6-29-12 Friday (Stairs Are Good For You)

So the car shopping experience continues.  You can refresh your memory here if you’d like.  We’ll have to move on without you though.

Last I told you:  “…We finally said $150 a month, $1500 down.  Final offer.  They said no, we left.  We weren’t really looking for a car that day.  We told them to call us if they need that extra sale for the end of the month at our price.”

I received an email from the salesman we were dealing with who also happened to be the sales manager: “… I've got some great news for you.  I can do the lease on your terms.  Let me know when you would like to pick the vehicle up.”

Short, simple and to the point.  I guess they need the sale for the end of month numbers.  Working in the car business for so long I know that sometimes taking a loss on 1 vehicle will increase revenue on the others.  Many manufacturers pay the dealers “stair step money”.  An excerpt from Edmunds:

“What's a stair-step incentive? In simple terms, it's a manufacturer-to-dealer incentive that's tied to sales volume. For instance, an automaker might pay a dealership $500 if they sell 10 vehicles while a stair-step program is in effect. However, if that dealership sells 20 units, it might earn $1,000 per unit. More aggressive programs will even compensate dealers retroactively, such that the aforementioned $500 could be paid out even for the first 10 vehicles sold, not just those sold after the quota is reached.”

The great thing is they’ve also offered us a 24 month or 36 month lease for the same.  I think we’ll go with the 24 month.

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After work we picked up the RV, parked it in our drive way (won’t the neighbors be thrilled).  We’re starting the process of dewinterizing, cleaning it, reorganizing it, etc.  I’d like to thoroughly vacuum, steam clean the carpets, and clean it top to bottom.  We removed some clothes we stored in there (they shrunk and we don’t fit into them anymore).  We had a lot of repairs and maintenance done.  Reseal the roof, generator muffler repair, carpet repair, fuel filter, etc. 

You might remember that back in April we went to the RV to get it ready for repairs but it wouldn’t start.  We also spotted a water leak.  I had mentioned that we were over it and wanted to sell it.  One of the big reasons was a windshield repair.  I hadn’t blogged about it previously due to possible insurance reasons but both windshields actually popped out at the top.  You could see frickin’ daylight shining through.  Jim found it by seeing mold and water spots all over the dashboard.  That’s what had pushed us over the edge.

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Tonight we went to The Scorpio.  It’s a huge gay bar in Charlotte.

We’re RuPaul Drag Race fans and we loved Pandora Boxx.  The Scorpio has had many of the contestants from the show.  The show was supposed to start at 11.  As typical, it didn’t start till midnight.  I hated the “dance music”.  It seemed to have been mostly rap with heavy beats.  I miss dance music.  The show was good but when it was over, I was ready to get out of there.  It was 1am.  I had 4 Amaretto Sours.  I was pretty lit.  On the way home Jim suggested Waffle House.  It was very busy so we went to McDonald’s.  This really capped off the night to bringing back memories of going clubbing and eating bad foods at late hours. 

After we ate we went to bed.  First we made sure that the room would be as dark as possible.  Most of the time I can’t sleep passed 7am so I needed to do all I could to try. 

Tomorrow we’ll pick up the car.