Adventures in car shopping (part trois)

When last I reported…

• I’d found a deal with LeasePlan.NL on a blue Ford Fiesta, but
• Both my personal and business banks had turned down requests for financing.

LeasePlan subsequently reviewed my business, requesting a copy of my plan and my incorporation but not my bank statements, and offered to lease the car if I put 20% down.  Monthly payments were reduced proportionately, and, after verifying the math and the terms with a Dutch colleague, I signed on.  An order was placed with my local Ford dealer, who  notified me that the car would be delivered in 10-12 weeks.

Ack!

Again, I’m used to the American system where you simply don’t leave the showroom without the keys, no matter what the deal structure is.

The lease agency says that if you want the fastest car delivery, you have to know to specify that, rather than the most convenient car delivery.

I started working with the dealer and the lease company to find a shorter delivery alternative.  The choices were:

• They would rent me a car at 20% discount (about 1000 per month),
• They would see if another dealer had a stock car that was somewhat equivalent (requires all of the lease paperwork to be rewritten and re-approved, at least two weeks),
• They would start over, if I wanted to pay the lease penalties, since the dealer had ordered the car.

None were good.  But I sat down and talked things through with the dealer; they had an equivalent demo car coming off off a salesman’s use, if I wanted that for two months, paying rental charges equivalent to the lease payment, I could do that.

Perfect.

So I’m now the proud custodian of a little silver bullet for the next couple of months.  One more problem solved…now if the apartment leases just dovetail in the next few weeks…

Note: Jimmy Buffett got to fly a Grumman Albatross around the Caribbean when he turned 50, so I feel like I have a ways to go to  step up from a Fiesta.

This is a great book, by the way, for turning the corner of midlife.