Episode to thirty three. Save money on your next car purchase with the Car Check. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights, and liver with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill from Room Room from from from from from from room.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are talking about saving money on cars, because gosh, is that a bit that's definitely when you think of the principle for saving which principle is that of your effort will yield about eight of your results. It's not a hard and fast role, but it is something that kind of it's generally true the car purchase that you make that is one of
those choices that has impact, so to speak. So this is a big and I have a feeling I'm going to wish that I had heard this episode about a year ago when I was in the thick of needing a new car because our breaks went out two times while driving and it was desperation, desperate times, desperate measures. And this is a particularly good time, I think too, because we are seeing some unchartered territory related to car purchasing.
It's not what it used to be pre pandemic. So I think we do need some of those extra tips expert insight. Yeah, I think any of the tips that we would have given pre pandemic aren't as relevant. Still still good to keep in mind. Um but the last episode we did on saving money on car expenses was episode ten. So if you want to queue up our other car related episode, justies be we were Podcast Babies episode ten. So, and I don't think it's the whole thing.
Isn't even about buying a car, it's about just car expenses in general. Um. So this is specifically on buying a car, and we're talking to an expertly and Shattuck who knows more than us, and and that's what I'm very excited about. So, but before we get into it, this episode is brought to you by automatic enrollment. Like when you were a kid and your parents automatically enrolled you in sports or dance lessons, and then they automatically
enrolled you in school. Jerks the nerve. Uh. Then you get into the workplace and your employed automatically enrolls you in the retirement plan. Yep, that's a thing. It's a great thing, though, they're not jerks for doing that. So if you don't know about it, though, and you leave that job and you forget about that money, that stinks.
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Friends podcast dot com slash capitalize. Yes. So let's get into our interview with Leanne Shattuck. She's an automotive expert, entrepreneur, and award winning author, speaker, radio television host. She is the total package and a race car driver, so she's known around the world as the car Chick. She owns a unique car buying service that helps women and smart men get a great deal on a new or used car without the hassle and frustrations that come with traditional
car shopping. Lean is passionate about educating women about cars and about empowering them to make informed decisions when purchasing, selling, and servicing automobiles. She is the full package and we are so excited to share this interview with you. Cannot wait, so let's go. Leanne. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. We are very, very very excited to have you on the show. Well, thank you. I'm honored. That's an understatement.
I know we say excitement every time we have a guest, but I think we just keep getting better and better guests on so we just keep moving up the ranks, and having you here feels like the pinnacle. I don't know if we'll ever top it. So thank you for coming. And I feel like as much for me as it is for the listeners. I want to cannot say that to the last guest, So that's true, no pressure. I think it is who you are and your presence on the show. I know we're going to learn something, if
not all the things from you. So yeah, this is something that we have needed over the years, because I think everything we've learned about car buying changed in the last few years, and so I think we need like some new information and I don't even know what that information is, but we're excited to get it from you today. We'll take everything you learned about car buying in the past and just right out the window. Perfect. That's what
I'm here, that's what it feels like. And maybe part of this is going to be a venting session, but like, can can we can we talk about that? Like what is happening in the automotive industry right now? Like what's going on? Why is it so expensive? What, what's what's happening? Why? And what the heck? There are no cars? That sums up everything that's happening in the automotive industry right now, and why everything is so crazy? There are no cars.
New car production is a fraction of what it normally is because of all the supply chain issues, and leading that supply chain problem is of course, the computer chips. Who thought we would ever say the phrase we can't build cars because there aren't enough computer chips in the world. But it's crazy. The average car today has more computers in it than the Space Shuttle did, so, I mean
it's really scary. Your car is basically a roving computer, and with all the technology that we have come to expect in our vehicles between all of the driver's safety aids with all their sensors and their radars, the Apple Car Play, Android Auto just what they're even calling now the infotainment system. You know, we used to call that the dashboard with the radio and we turn the knobs, you know. Now it's this whole computer screen, and you
know it can interact. You know, it's becomes an extension of your phone. It's crazy how many computer chips are in the car, and the computer is making all these incredible decisions about how the car is running, the mixture of gas to air, how the brakes work. It's a lot smarter than most drivers actually, but as a result, it needs so many computer chips and we just don't have them. So literally, to get a new car in most cases right now, you're talking at least three to
four months, in some cases six to eight. And for some vehicles that are really hot electric vehicles, a lot of your plug in hybrids, you're talking probably two years. The new Ford Lightning electric pickup truck. If you take the number of orders that Ford has for them and the number of cars are actually producing every month, and do the math, five year wait list five years now, hopefully that will change. Ford is one of the manufacturers
that broke ground on one of their own computer chip plants. There, GM and Ford and christ are all going to start to build their own computer chip plants, so we're not at the mercy of the manufacturers that are primarily in China. But it takes years to build those plants. It is not an easy thing to expand the production capabilities of. So we're gonna be in this for probably another good
two years at least. Is that pandemic related slow down because when everybody went into lockdown, the car manufacturers shut down production to try and be safe, and the consumer electronics industry blew up because all of a sudden, now we all need these electronic devices so we can get on Zoom and work and go to school and you know,
keep ourselves from going insane. And the electronics industry has a lot more flexibility and a lot more purchasing power, so they took over a lot of the computer chips that the car manufacturer said, oh, can you please pause our order. We're we're shut down for now, and so there's no loyalty. So yeah, all those went to the cell phones computers, tablets, game consoles, and the car manufacturers
couldn't get that back. But just the increase in demand over all for things that have computer chips in them has gone through the roof because of the pandemic and the lockdowns, and that's not going to change because their
computer chips and everything. I just had to buy new appliances for my kitchen because our fridge went out fourth of July weekend, you know, of course, and convenient, right, and like they're like, oh, you know, the fridge has WiFi capabilities and stuff like why does my refrigerator need WiFi capabilities? Was what is that doing? Is it watching you too? You know? While because it gets bored. It's crazy.
You know, sofa sofa's have computer chips in the arms because they have wireless charging pads, because haven't forbid, should you get up and walk across the ring to charge your cell phone? No, no, you can lay it on the arm of the sofa and it charges so as which is cool, Which is cool? This to ourselves. We have self inflicted you know, total first world problems. But
the demand for computer chips is never going down. It's going up exponentially, and the supply just cannot keep up, and the automotive industry is just scrapping for every little chip that they can get. Hence there are no new cars. If you drive by a car lot, there's almost nothing
new on their lot. Nothing. Yeah. So so this is obviously put us in a unique situation where new cars and use cars are at a similar price now where you used to be able to save a lot on a used car, So like doesn't make when does it make sense to buy a new car or when does it still make sense to buy used. It's really become a matter of how quickly do you need a vehicle? And that's why you know the price of used cars
has gone through the roof, And you're right. In many cases the price of the used one is higher than the m s r P or the window sticker price of the new one, depending on demand. A great example of that is the new Ford Broncos. They just came
out a couple of years ago. They're super popular, very retro cool, and Ford is a good two years behind on fulfilling those orders, so you can actually pay ten I've seen people pay twenty thousand dollars over ms RP for a used one now that's a really dumb financial decision. In my opinion, that's just dumb. But for some people that have the money, and money is not an issue. If they want what they want, okay, that's fine, but
it's kind of crazy. So with my clients, you know, the first question I'm asking is do you only need a car right now? You really? Can you wait a couple of years? And if not, you know, then we look at well, depending on what we're model we're looking at, you know, can you afford to wait several months to get a new one and we can get that one, hopefully to decent price. Some manufacturers, you know, some dealers are charging thousands over sticker for the new ones. Some
are not being jerks. I'm just gonna say it like it is, and you have to find the ones that aren't being jerked. But a lot of people don't have
that luxury their car. You know, they were in an accident, the car was totaled, or something has changed in their life and they just they can't wait that long, and so we're forced to buy used and you know, just know that we're over paying for it, but it is what it is, and you know, I've just kind of thrown the whole M S R P concept out the window, and I'm just looking at, Okay, what is going to give us the best bang for our buck, knowing that
we're spending a lot more bucks than we ideally should. But it is what it is. This is where we are, and we just have to adapt and live with it. I think that's that's helpful to recognize we're not in two thousand nineteen anymore, and while we might remember what life was like there, we most likely will never find ourselves back there. I mean, and that goes that's across
the board. That's with housing, that's with materials. My husband and I are in the midst of a renovation on our house, and every single time we go to the store, he's like, this used to be thirty cents, Now it's thirteen dollars. This used to be, this used to be, this used to be. I'm like, I can't, I can't
anymore because this is where we're wed. I know, like, like we know too much about what it used to be, and so I think that that's a huge hurdle, is just like catching our emotions up with this thing that gone. Are the days of getting a Toyota Corolla for two thousand dollars and driving it until you're thirty five, like say,
it's not going to happen anymore. And too, I appreciate how you're saying that we're all in different circumstances, Like it would be great to do best case scenario of just wait it out, be patient, find the best deal. But I mentioned in our intro, my husband and I we only have one vehicle that was actually like a
goal of mine, so I'm so pleased for that. But the one vehicle that we had, the brakes rusted out on it, and we were and and then they stopped working two times, like it happened one time, and he got us to safety and like the parking lot of the Publix, made some like minor fixes, and then they went out on us again. And that's one of those situations that you're talking about, like how badly do you
need a new car? Like very badly, because we're putting ourselves in other people in danger and we only have one vehicle, and like that pressure cooker situation of how do we make the best decision here? And what we used to know is out the window, like gone are the days of buying used. So, but I'd love to hear your perspective on what you would recommend for people who do need to buy a car right now, whether it's as intensive as a situation as we were in
or not. But what would you say is the best way then to shop for whether it's a new or used or certified pre owned, if you're going to a dealer, Like, what, what should we know given our current circumstances? How do we do this best? Sure? The most important thing to know right now is that inventory moves fast. When I mean fast. A car can get traded in at ten am and it hasn't even gone into the shop for
services and reconditioning. The dealer has barely even evaluated whether they're going to keep that car for their lot, and someone walks and goes is that for sale? And it can sell by noon just sight unseen. So inventory is
moving quickly. So be aware that if you're shopping around online, which I recommend you do, and you may have to shop far and wide, you may have to shop outside of your immediate area because gone or the days where there are you know, six seven dealers in your area that all have you know, the similar cars and you
can just pick whichever one you want. It is the hunger Games out there, so literally, you know when when they, you know, go up onto the platforms and there's a cornucopia with the limited resources and the whistle goes off and everybody rushes to that cornucopia to try and get the food and the weapons. That's exactly what it's like
the automotive industry right now. So if you see a vehicle online, whether it's on you know, a site like auto Trader or cars dot com, or if you go to the dealer's website and even see the car listed on the dealer's website, that does not mean that car is actually there. You have to pick up the phone find out if it's still available, and if you want to go look at that car, you need to go now because it might not be there at five o'clock,
it might not be there tomorrow. It definitely will not be there on Monday if you're looking on Friday, so
you have to move quickly. And unfortunately that goes against everything that I believe in terms of making a good car buying decision, because I preach that it's a process, not an event, and you should take your time, and you should get a pre purchase inspection on any used car, but they're just the dealers will not hold the cart and so it's just moving too fast and you just have to make the best decision that you can with the information that's available and know that it's a bigger
risk than it probably should be if we were able to actually go through the nice step by step process that I like to go through. So I tell my clients when I find something, I'm gonna text you, and I had to hear back from you in ten minutes because we we may have to move that quickly to
make a decision. So it's it's just crazy. So if if I am a purchaser going to a dealer, do I have anything within my power or things that I should be aware of, even if it is becoming that high sense of urgency, like, are there any recommendations for dealing with dealers at this point in time? You should still shop around. You want to make sure that you are getting the best quality car for your money, So looking at that car fact report ahead of time is
absolutely critical. See what's on there, and it's not just about whether the car is accident free. You need to look and see, well, where did that car live? Was in a Northern car that's gonna rust out on you like yours did? Or was it a Southern car? Are their maintenance records? And to do as much of your homework on paper. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be a good car. But acid dealer, can I take this to a mechanic to have a pre purchase inspection?
They the worst thing they can say is no, but a lot of them will still say yeah, sure, you know, just you have to bring it back, you know, within two hours. So then you've got to find a shop that can do it quickly. But you're biggesting ociating power now is if you have a good vehicle to trade, because the values for those cars are much much higher. In many cases, if you bought a vehicle in twenty nineteen, you might be able to sell it today for more
than you paid for it when you bought it. So that's where you're negotiating power is because if you have a decent quality trade and by decent quality mean does it run and is it relatively free of dense and dings, it won't value Yeah that's great, and maybe more than you think in this market, are there any other things that someone could negotiate on with a dealer, like with with the new vehicle. Are there is there any wiggle
room that you've seen there? You definitely shop around because you know, like I said, some dealers are charging thousands over sticker, some are not. The ones that are not are usually putting what the dealers should call in a dendem. It's usually some sort of accessory package on the car. And I see the prices of those cree being up, but there may be some things in that package that you can negotiate or get the price of that package
reduced significantly. So be sure to ask, you know, not just what the price of the cars, but get them to show you a breakdown and if there is a package, which they're most likely will be, what is included in that package, and you know, understand what those items are and see if there's some that you really don't want, Like, don't ever let them put a pen stripe on the car. Car today do not need pen stripes. You know, serious, that's a thing. It's still a thing. It should not
be a thing, but it's a thing. You know. They want to put quel locks on the car, you don't need real locks. See if you can swap that out for something like rubber floor mats or something that's at least window tan, things that are going to be useful to you instead of those items, Or see if you can get them to pay. Can you take this off? The worst thing that they can say is no. And unfortunately it is one of seller's market right now, and the dealers really do hold almost all of the power,
which is very frustraate it. But you know, do call around and call around outside your geography, because it's really amazing how it can vary. And there are certain manufacturers that have told their dealers, you will not sell cars for over ms RP, or you will lose marketing dollars. You will lose allocations, which means quotas of new cars coming off the production line. Multiple infractions, they can even lose their franchise. Is that stopping all the dealers? No?
And I have potentially made a few choice phone calls to the vice president operations of certain manufacturers of North American operations and reported said dealers because I'm not putting up with that. I'm not put up with that. But you know, but then there's some also owners of dealership groups that have said, we're not doing this. You can put accessories on the car, but we are not taking money from a customer and not giving them at least
something in return. But someday this will be over and people are gonna remember and this is not consistent with our brand. So you have to find the manufacturers and then the dealers that are at least trying to be honest and ethical in this market, but they're getting few and far between. And I've had some flat out lie to me. I had a Masda salesperson out West literally flat outlide to me and say, oh, well, Mazda has completely shut down production for the next two to three months.
We're not gonna have any new cars and that's why we're charging ten tho dollars over sticker. And I went, really, I hadn't heard that. Being a journalist myself like I need to call and confirm that because nobody's broken that news yet. So I'm gonna break that news. So I pick up the phone and called the Vice President's office of MASDA North America out in California. Who I know, I said, So, I heard this from one of your salespeople out in Arizona, and they're like, I'm or you
heard what, Like, No, that is not true. We will we will take care of this. So blind to me is probably not their best strategy because they don't realize who I know and who I have on speed dial as a journalist an influencer. But you know, just be aware that there are some very dishonest tactics going on. And that happened to be that one independent salesperson at that dealership. It was not when I called the general manager to give a courteous heads up that they would
be getting a phone call from corporate office. That salesperson no longer appears on their website. Let's just put it that way. But you know, sometimes it is at the dealership level that they've decided that they're going to take that risk of suffering the wrath of the corporate office. And some of the corporations are not even saying a word about it. They're letting their dealers do whatever they want.
So there can be a big variance in the prey that you can pay for the exact same new car, And similarly with the used cars, some dealers are really jacking up the prices. Some are being a little bit more fair, and you really just have to do a lot of calling around and be prepared that this is going to take up a lot of time during your day. This isn't gonna be something you can just do in your spare time. If you need a car, that is gonna become your full time job for the next week
is finding that car. One final question on the dealer thing, do you have any tips for finding a more trustworthy, honest dealer, Like for the person who has no idea, what what could we do? Sometimes the dealers are saying on their website, we will never charge over M s r P for a car, so look for that. But another thing to do is just go onto their websites and see, you know, if they do have any new cars listed, what prices are they listing? You know, are
they listing? In addendum, some were being flat out honest about their dishonesty. They're emitting, yeah, we're charging ever sticker you know, and I get Okay, you know the land Rover dealership in Manhattan, Okay, there's a lot of money to be had there. And if people who are already buying a hundred thousand dollar car. Want to pay a hundred and twenty dollars for that car, you know, so that they can have one in their home in the Hampton's.
You know, what's fine, they've got that kind of money whatever. But you know, when you're talking about a houn Day or a Toyota or a Honda for somebody, you know, more like you and me who doesn't have an infinite budget for a necessary piece of transportation, that's when I get really ticked off. So really read the verbage on the dealer's website and then go look at what they list their prices for. And if they say call for price, that's a red flag. They won't even put the M
S r P on the website. Sometimes you just have to call, and I have to call. If it's a dealer that I don't know, I call and be like, all right, what are you guys doing on pricing? I call the managers? What are all doing unpricing? You know, just let's just be honest with each other. What are you'all doing unpricing? And then some of them tell me and I laugh and I say thank you for your time, click and I move on to the next dealer. But even I'm having to call twenty to thirty dealers instead
of four or five to find cars. And so just going over the state line helps. Okay, And can you look at like Kelly Blue Book at like M S r P and compare it to what the dealer is offering to see to make sure they're charging M S r P. Or is that still you're just gonna have
to call. Yeah, well you're gonna have to call. But also if they have a new car listed on their website, you know they'll they should if the car is hit the United States, if it's on US soil, they will have a window sticker and you can just look at the windowsticker or asked to see the window sticker if
it's not posted that way. You can also verify what features it has, because a lot of the new cars are being built without certain features that should be in that trim level or in that option package, but they have eliminated that to save a computer chip or two. But they'll say that on the window sticker, so you
know you may or may not get certain features. And the German manufacturers are doing this a lot um, but they're trying to eliminate features that are not really mission critical but you know, you might not get the fancy stereo, but you'll still get the you know, the blind spot monitoring because that's more important. So they're having to make
those decisions. So you should look at that window sticker anyway to verify what's actually on the car versus what you think is supposed to be on the car, and that'll tell you what the M s r P is and then you can compare it. But a lot of the dealers are really are being honest. When you ask them what they're pricing is, they'll tell you it's M s r P plus whatever. Okay, yeah, let's go back to the addendum stuff. Because the last time I bought a car, it was sixteen grand and I walked out
of their spending eighteen grand. So like there's a couple grand in there. What are like the top things in there that you see the most success with negotiating or could right now the most success with negotiating down What are the things that people maybe should be looking for, Like I said, look at what makes up that addendum package, and you know a lot of the times if it's something useful. Sometimes they're putting ceramic window tint on the windows.
That's actually a really good thing because it keeps the inside of your car from getting super duper hot, and it's really high quality. That might be worth it for keeping you know, rubber floor mats, those might be useful to you. But if it's something like the Elo GPS or sometimes they'll put you know, the parts of the car with these little tiny dots that if your car gets stolen and sent to a chop shop, the police can use to rematch up the body parts or find
your car. I mean honestly, and unless you live in a really high car theft area like l A or Chicago or New York, you know, those things really aren't worth it, and they're certainly not worth the money that they charge. You know, if the car has not yet arrived and they haven't put those things on the car yet, that's when you may have the power to say, hey, you know, can we not do this, This is not
valuable to me. Perhaps there's something else maybe instead of paying for that, you know, I can get an extended warranty or something that's going to be useful, a prepaid maintenance package if they won't take that off because they want to make the money. See if they are willing to swap it out for something that is more useful to you, but they may be willing to even come
down the price. For example, I I did buy that Monster from a different Master dealership in another part of Arizona for a client in Utah, and I said, hey, you know, I we really don't want these things in the package. He's like, tell you what, you know, We're not going to charge you for the package. We won't put these things on the car. We'll just put you know, the window tints and the rubber mats that you want, and then we won't put the addendum on the car
for you. So right there we saved three thousand dollars. So that was worth it. Now part of it. They did that because it was me, and but I also just asked a lot of people don't know to ask, never hurts to ask. The they can say is no, absolutely, and I still want to make the sale. So there there may be somewhere in there, depending on you know, how willing you are to ask and be firm about that. One last question on the when buying a car from a dealer, I know this is a traditional dealer tactic.
They will keep you in there for hours after you've agreed to buy the car, asking you so many questions, and the questions by the end of it, you have so much decision fatigue that you're just like, yes, okay, whatever, get me out of here. And at the end it's like, oh,
would you like this thousand dollar extended warranty? Talk to us about that process, how to overcome it, or just the extended warranty, because I feel like that's what the purpose of the whole weight is just to like make you sweat so that you just say yes to adding on more things to the grand finale? Is this extended warranty? Tell me if I'm right or wrong or how to handle this situation. You are one right, absolutely, you are right. And I always talk about how a car dealership is
a lot like a casino. You know, they kind of they suck you in and then everything once you're inside the doors is designed to keep you there and keep you spending money. So without the free drinks, so you know that honestly, they might do better if they would, you know, get a liquor license and serve beverages. But you know it's probably not something yeah about it, right? But the best thing that you can do is to
get ahead of that. I know what the types of things are that they are going to offer you in the finance office before you ever walk in the door to the dealership, and no, if that's something that you want, you know. My belief is that the majority of the things that they want to sell you in the finance office, well, some of them may be good products, they're not worth the prices that the dealers charged for them. The majority
of their profit is made in that room. In some cases, don't extended warranty might be a good option for you. Discuss that with the salesperson ahead of time, which you should be doing through the phone in your pajamas from the comfort of your own home, before you ever go into the dealership. You know, if you decide you want the car, lock in that car with a deposit, if they will take one as you work out the details, but you should know ahead of time do you want
an extended warranty? Is it worth it to you? And you know how much are you willing to pay for that? A lot of the times the dealers can take a significant amount of money off of the price of that. Let them know, Hey, if I can get this extended warranty at dealer cost or employee pricing, then I would be willing to do it. You know or know that in the extended warranty is not something that you necessarily need.
And I normally don't care for extended warranties because I know how they work and how they're kind of insurance against something happening. So you're definitely paying a few thousand dollars now in the hopes that if something breaks down the line that it would cover, you know that that repair would be more than what you paid for the warranty, making the warranty worth it. That rarely is the case.
Occasionally it will be, but you're better off self ensuring and buying a car that's known for its reliability ahead of time. The problem is, as I said, cars are more computers now than they are mechanics practically, so a lot of times it's those features that are unreliable. The engine works fine, it's all the sensors and the computers and all the electronics that cause problems. And you can't
mitigate that. You can't change the oil in the infotainment system and that it keeps working like agam with the engine. So for some people, they may feel that peace of mind is worth it to them. But as the cars have gotten more complicated, obviously the price of those extended warranties has also gone up because the extented warranty companies are not gonna lose money either. So what I find
is that for some brands they're worth it. Like hund and Akia, they give you five years sixty thousand miles full warranty and a ten year hundred thousand mile on the power train, which means your engine in your transmission, and they sell what's called a wrap warranty that wraps that full coverage out to the full ten one. If you can get that for less than two thousand dollars and you plan to keep the car for ten years,
that may be worth it to you. I tend to recommend those to my clients that I know keep cars forever. That can be worth it because it gives you full factory coverage out for ten years or a hundred thousand miles, whichever comes first. If you can get it an employee pricing, it's worth it to a lot of people. Do I want to pay three thousand dollars for an extent warranty? On a Toyota. No, they still work for the most part.
You know, if you're looking at something made by Christler that might be worth do wing, that's pretty much guaranteed you have problems. So a lot of it just really depends on the circumstances. But I tend to go in with it looking at how long do I plan to keep this car compared to how long do I get on the full original factory warranty, because they'll tell you, oh, well it's you know, six years or seventy thousand miles, like, well, no, it's really not, because I have three years thirty six
thousand miles full coverage. So the extent of warranty is really only covering me for this piece because the factory has got me for this piece. So you have to look, Okay, so I'm really paying three thousand dollars for three additional years of coverage and you know, forty two thousand miles or whatever the math comes out to, is it worth it to pay a thousand dollars a year for that piece of mind? When you really start looking at the math,
it changes for most people. So I know those things ahead of time, and as much of that as you can pre negotiate into the deal, and a lot of times the sales people will say, oh, well, the financed man of drill talk to you about that. When you get into the office, you say no, I know, you get commissioned on that stuff too. If you want to have any chance at all of selling one of these products,
We're going to talk about it now. Otherwise I'm gonna walk into the finance office and just say no to everything and not even listen to what the finance manager has to say it because I'm not going through that. So you've got to take control of the process. They have a sales process that they spend millions of dollars in industry training their sales people on to maximize their profits. And in defense of the dealers there are for profit business. It is not their job to give you a bottom
line killer deal. That's your job. Their job is to maximize their profit. You can't fault them for that. They're a business, not a charity. But no going in that. You have to take control of your buying process, you know,
take that control away from them. It's like, you know, gamble online instead of in the casino where you at least have a little more home court advantage, manly, and I feel pumped up and it's happening the thing that I thought that I wish that I would have talked with you a year ago, and yep, I'm there now. That's that's what I'm feeling experiencing. So everybody repeat after me. No is a complete sentence, is a complete, complete sentence.
We're getting so good at this so many things in life, ladies. Yes, I love that. Um okay, So last question for you. You can save a lot of money by buying outside of a dealership private party sale, but it is a little dice ere. So if somebody is wanting to buy outside of the dealership, how can you avoid a scam? How can you avoid getting scammed? Well, first of all is know how to identify the scams that are out there. Facebook Marketplace has really become the number one goa to
you site for most cars. And I was even surprised because I don't normally help people sell cars privately. But I have this one client here in Charlotte who's an old friend, and you know, like he pays me a lot of money to handle anything really to do his cars. So I'll do it and we're actually selling dollar high performance Tesla. And you know, I haven't listed on auto trader, and I haven't even tested on this, you know, only use Tesla website. And yet I'm getting most of the
leads from Facebook. Marketplace, you know, granted to have the member scammers, but you know, so even the high end cars, which really surprised me. People are looking on marketplace. You know, sometimes you get a lot of people low sending you low ball offers, or it's like, you know, hey, you know, I'll trade you this Tesla for you know, trading bitcoins for you, and there's just like a whole bunch of bs.
It's it's almost hilarious. You just have to laugh. But when you're shopping for the car and you're looking at the listings, one of the number one things that scammers do is they price the car well below market value, and so you need to look at, Okay, that price looks too good to be true. Go on someone like auto trader and look for similar cars and see what the market value really is, because if it's too good to be true, it is. And the scammers will also
tell you to communicate. They'll say, oh, I'm selling it for my sister or you know, they'll give you some SOB story and like email to this Gmail address. So if anyone asks you to communicate with them outside of Facebook, they are at the time that's a scammer. So always communicate within the platform until you establish relationship to where you can say, you know, hey, you know, can we
set up a time to talk on the phone. I have a bunch of questions about the car, because that gives you a chance to actually speak to a human. Make sure you are speaking to a legitimate seller and feel each other out because as a genuine, legitimate seller, they're nervous too, because they're getting calls from scammers, they're getting calls from d Alert. They want to know that you're a legitimate buyer. So this is a chance to have, you know, actual human interaction and ask a lot of
questions about the car. You know that people do not typically do things to recondition their own cars for resale the way dealers do. They don't have to have it past state inspection in order to sell it the way a dealer does in a state that requires annual inspections. But they are also much more likely to negotiate, and they're more likely to let you, Hey, can I meet up with you at a mechanic shop for prepurchase inspection or can I send the Lemon Squat out to take
a look at it. I really want to get a prepurchase inspection, and they're gonna be much more likely to be amenable to that, even in this current market. So it is that trade off. And especially if you're looking at a car that is not in a geographic location that's convenient for you to go look at it yourself, you are going to rely on a company like the Lemon Squad, who I highly recommend. Aside from the best branding ever, all they do a pre person's inspections on
use cars. They're fantastic. So you can look at a used car that is outside your geography if you use a service like that to inspect it for you. But you're taking a little bit more of a risk. And how do you trust with the musical money and moving the title and you find out do you have the title in hand or is there a loan? You have a lean on the car and the bank holds the title.
If the bank holds the title, then the seller needs to find out from their bank how do we handle this Because Obviously, the loan has to get paid off before the bank's going to release the title. What does that process look like if you, as a buyer, are getting a loan for the car, talk to your bank, because very often the two banks will just talk to each other and handle it for you. That's an ideal situation.
But sometimes you have to have a little bit of trust and you can pay off the loan directly with the seller's bank and then ason the seller the title, and then the seller has to sign a titler for you, and there is a certain amount of trust that has to happen, and and that's just about then developing a relationship with that seller to where you trust each other. M h. But it's definitely a little bit riskier, but
there can be a lot of benefits. And you know, I have never come across the situation where the seller was dishonest. They're either a scammer or they're a person just like you and me trying to get a little bit more money for their car and are just as scared about the process as you are. And what I'm hearing is both take a ton of time, whether you're dealing with the dealer or outside of a dealer, whether
you're selling a vehicle. It's just it's going to take a lot of weeding through and being cautious and on guard with everybody, uh to make sure that you're not getting hurt in the process either absolutely on what's reasonable.
Absolutely absolutely. And you know with with buying private party, you know, if anybody ever asked you to, you know, give money up front when you're doing a private party transaction, that's a hard no. And with dealers, you can put a deposit down on the car that ca it's a partial payment to secure the vehicle in most cases while you work through you know, getting the loan approved or the delivery logistics. But with the private party, you know, you do not turn that money over until you have
agreed there is a sale. You know, preferably do it in person, you know, at one of your banks, so that you know they know that the money you're giving them as legit. You know, you know that they're legit. They're handing you a title. The little person at the bank can notorize it for you. Doing those transactions in person, even if you have to drive four hours, that's the better way to do it. In a private party transaction, dealers.
It's easier to know if the dealer is legit. You have some recourse if you know the dealer tries to pull anything hanky on you. But with private party, if you can meet them in person, that is ideal. But I've done a lot of private party transactions that we couldn't and you know, we all kind of had to trust each other in the process, and you know, it worked out just fine. But everything is a little bit higher risk right now. That's just the new world that
we live in. Mm hmm, speaking of transactions that don't always happen in person, but are amazing every single time they happen, and zero risk involved. The bill though. We that's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. To build buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this
is the bill of the week, LeAnn. Every week we invite our listeners or our guests to share with us their bill for the week, and we know you have one for us. We'd love to hear about it. I do and it's probably something you guys aren't going to expect. So I grew up a figure skater. That was my thing. Oh my god, Oh my gosh. I started skating when I was like three years old, and you know, skated
up until basically I went to college. But then I got back into it as an adult here in Charlotte, of ball places, and as an adult skater, there was
this older gentleman at the rank named Bill Sewing. Bill started skating at the age of seventy two and he skated into his mid to late eighties when he finally passed away, and he was so amazing, and he had he did it because he'd had a stroke and the coordination of the skating, even just the stroking around, helped him rehabilitate, and he found he loved it, and he was just the most loving. He was like the rink grandpa. And he was our biggest cheerleader and always a source
of positive energy. You know, you could always get a hug from him, and he would be your biggest cheerleader, whether you were having a great day because you just landed this new jump you've been working so hard on, or if you were having a horrible day and you just wanted to throw your skates in the garbage. Bill was there for you. And we loved him so much, and he participated in all the shows he competed. He was just an amazing, amazing man and we all loved
him with all of our hearts. And so you know, when he finally passed, you know, we were all very very sad, and his picture was up in the rank and everything. But you know, he he will always be, you know, the Bill that will always have a place in my heart because he was just such an inspirational and loving person and in my heart too. Oh. I remember we had like a few like older gentlemen at the rinks that I would skate at, Like, um, I
never knew why they skated as adult. I never like asked them, but like, yeah, they were like the rink Grandpa's like so sweet like and miraculously not creepy with like all these older men, like there was like one at each rink, like and all these like little girls. So like I'm just envisioning that as you're speaking, and I'm like, oh my god, my childhood. I I literally have juice bumps hearing this because it it hits all the boxes. This my new favorite bill, Bill being a person.
We love it when the bill of the week is a person Bill Ice skating Bill elderly ice skating Bill being the rink, Grandpa, just you ice skating too lean meeting and skating with my hips. They don't lie about not wanting me to do any jumps anymore. Like I'll skate every like winter, Like we'll do like a just skating you know, like a Christmas thing, because that's the closest you can get to winter in Florida. But like, I'm yeah, just to like just a simple jump, and
I'm like, yep, that's it for me. I'm not doing any axles anymore. Yeah. I don't let myself go to the rink anymore because I have more physical problems now, some of them you know, skating related, some of them COVID related. Oh yeah, My injuries in adulthood are all skating related from childhood, absolutely, And so I I know that my body is not physically able to skate anymore. The problem is my brain still thinks that it is
because I still have skating dreams. I don't know if you still have skating dreams, but I still have skating dreams, and in my dreams, I can still do triple jumps, and so I know I would get out there and I would want to jump, and the reality of my fifty year old abused body, I would end up in the e r and I have no insurance, so that would just be a bad idea. So I can't trust
myself to even go to the rink anymore. Oh yeah, oh yeah, we will expound on this off fair but well, I mean, if if you are listening, want to submit your bill of the week, if it has to do with a bill, rink, grandpa, or or anything else. Again, sky's the limit. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill, and now it's time for I'm just getting ahead of myself. I'm so excited. Okay, So for this week's lightning Around, we are each going to
share our uh. You can share your best or worst car buying story, just like your best most entertaining car buying story, and Leanne you can share yours or clients. Um, and we want you to go first so that we can feel inferior following you. Now, Actually, what I'm going to share because I think this is something a lot of people can relate to will be my very first
car buying story. So I was able to get my first car when I was sixteen, and we had a very conservative budget for this car, and you know, it had to be a manual transmission because that's what I learned how to drive on. My father's philosophy was anything else is just aiming. You have to actually learn how to drive. And so you know, I of course wanted you know, something awesome, right, like any sixteen year old once.
And then there was what you know, my mother wanted me to have, which was like a Ford Escort wagon. My dad was always a little more on my side. So we found in the newspaper, you know back when there were paper newspapers and they actually had classified ads in them. A It was a ten year old at the time, so it was like a this was so it was like autie Fox. Because of course I also wanted a luxury car and it was really a Vookswagen. Let's just not even kut ourselves to what this thing was.
And so you know, we bought it from a private party and this thing was you know, this is your classic story of buying a limit, right. So the first thing about it was is that it didn't have any power steering, so I built this great upper body strength just getting it in and out of the parking spaces, like drive my car, parallel parking my car. But it had a feature that I've never seen in any other car.
If you had less than a third of a tank of gas and you made a left hand turn, all of the gas would flew away from the fuel pump and the car would stall out. So when I started getting low on gas, I had to make a lot of right hand turns to the gas station. Oh my god, this is that I've never seen that feature on a car before. Unfortunately, it also had a massive radiator leak.
And so I was driving home from the mall with one of my girlfriends senior year in high school, like two days before Christmas, and we were on this more rural road because this was Wisconsin and a rural road was not far from our house, and it overheated despite the fact that it was like minus twenty degrees. Car overheated on the side of the the road and die. So this was before cell phones, of course. You know, just remember this is the end of nineteen and we saw
this farmhouse, you know, not too far away. And so Lisa and I bundled up and went up to the door or this farmhouse, just praying that a serial killer did not answer the door, right yeah, opens door opened. It's Santa Claus because he had just gotten off work at the ball where we just came from. No, and we're like, Santa, Santa, Santa, our car died. Can we use your phone to call my dad? He's like, sure, come on in, ho ho ho, I can guess what you want for Christmas. So we get rescued by Santa.
My dad comes and saves us. And you know, I actually did get a car for Christmas because my dad decided he was going to get a new car for Christmas, and I got his old one and we ditched the junkie old out five. So that was like my teenage car buying experience, which I realized today we live in a much more dangerous world and parents should probably spend a little bit more money if they can to get
their teenage daughter, especially a safer car. But man, you know, if we didn't have these teenage car stories, we wouldn't be who we are today. It's so true, and I can't get over how your car wasn't an ambi turner, Like I can't make left turn in my car, that's just I mean to go right. I'm not an ambi turner. How amazingly and thanks for sharing that guy, Oh Jill, I want to hear yours. Good you, guys. I am realizing as I'm just going through the rolodects of experiences.
I have just a lot of car experiences, phenomenal car experiences. But I get we're talking about buying, so I'll zero it into that this and here we go. I'm about to vent. I recognize that there is a cult following for Subaru. People love it. I do not understand. I fell you what I don't. I don't even care about that because here's where it is, and you can't take
my experience away from me or change my opinion. The thing about Subaru cult followers is that they will follow Subaru to the end of the world and back, but they're not actually good vehicles. I don't know the end. You can tell me if I'm wrong, but my experience proves this out, like over and over and over again. And then you talk to a Subaru person and they're like, oh, yeah, that's just normal. Yeah. The head gaskets always go yeah, this and that. It's it's like, okay, so you you
just still really love them. I'm I'm getting all fired up because here's what happened. We got a frigging Subaru forest or used private private seller with Facebook marketplace honestly, probably Craigslist at the time, because we're going way back into the archives. I don't even know if Facebook existed yet, but craigslisted and we bought it off of somebody for
a decent price. Wasn't super stoked about it because super re foresters the year that we got it, Like the whole window thing, it was super loud, like they thought it was cool to have a frameless window. But all it ended up doing is like sounding like a tin can on the road. Two weeks later, the head gas gets go and other things with the engine, like the whole thing. The whole engine needed to be replaced two weeks later. Now, I gotta give it to the person
who sold it to us. I don't actually think that they were trying to like pull one over on us. I think Subaru just did what Suber does and so but we told the person because we were broke, like what the heck are we gonna do? We just we just bought this car to two weeks ago, no warranty. Obviously, we got off a Craigslist and the guy was nice and helpful. He's like, you know what, I do, buy and sell a lot of cars. I can probably get you a new engine. I think we still have to
drop a thousand dollars. Now here's where it moves over into me being like losing my brain. Um, this is not going to look good on me pay a thousand dollars to get a new engine. A few months later, the car dies again because I had forgotten to get an oil change, just you know, straight up didn't didn't do it, never cross my mind, didn't schedule it, didn't put it into my calendar. Um, and the car was
just shot at that point. So we had that Subaru Forester for I don't know half a year and spent a crazy insane amount of money for what a peace it was. And never ever, ever, ever again and ever since then, I keep hearing these stories from people who have Subaru is, particularly the forest or all the issues with it. Hopefully they've improved. I don't know. I'm never going back, never ever again once you have a bad experience with a brand, it's it's very hard to overcome
that feeling. I will tell you that, yes, Subaru had a head gas to get problem for a number of years because some genius thought that a single layer head gasket would be sufficient on a boxer engine. It's just ridiculous. And finally someone figured out that that was a dumb idea and they went to a triple layer head gasket and they've never had a problem again. So if you have an older Subaru that was in those years that was famous, infamous for the head gasket problem, here's the solution.
Go to your Super mechanic and have them swap out that stupid old single layer head gasket for the triple layer head gasket that they used today. Problem solved. Supers are great cars now. You know, all cars have more reliability issues today because of all the electronics. But once Super figured that out, no more head gasket problems. It just it's ridiculous that it took that long for them to figure out that a single layer head gasket just would not cut it. When did they figure it out?
Like what year I'm trying to remember exactly. Um, but the Supers you know, within the last ten years have really been you know, very solid with you know, certain exceptions here and there, but pretty much every manufacturer has certain years for there are problems. You know, they put bad engines in a lot of their sonatas around. They've got a class action lawsuit that just got resolved over that. You know, Honda since sixteen has just gone off the
cliff in terms of reliability. You know, Christ has always been there. There's certain years, there's there's certainly certain goal those that just like spontaneously combust when you're driving down the road. Every manufacturer has their issues and from year to year. But at least we figured that one out. But once you've had a bad experience with the brand, that's usually it for people. Thanks for matching my energy and then tempering me. It's what was that? That lack
of oil changes was on your girl? That was on me. I will own oil all day long. Yeah, that's had I had an engine catch on fire because I forgot to get an oil change. It was a Saturn s L too, and it had a leak. Yeah, and um so it wasn't completely on me, but it was definitely overdue for an oil change, not to the point where it should have caught on fire, but I was driving down the highway and I was like forty five minutes from my house too, and it just like fire out
of yeah fire. So that was fun. But that's not my story. My story is with my current car. And I don't know if this was this maybe is the most Like So I was in a season of my life where I really wanted to pay cash for a car, and I decided to and it was an eighteen thousand dollar purchase. Is the car I have now, which is two thousand six Hyundai Tucson. It's like that turbo It's
not a great car. Um I would love. I would love to get one that doesn't like sputter when in the morning when I try and like leave my driveway. But I'll need a few years, I guess. So I
wanted to pay cash for this. I had the cash, but like I could not I couldn't get the cash out, and like I didn't call to prepare my bank to like get that much cash out or to put that much on a debit card, and it was just its like the process of actually paying for the car took longer than like what it would be for me to go through financing, and by the end of it, I was like, I'm never paying cash for a car again.
I'll just finance because I was like, how much extra would it have been for me to just finance this and like pay it off in a month And They're like maybe like a hundred bucks and I was like, well, that was worth my entire day. I would do that. So so yeah, that was my um several years ago, my last car buying story. And uh, I know that will sound sacrilegious to some people, but um, yeah, next time I'm going to finance. Um, but I'll also have
a trade in. Last time, I did not have a trade in because I gave my car to my mom, So that was another reason, like it was so so much at one time time. But yeah, that that actually is a really good point to mention to car shoppers today because with interest rates going up, it may make more sense to pay cash for a car if you have,
you know, that money somewhere. But a lot of people keep that money and investment accounts and they need to talk to their financial person to play musical money and get that out of wherever it's invested in into a checking account where they can actually convert it into a certified check or why are the funds to the dealer
with the market moving so quickly. If you are actively car shopping and you plan to pay cash, make sure you have that cash sitting in your checking account before you find the car, because once you find that car, things are going to have to move super fast, and the dealers don't like to wait. And if you've got to then call your financial person, get ahold of them. They have to sell some stocks, move some money. It could take a week. Even with the deposit, the dealers
may not hold the car that long. So if you want to pay cash, make sure that money is sitting in your checking account before you start car shopping, and you know, be prepared. Another thing I've noticed is that even though some of the best interest rates are with credit unions, there are some credit unions like usa A who are amazing. You get approved in like two hours. They send you a letters for the dealer to draft
the money directly from them, boom you're done. But a lot of credit unions are still operating on kind of the old fashioned community paper humans and it can take them two to three weeks to approve a car loan. No dealer will wait that long. So if you think you want to go through your credit union, get that preapproval before you start shopping. Find out from your credit union how long the process is. How they get the money to the dealer. Do they get the money directly
to the dealer? Do you have to come in physically signed papers they hand you a check? How long do that take? Because in many cases we have not been able to use the client's credit union because they were moving slower than molasses, and the dealer just wouldn't move that slow, so they're like, no, sorry, we come in mortgages, you can't get a you can get a mortgage with a credit unionet now because they just moved too slow.
Good to know the same thing over there. Yeah, um, come on credit I know they're so great though, Definitely refinance with your credit union even if you can't make a purchase of them. Man Leanne, thank you so much for coming on the show. This has been so so good. Definitely gonna re listen when it comes time for me to buy a car. Where can people get more from you if they need more information? Absolutely they can go to my website, The Car Chick that's c h I
c K dot com. I have my own podcast called The Straight Shift. I've got about eighty five episodes out there with all sorts of car buying advice from buying a car, selling a car, may obtaining your car, driving your car, just some fun stuff. I'm getting into telling people about electrified cars right now, so I'm passionate about
educating people. We've got a blog out there, and I'm actually the process of developing an online car buying course to teach all of my secrets, and we're hoping to have that launched um fourth quarter this year, so I'm hoping October, so definitely, you know, check back on the website on that because I just unfortunately I cannot personally
work with everyone. I typically have a wait list, and I want to be able to help everybody, so at least by having this car buying course, I can at least get my knowledge out there for people that are tackling the car buying process on your own, especially in the current market. Fantastic, Thanks so much, Leanne. We appreciate it. Thank you for having me. I'm really honored. Your energy has been really fun and I enjoyed hearing your stories.
As well change your oil. If you don't take anything else away from this, there's your reminder get your tige. That was everything I thought it would be and more. Yes, we hope that you got an even if you're not in the market right now to purchase a car, that you will hold onto these little nuggets of wisdom. Revisit this, definitely share it with a friend that you know is in the market to buy a car um and that you will just kind of return to this as a
one off whenever you need it. We hope you feel more empowered, more educated, and more knowledgeable, more equipped, and thank you all so much for listening. Many of you know we have a private community where we do monthly money challenges and offer accountability groups, and we want to take this time to congratulate one of our members for a massive win. This comes from Victoria and she shared on July one, I started writing down every time I spent money. By the third day, I realized why this
never for me in the past. I found myself justifying reasons why I didn't need to write down a charge. For example, we had to buy a new battery for our motorcycle and I didn't write it down because it's not a normal charge and won't happen for a long time. After catching myself and writing the charge down, I realized, these are the times I'm swiping my card and not really paying attention to it and therefore throwing my budget and balances off. What an amazing realization. I still do
this sometimes too. You're not alone, Victoria. Yeah. So congrats Victoria for making uh that realization, and we're super proud of you and excited to see what being fully intentional will look like for you down the road. Thanks everyone for listening. If you want to check out our monthly challenge community, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club to see what challenge we have coming up next. See you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian.