. Your local Toyota dealer would love it for sure. Or, in future, Google. But we all (on here, don’t call me out on this because some people buy Camrys) want something interesting , something special , something that can be one day uniquely ours. What’s more, we’re willing to pay for it.

Personal Experience #1 (well, chronologically #2, but screw you.), the “falling in love” trap

I finally found a truck close to what I wanted in budget, and went to check it out. It was a piece of shit. Yet for some reason, I didn’t care. Tailgate hinges were rusted, but the dealer promised to fix them. There was body rust (but it was cheap!!). It didn’t have anything on it (except 4x4!!! good enough). It was the wrong engine (but I can do it up!!! I’d do that anyway, then it will be unique!!!). I bought it (sort of). Insurance, strangely, saved me that day. I assumed, because it was the same generation as other trucks I had quoted that it would be affordable. It wasn’t. I called the dealership, went over everones head to the owner. He was a decent guy and let me back out. The last part can be a lesson as well—if you find yourself stuck, always ask. The worst they can say is no. Oh, and always go for the decision maker.

Personal Experience #2, the “it seems to be everything I ever wanted, gib plox” trap (aka see everything in person)

This seems an obvious one. One of the first words of advice you will get is to see everything in person, and it’s totally logical. Your heart, however, is not logical. Ever wonder why those craigslist/kijiji/insert site of choice scammers keep trying? One would think there could hardly be enough people stupid enough to fall for those to make it worthwhile even trying. I mean, as soon as you see the return email reading like a script from what you supposed to be a private seller, the red flags (should) go up. Well, guess what. Those guys aren’t going for your head. They’re going for your heart. They pick all the juicy options to add to their fake cars, and pick a price near the bottom of the price range the vehicle in question is going for. Make note of this. The cheapest (genuine) vehicles on the site will be base models with high miles. Their fake vehicles will be midrange with miles on the low side of average. This will cast doubt on the scamminess of the ad. The heart sees this and it says “stupid seller” rather than “SCAMSCAMRUNF*CKSCAM”, just because it’s close enough that it seems possible. Then, having (hopefully) gotten you to form an emotional bond with it, they will wait a few days to get you more entrenched in your plans for the car. The plan is to get your hopes way up for the vehicle, and that by keeping you waiting, you will move quickly when they get back to you (it’s priced so low, it won’t last long!!!). Now I don’t consider myself a gullible person, but I was close to falling for one of these. It had everthing I wanted, and no drawbacks. What saved me this time? First red flag: no drawbacks. If there are no issues, there’s a price to match, usually. Of course this is a risk they have to take, since they want you to bond with it sight unseen. Second red flag: he “could not meet me in person” because he was “deployed in iraq”. Third red flag: The vehicle was in Thunder Bay. He had it listed in Toronto, and said he had won a promotional shipping deal, so that wasn’t a problem. By now, you’re saying, come ON smallbear, there’s no way you were still going to go for this. But I was... sort of. I sent him another email asking for pictures, still holding out hope. I got the standardized scammer reply along the lines of “thank you for your continued interest (come on dude, you aren’t pretending to be a dealer here) please give me your home address and payment details so I can arrange shipping. Yet, despite this blatently obvious email, I still wanted the truck. I entered his email address in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , not because I wanted to find the name, but because I was still hoping he was genuine. Luckily, he was already there. So, yeah. If you’re looking for a vehicle, don’t make plans until you see it. It’ll help keep your heart in check.

Now, on the other side of the coin...

Buying with your head is, by any measurable way, what you should be doing. Can I afford it? Will it be reliable? How many boxes of frozen body parts can I fit in the trunk? However, if you do this, you end up with a Prius V. If I had used only my head when buying a vehicle, I’d have driven it into a pole withing 2 weeks and claimed somebody cut me off, therefore getting the insurance money to buy something else. That’s not a smart thing to do.

Basically what I’m saying here is, buying with your heart is never a good idea. But, no matter how times you get told to buy with your head only, really buying with your head involves buying something your heart can live with, too.

For those of you who made it this far, well done!!! I’m pretty sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but I felt like writing something today. And it’s given me a chance to share some experiences, so win for me. You don’t like it?

jk, I doubt anyone cares :)

bob and john > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 09/14/2015 at 10:35

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thunder bay car? shoot my an adress and I can go check it out for yea :D

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > bob and john 09/14/2015 at 10:38

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If it existed maybe. The only reason it "was" in thunder bay was to make it hard to check up on. And if you ever get an email back from shanekellarinsert#here@whatever.com , drop it like it's turned to lava.