A year and a half ago I was shopping for my first car ever. I never needed one until then because I live in
Since it was my first time buying a car, I fell for so many of the car salesmen tricks such as the bait and switch the crossing out the price so it looks like I was saving a lot of money, the rare find in the middle of the used car lot, the works. It wasn’t that I really fell for them, it was more that I was just experiencing it for the first time.
One of the tricks that they play is by telling you that you will get a certain rate for financing and your monthly payments will be x dollars if you choose this car. When you are all excited, they give you the keys, tell you to sit in “your” new car and congratulate you on the purchase. They then get you to sign the contract and give a deposit. Once this is done, the salesman’s job is pretty much over. He hands you over to the financing department to finalize everything and then “you can drive off the lot in your new car”.
The financing department likes to make you wait a long time so that when you finally see them, you are tired and just want to get it over with and drive home. They made me wait for 4 hours until the dealership was closing up and then called me in and said “I know we’re both tired and want to go home to our families so let’s just get this over with”. They handed me a whole bunch of forms to sign and then I can drive home. I asked what my monthly payments would be and they tried pushing it off and telling me not to worry because I had good credit. I demanded to see my monthly payments and I said that I wouldn’t sign anything until I did. They then gave me this crazy high number that I couldn’t believe. They were giving me 12.9% financing when I was promised 4.3%. The person I was dealing told me “I don’t know who told you that but this is what it is”.
I already gave my $500 deposit, I wasted hours of my time and I was really tired. I decided to cut my losses and tell the guy to jump in a lake. As I walked out of the office and then the dealership, the finance guy, the salesman and the manager chased after me begging me not to leave. They started lowering the financing as we were walking, they even dropped the price of the car $1000. I got on the subway home completely frustrated and upset since I wasted so much time but more because I expected to be driving home that night.
Unfortunately, many people in that position just give up and say to themselves “I already invested the time and deposit, I should just go through with it”. I cut my losses and it was the best thing I could have done. I can never get the time wasted back but I learned a lot of lessons from that day that are as precious as the time spent. The dealership finally gave me back my deposit after weeks of calling my credit card company, the dealership, the Better Business Bureau and other complaint centers.
2 weeks later I bought the newer version of the car I was looking at fully loaded for less than I would have paid at the first place with the financing. I bought that car because it was in the showroom at the end of the month in a color that was not so popular and I got a really good deal on it.
In life there are many times when you invest in something, be it a business, investment, a big purchase or gambling, and you just need to cut your loss because if you don’t, you will end up losing more. Unfortunately, the natural reaction is to hold on and pray or hope for the best which doesn’t usually end well.
Lucky people set limits before they have to cut their losses. When they gamble, they decide the amount of money they will win or lose before they leave so that they don’t keep trying to make more and lose it all or make the money back that they lost. When buying stocks, lucky people set up stops so that if the stock goes the wrong way, their loss will be a minimum. Don’t think that just because you already invested something that you have to hold on. Lucky people cut their losses and move onto bigger and better things.