Category Archives: Market
This has been mentioned a couple of times around here, usually in the comment section, but I thought I would devote an entire post to the subject. If you are paying for insurance on your cell phone, stop. If you are offered insurance on your phone, decline. Optionally, give the sales person a dirty look for asking. Not too dirty, though, because he’s probably required to ask.
The basic premise behind cell phone insurance is the same for any other insurance on a physical item. You pay a monthly fee and in return, if something happens to your phone, they replace it. Actually, they won’t necessarily replace it. They will replace it with a phone of “equal or greater value.” And you’ll have to pay a deductible that could be more than the cost of replacing the phone on your own.
The problem with the phone of equal or greater value is that you have no control over what kind of phone they will replace it with. Sometimes, without realizing it you chose the specific phone you did for a reason. It felt good in the hand. It had a particular feature or game on it. This is if you’ve got a regular phone. If you have a smartphone, chances are the particulars on the phone (slide-out keyboard or no, operating system, etc) were chosen with some degree of care. The phone you get is anybody’s guess. If you wanted one with a good camera but they decide that a bad camera plus a more storage space (that you would have gotten in the first place if you needed it) means “equal or greater value,” you’re stuck. Even if you actually get a better phone, you can still get burned. Those extra chargers you bought for your previous phone? Incompatible because they switched brands on you or your band changed their proprietary interface.
I had a Nokia phone that I liked just fine until I dropped something on it and it broke. They replaced it with a Motorola. The chargers were incompatible, but more than that I just didn’t like the thing. I can’t even tell you why. My dislike of it was almost immediate. I would not have bought it in the store. But I had no choice. When it died six months later, it was a happy day. Even though most phones come with a 1-year warranty, it apparently doesn’t count if it’s a refurb, which is what you typically get through the insurance policy. I didn’t care, though, because this gave me the ability to buy a phone that I actually wanted. Nokia had upgraded their chargers, though, so I had to buy chargers all over again.
Here is what I should have done: forget the insurance. If my phone breaks, I go out and I buy another one. You can get used cell phones really cheap on eBay. Yeah, it’s used, but so was the phone you broke. If you’re not a smartphone guy, you can get a new phone for less than $30 (no contract), which is less than the $35 deductible. Or you can get the exact same model you had before so everything works.
If you’re buying a more expensive phone, it may be more tempting because you’re going to take a bigger hit if you have to replace it. You’re not going to be able to buy a smartphone for $30. But the more you do on a phone, the more important it is that you have the phone you want. At the bottom end, the difference between one phone and the next is relatively small. Even though I never liked the Motorola phone, it never occurred to me to just junk it and replace it. Give me a smartphone that can’t do what I want it to do or doesn’t have the features I want and I would do just that.
When they give you a new phone, they explain that they don’t have your current model “in stock.” They do this even if your current phone is still being sold by the provider! What I’m relatively sure they do is order a bunch of phones in bulk of one model per price area and simply use that to replace any phones in that price bracket. Economically, it makes sense, but they’re not up front about it and the result is costumers thinking that they’re buying something that they’re not.
My story may be an unusual one, but I don’t think it is. The same thing happened to Web and a couple other people I know. In fact, nobody I know has ever had insurance replace their phone with their phone.
Save the money and simply prepare yourself to take the hit. If your phone breaks, look at it as an opportunity reassess your cell phone needs.
Liz Pulliam Weston has a list of things that you should buy used and new.
From the “Don’t Buy New” list:
1. Books – Agreed. Unless there is something that you’re seriously itching for that’s new, buying used is as close to a no-brainer as it comes.
2. CDs and DVDs – This can be risky because scratches can disrupt the play. Further, it can be a bigger problem finding what you want. The savings are also not that great. To pick a random example, if you go to Amazon.com, Chris Isaak’s seminal Forever Blue is $3-4 used (including shipping), $6-10 new (including shipping), and $10 for the MP3s (no shipping). If you want to haggle over a couple bucks, go for it. But there’s something to be said for getting a nice, new CD.
3. Kids’ Toys – Not a good idea for gifts, but the rest of the time probably not a bad idea.
4. Jewelry – If you’re buying for yourself, sure. Buying it for a loved one can be risky.
5. Sports equipment – Check!
6. Timeshares – Now there’s an interesting idea. Not sure timeshares would be my thing, but I don’t know it would have occurred to me to buy used.
7. Vehicles – This probably deserves a post of its own. In the meantime, there are more reasons to buy a new car than the new car smell. For most people, buying used is the more economical thing. However, we make money to spend it on things. The money spent on a new car is not entirely wasted, depending on what your priorities and options are. Unless your car is important to you in a non-utilitarian way or you’re hyper-worried about reliability, though, I agree.
8. Software and console games – Same issue as with the DVDs. The two used Playstation games I bought used did not work out. At all. Getting half off isn’t necessarily worth it if you have to buy it twice.
9. Office Furniture – I bought a used office chair once that spilled grease all over my carpet. Office furniture can also be one of those personal things where you have a strong preference for one or the other. Otherwise, though, getting used isn’t a bad idea.
10. Hand Tools – Okay.
From the “Don’t Buy Used” list:
1. Laptops – Actually no. If you don’t need a particularly powerful laptop, you can get a used one for 20% of the price of a new one. When companies upgrade, you can buy their old ones through intermediary and they’re often really good laptops replaced for no reason but their age. If it breaks? You can get another. Or you can learn how to replace parts. If you need a more powerful laptop, you can also get some good refurbished ones. Even without warranties, it can still be a pretty good deal. I’ve bought several used Thinkpads for myself and others and they have all worked out splendidly. A lot of the time, Weston is right. But it depends on what you need.
That’s actually the one one on that list that I take issue with.
Farhad Manjoo suggests six ways to improve our cell phone industry in the United States. Most are hard to disagree with, but I found one:
You have the right to unlock your phone. When you get a phone as part of a new cell plan, there’s a good chance that Verizon, Sprint, or whoever else has “locked” the device. This means that the phone won’t work on another carrier. The companies do this because they want to recoup the subsidy you’re getting for buying a phone along with a cell contract. For instance, AT&T gives you a price break on the iPhone when you sign up for two years of AT&T service (the full price of a 16GB iPhone 3GS is $599, but you pay only $199 when you sign the contract). Because it’s helping you pay for your device, AT&T locks the phone so that you can’t take it to a rival like T-Mobile.
Sometimes I get the feeling that when people say things like “Oh, I wish that our cell phone system were more like the rest of the world’s with open standards,” they’re kind of thinking that they’ll get to stick it to AT&T. In reality, they’re sticking it not to AT&T, which is already close to being there, but to the much-celebrated Verizon.
If it weren’t Manjoo and if he didn’t hone in on AT&T and T-Mobile, I would suspect that he didn’t know what he was talking about. But he does and I believe he’s being disingenuous. You see, Manjoo is an iPhone user and iPhone users by default have to believe the worst of AT&T. AT&T locks their phones and that is unconscionable. Ergo, the government should force AT&T (and T-Mobile) to unlock their phones.
What he’s leaving out is that Verizon, which all right-thinking iPhone users love, and Sprint and most carriers who are not AT&T or T-Mobile don’t use SIM cards and their phones technologically cannot be unlocked. So what Manjoo would do is punish the evil AT&T and (innocent bystander) T-Mobile. Verizon, meanwhile, would get a free pass. Further, it would be punishing AT&T and T-Mobile for using a more open standard over the closed one that Verizon uses.
If we really want open cell phones like they have in Europe and the rest of the world, we sould not be punishing GSM networks like AT&T and T-Mobile, but would rather be punishing CDMA networks like more-or-less everybody else. The law would not say then that “If you use SIM cards, you must allow unlocked phones” but rather “If you make and market phones in the United States, they must be GSM-compatible and must be able to be unlocked.” That way, makers of CDMA phones would have to include GSM capability in addition to CDMA capability. This would be a logistical challenge and would make the phones more expensive. This would be unfair to Verizon and Sprint and generous to AT&T, but it would be rewarding AT&T for doing something good and right and decent (which I know is against the rules because they’re mean to iPhone users).
It would strongly incentivize switching over to GSM or some sort of open technology. Now, Verizon is moving from CDMA to LTE. LTE is a more open standard akin to GSM, but it can be made proprietary. You can absolutely bet that if carriers with open-standard networks are met with a burden that those with proprietary standards are not, not only will Verizon go as proprietary as they can but AT&T and T-Mobile (also moving to LTE) will do the same. I agree with Manjoo that a law should be passed or a regulation put in place, but I think it should be one far more aimed at Verizon, Sprint, and the other CDMA carriers. Even if that means being nice to AT&T.
However, the counterargument to such a law is very clear. Essentially, opponents will be able to say “But the phones will cost more!” because, well, they will. If you can take my AT&T phone and walk it over to T-Mobile, AT&T is either going to stop subsidizing your phones or they are going to ramp up their cancellation fees big time. And who could blame them? They helped you buy their phone. So get used to the idea of a cell phone costing $600 instead of $200. Personally, I think this is a positive development. However, a lot of non-geeks would rather have their phone paid for. At the very least, you’re going to have to let the carriers keep a phone locked for the duration of the contract.
By the way, they can’t even do that now. At least not with devices made by companies not named Apple.
When they talk about how mean AT&T locks their phones, let’s be upfront about something. They’re not talking about AT&T locking phones; nobody is talking about anything but the iPhone. You want to know how much it’s going to cost me to unlock my HTC model? $3. It’s not even a question of whether AT&T will let me do it or not and in fact sometimes they will help. I would be doing so through an intermediary with HTC, the phone’s manufacturer. If you can’t do that with the iPhone, look not to AT&T but to Apple. And before we start talking about how the meanies at AT&T won’t let them because AT&T is holding the phone hostage, remember that Apple was the one that lined their pockets with that deal. We know they didn’t have to because Apple’s competitors did and do not concede exclusivity. Sure, AT&T paid Apple a pretty penny to prevent things like that happening. But it was Apple that took the money and pocketed it. They certainly didn’t pass the savings on to you.
Meanwhile, it’s White Knight Verizon that has locked phones that cannot be unlocked under any circumstances.
Anyone have any brand and model HDTVs to endorse? It’s kind of high on our list of things to get when the money starts rolling in (don’t worry, a big chunk of it is going right into savings). I’m looking for somewhere in the ballpark of 32″ to 42″. That’s a big ballpark, I know. I’m indecisive. Extra points for TVs with good 180 degree visibility and particularly for TVs with minimum glare as the TV will be facing a window.
Since getting booted off AT&T, I am a free agent for the first time in my life when it comes to cell phone plans. Though each time I moved (up until the Cascadia move) I kept changing carriers, I always beelined to AT&T because I’ve always been reasonably satisfied with them and they’ve been the devil I’ve known. More recently I’ve decided to stick with AT&T because they use a GSM-SIM network and so I am not locked into a pre-authorized phone.
Now, of course, I am off AT&T for the time being. My initial thought was that I would walk straight over to Verizon. Verizon, of course, boasts the best network in the country. They also have the Motorola Droid phone. With Windows Mobile sadly going the way of the dodo, I have decided that Android is likely where I will depart to and the Droid is the gold standard right now for Android phones.
I had some trepidation about going over to Verizon. The main reason for this is that Verizon, like Sprint, uses CDMA phones. What that means is that if you buy one of their phones, you will never be able to use it on another network. This is in contrast to GSM networks, which are based on SIM cards that are transferrable from one carrier to the next. GSM carriers do tend to lock their phones down in an effort to prevent you from doing so, but for a small fee you can (with the exception of the iPhone) usually unlock the phone with minimal intrusiveness (compared to, say, jailbreaking an iPhone). Beyond that, though, you don’t have to buy a phone from the provider nor do you have to buy one associated with the provider. Verizon and Sprint, on the other hand, can much more easily refuse to activate any phone that isn’t theirs. As such, they can more-or-less require that you buy a phone from them (that won’t work for anyone else) for an outrageous price or for a lesser price with a burdensome contract.
In the end, though, I wasn’t going to let my ideology get in the way of practicality. I may not like the Verizon arrangement, but if they can offer me something that nobody else can (a national network, in this case, and the Droid), I’ll make due.
Three things changed my mind about Verizon. First, their rates are high. Much higher than any of the other carriers in the area. With the other carriers, it depends on what precisely you want as to whether or not it will cost you more or less than the others. Except Verizon, which is always higher. At least in my usage bracket. Second, and this is a relatively minor point, the Droid has some hardware/software limitations that my current phone does not and I am less enthusiastic about what was Verizon’s biggest selling point. And if I really want, I can get a Droid-equivalent SIM phone anyway.
The third thing was the biggest thing. I had been able to dismiss the practical sides of my ideological opposition to the way that Verizon does business by figuring that I can put up with a bad carrier and a required data plan for a one-year contract. But I then discovered that Verizon will not let you out of the data plan as long as you have a smartphone whether you are under contract or not. That means that if I ever want to get rid of my data plan (which I’m not sure I even want in the first place), I have to (a) get a new phone which requires a new contract, and/or (b) carry around a Pocket PC in addition to my cell phone. I did (b) for a while and I don’t want to go back to it because I am unreliable at remembering both and it’s my cell phone (the more important of the two) that I more typically forget. More than that, though, I resent being forced to make that choice. AT&T doesn’t make me do that unless they subsidize my phone (which is more than fair) and even then only the term of the contract. Nor do either of the other carriers.
The fourth and last thing that changed my mind about Verizon was finding out that AT&T is buying itself into my market. By the end of the year, they will have purchased Galaxy Mobile, one of the regional carriers, pending FTC approval. That means that the one year contract that Verizon requires would make it that much longer until I can switch back to AT&T when they come to town.
The other two options, however, both give me considerably more flexibility. Galaxy is being bought out by AT&T and so if I go with Galaxy I will be able to switch over to AT&T as soon as I want, assuming the sale goes through. In fact, I will be forced to switch. That’s the downside. Galaxy is presently a CDMA carrier and I would have to buy a phone just to use in the interim. To buy a Galaxy-compatible HTC Fuze (which is what I own now) will cost about $150 and Clancy’s phone will cost an additional $50. Or I can just get a cheapo phone to tide me over, but (a) I don’t know how long it will take before I can go back to my Fuze and (b) I’ll have to carry a Pocket PC and a cell phone in the meantime, which I don’t like and I’m not good at.
But of the three local carriers, it is Galaxy that had the best sales pitch. A good enough sales pitch that even if they weren’t bought out by AT&T, they would probably be getting my business despite the CDMA problem. Good rates and, despite the fact they are a regional company, national coverage.
On the other hand, Frontier Wireless is by far the most flexible option. Frontier not only uses SIM cards but doesn’t deal with locked phones at all. Clancy’s phone is already unlocked and it will cost less than $10 to unlock mine and I will be good to go with Frontier immediately. It is also a very local company, which I really like but which is also its greatest weakness. Frontier operates almost solely out of Arapaho and while they have national coverage, they discourage off network use. Any data plan I get with them would only cover Arapaho and have roaming fees everywhere else. That wouldn’t be an issue except that the times I most need a data plan is precisely when I won’t have it: when travelling. On the other hand, Frontier doesn’t care whether I have a data plan or not. I can use my Fuze as a Pocket PC, which Verizon won’t let me do at all and Galaxy will only let me do when out of my contract (in this case when they boot me over to AT&T).
So, while waiting on AT&T, I am debating between Galaxy and Frontier. It mostly comes down to whether I want a data plan or not. On the one hand, I lived without a data plan all the way up until late last year when I got one. On the other hand, I got kind of used to it. Back on the first hand, though, I’m not sure how useful it will be when I spend almost all of my time within a 5-minute drive home. It was most useful when I was traveling, which I did a lot of previously but am likely to do less of when Clancy starts work. Then there’s the question of my work. If I get work in Tupelo or with the Census Bureau, it will suddenly become much more useful. If I start software testing for OpenOffice at home, it won’t be very useful at all.
It’s odd to know exactly what I want (AT&T) and yet not be able to decide what I want (until AT&T comes to town). I guess I should be thankful that Verizon so graciously removed themselves from consideration.
At approximately 6am on Tuesday of this week, I got a terse text message from AT&T:
YOUR OFF-NETWORK DATA USAGE IS IN VIOLATION OF YOUR SERVICE CONTRACT. CALL [phone number] FOR DETAILS.
I also noticed that my phone was listing “Off Network” a couple places on the screen where it usually said “AT&T.” I hadn’t noticed that before. I assumed that I was still within AT&T’s network because I knew that they had serviced around Callie and the phone had given me no indication that I was not in an AT&T area. Had I been missing the words “Off Network” this entire time? One of the downsides to having my detail-attention problem is that I never know these things for sure.
I called AT&T when I got out of bed a couple hours later and sure enough I was outside AT&T’s range. This meant that AT&T was having to pay someone else for the use of their tower. This was costing AT&T money and AT&T did not like this very much. If I continued to do this, there would be a series of repercussions and none of them good. None of them logical, either. First, they would start charging me for off-network use. Then if I didn’t stop they would cut my off-network use. Then if it did not stop they would cut off my data plan and then my cell phone altogether. Then if it did not stop, they would cut off my entire family’s cell phone plan (my family shares a plan – I have a Colosse number).
The first step is in itself curious. If AT&T starts charging me for off network use, then are they still losing money on me? Seems to me that they could charge the same amount that they’re losing to whoever’s towers they’re using. Or they could do what companies like AT&T often do and charge more and make a little profit off the deal. The charge is 5 cents a kilobyte. Are the local towers really charging them more than that?! Then, if they proceed with the next step, which is to prevent me from using data for any off network at all, the rest is rendered moot. Because at that point, it has to stop.
The next thing he said was equally bizarre. He said that the problem was that my usage was over 40% off network and that was the problem. So it wasn’t the amount of off network use I was doing, but rather the portion. So then, theoretically, if I go up to Tupelo (where AT&T has coverage) and use up a whole bunch of bandwidth, I could bring that average back down. The easiest way out for me then would be to clog up their data streams needlessly. That I could do.
What appears to be the case, however, is that the guy I was talking to was talking out of his hat. While the portion may have been an issue, the number is not 40% (which is really quite generous) but 20% (which is about what I would expect it to be). But mostly, there is a kilobyte limit that I was not only exceeding, but smashing like a pinata. No amount of data usage in Tupelo would have made up for that. So at that point, my only option was to cancel my data coverage on AT&T. Further, given that I am presently out of AT&T’s service area, it probably won’t be long before they discover where my phone calls are being made out of.
I’ve been a loyal AT&T customer since I was 17. It wasn’t AT&T at that point, but it was a company bought by a company that merged with a couple other companies that bought AT&T. And I technically wasn’t with AT&T in Deseret, but was with an affiliate that was on AT&T’s network. But then I got on the folks’ plan and have been with AT&T since. The only problem I’ve ever really had with the company was actually with Deseret Mobile, the affiliate, who were not up front with me about the price spike that came with a new phone I had purchased and, despite the existence of a 7 day no-questions-asked return policy, would not let me get back on my old plan.
As it happens, I may not be away from AT&T for very long. It appears that they are moving into the area by the end of the year as long as the FTC does not step in. Of course, this is a bit frustrating because all of this could have been avoided if they had just done so a year ago. Now I’m going to have to figure out what to do between now and when they arrive or elsewise decide what other carrier to go with.
I’m tempted to tell AT&T where they could stick it with their illogical threats, but I am inclined to think that was mostly just the guy I was talking to. The fact that he got the 20%/40% wrong tells me that he wasn’t reading from some threatening script. Besideswich, whoever made this happen more than made up for it.
Jones Soda is a Hit Coffee favorite, at least among Web and I (I have no idea of Sheila’s opinion on this important matter) and apparently they’ve sold out. In the literal sense, I mean. They’d been bought out by a competitor.
(On a sidenote, Jones soda is owned by a guy named Jones and Reed, the purchasing company, is owned by a guy named Reed. You don’t expect to see that a whole lot these days.)
Jones had actually been, up to a point, pretty successful until recently. Unfortunately, they leveraged at the wrong time to expand into candies and wider distribution and had fallen onto hard times. Reed bought them for a song.
Web expressed some concern that this will mean the end of one of the few major options for those that prefer sugar to corn syrup. This does not appear to be the case, fortunately for sugar-lovers (or is that corn syrup haters?) as Reed is apparently all natural-oriented. That type of thing could mean corn syrup (it’s natural, so how can it be bad for you, corn producers ask) but more likely means, as my former roommate Dennis put it, that the flavors will now come with Ginsung included or somesuch jazz.
I don’t care if they include Ginsung or not nor do I care if they go with corn syrup. What I love(d) most about Jones Soda is their innovative array of flavors and their creative packaging.
If Reed goes messing with the flavor selection, that will be the biggest bummer since Jolt Cola stopped their flavored line. Most of you that know of Jolt know it for being super-duper caffeine-infused. But for a while when I was in college, they had a line of different flavored drinks that was really good. The only two things that compare to it are the current Mountain Dew offerings, which are seasonal and inconsistent, and Jones.
I was introduced to Jones and irregular Jolt back when I was in college and both quickly eclipsed Coke and Pepsi. Sortly after, Southern Tech University signed an exclusive deal with Coca-Cola that prevented them from selling Jones on campus. So I would have to go across the Interstate to the scary part of town to get my fix. That was where I discovered Jolt. They made a great combination: Jolt if I wanted something caffeinated and Jones if I didn’t. I would bring some back to my roommates (Dennis, Saresh, and Hubert at the time) and they liked it, too (except maybe Saresh).
Then we moved on, I moved off campus, and Jolt fell off my radar and a year or so it disappeared.
Jones, too, had fallen somewhat off my radar until I moved to the northwest. Jones Soda is apparently based out of the Pacific Northwestern United States. I did not know this. I did know that Jones was more widely available out there than anywhere else I’d been, but for some reason I thought that Jones was a Canadian company. But anyway, I guess due to regional preference, it was more widely available and so I got it when I could.
Interestingly, one of the airlines I flew also offered Jones in lieu of Coke or Pepsi. I was honestly kind of disappointed. It was somewhere below Coke and above Pepsi. The fact that they used sugar rather than corn syrup didn’t seem to make much of any difference.
Pepsi has been on a sugar kick lately with a “Throwback” line made from sugar instead of corn syrup. Clint swears it tastes sweeter, but honestly I can’t really taste it. It does taste a little bit different, but mostly different and not better or worse.
The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if somebody at Pepsi had just gotten tired of people ragging on corn syrup and decided to give people what they wanted just so that they would shut up and that most people would come to the conclusion that I did. So then even if Throwback was a failure, they’d have something to point to and say “See? Nobody cares!”
Of course, it’s also possible (my experience with Jones aside) that to get the full taste of sugar they would need to do some R&D work and revise the formula built around corn syrup. Or maybe they did do some R&D work to bring the cost down and the lack of awesomeness that I sense is a matter of corners cut elsewhere.
On one last note about Jones Soda, the second thing I mentioned was the creative packaging. Jones takes submitted photographs and puts them on the bottles, which is neat. They also let you order custom bottles with your own pictures. I had this idea that one of these days I would take the comic book characters I created in high school and give each one of them a Jones flavor. If I want to do that, I might should get a move on while before Reed decides that’s a corner that can be cut.
La-Z-Boy Recliner for Sale ($75)
Pros: La-Z-Boy, possibly a detachable top, matches current LZB.
Cons: It’s in Enterprise City
Verdict: I don’t wanna commute no more, but I don’t know that I don’t wanna that badly.
Silver Recliner for Sale ($35)
Pros: Decent looking, functional, nearby, cheap
Cons: Everything else.
Verdict: Nearby? Worth considering.
Gray Recliner for Sale ($75)
Pros: Looks so comfortable I could sink into that thing
Cons: Somewhere north of Zaulem
Verdict: How important is comfort, anyway?
Brown Recliner for Sale ($40)
Pros: Looks almost exactly like the recliner I left in Estacado when it fell apart
Cons: Looks almost exactly like the recliner I left in Estacado because it fell apart
Verdict: Man, I loved that recliner. And I’m thinner now.
Sofa for Sale ($150)
Pros: In Soundview! Looks decently comfortable. Long.
Cons: Long. What would I have to rent to get that here?
Verdict: Will have to confer with wife on level of need for a sofa
Couch for Sale ($100)
Pros: Looks waaaaay comfortable. Like a dream.
Cons: OH MY GAWD THAT PINK IS SO LOUD IT HURTS MY EARS.
Verdict: What? I can’t hear you. My ears hurt. Is that phone ringing?
A while back (I’m too lazy to look it up), Web made a comment about how people complain about car dealers without any real appreciation for how small their profits can be.
He may be right about that, though I think that to some degree the dealers bring it on themselves. Not on a personal basis, but by the model that they work through. The negotiation set-up invites the sort of animosity that occurs. If you trust a salesperson, you are likely to get rolled over. Since determining that we were going to be buying a new(-to-us) car, I’ve had to do all manner of research in two different areas. Having to research different makes and models is unavoidable (and kind to fun, to be honest).
What I find most aggravating is having to research for the sake of getting the best deal that I can. I’m likely going to have to pay entities to find out exactly how much I should be paying for the car. Then I’m going to have to find out what tricks they will use to get me to pay more. Then I’m likely going to have to go to one dealer after another to try to get that deal. All along the way, I’m going to have to put on my best poker face to avoid giving them the impression that I am actually excited to buy the car, that I really want a particular make and model and color. Because if I let them know what I really want, I lose my bargaining chip. I’d end up having to get a color or something I don’t want just because it would be a harder sell for them. Or I pay more for one color car over another even though (with the exception of black paint and white) they all cost about the same.
The price-opacity is stressful and maddening. They know how much they’re willing to sell the car for (more-or-less), but I don’t know how much I should be willing to pay for a car (without help).
When it comes to used cars, this state of affairs is less avoidable. Since every car is a unique combination of year, mileage, and wear-and-tear, everybody is just winging it. Not so for new cars.
There are some no-haggle dealerships around, but they seem to be priced near where the regular dealerships are. I may end up going that route anyway just to save myself the hassle. But of course, I would do so knowing that somebody, somewhere paid less because they did more research or had a better poker face.
One of the things I find interesting is that two of the badges I know 0f with the most loyal following are Saturns (well, a soon to be former badge I guess) and Scions. Both are cars the fill (or filled) a particular niche, but I also think that part of it is that it’s much easier to buy a new one and come out of the dealership feeling a lot better about your purchase.