Fishing With Sharks Part II

The sequel to Fishing with Sharks. Today we bought a car. Actually all day today we bought a car.

After I wrote that blog article, Sondra Arnold wrote suggesting we try the auto buying service with whatever credit union we belong to. So online we go and found out that MacDill Federal Credit Union deals with Florida Auto Group on Florida Avenue across from Stephanos Pizza (old Rigo's). Susan checked out their website and found it was is really good. It lists the cars, gives lots of details including the price and includes a link to check out their history on Car Fax. Susan has done all the research (Consumer Reports Used Car Buying Guide) and knows the kind of cars she wants. She spots several cars that look good.

So having taken the day off today because it is Susan's birthday, we go car hunting again. We had a plan. Nikkos for breakfast. Then 9:00 AM. Florida Auto Group. 10:00 The Credit Union Presidents Sale at the Glazer Family Corporate Welfare Stadium (aka Raymond James Stadium) Afterwards CarMax again. At 9:00 AM sharp we hit Florida Auto Group. The man who greets us gives us a business card and brochure and leaves us alone. We find two cars that interest us. One we dismissed immediately because it belonged to a smoker. (We can tell if a smoker even breathed on a car) The other one, a 2003 Ford Focus, we liked well enough to take a drive. Not a bad little car. Only 30,000 miles on the odometer. We tell the salesman Frank Perez that we will be back (in our best Arnold imitation - actually not) and leave.

On the way to the stadium we gird up our loins. As we were going to the Shark Tank to swim with the sharks, we needed to be at our best.

This event is occurring the the grass parking lots to the south of the stadium. We pull in and park. We barely get 10 feets from our car when we get assaulted be a shark. "Let me help you find what you are looking for" I bark out the line that became my mantra, "We're fine" while thinking in my mind, "bug off!" We wind out way through the gaunlet until we reach the safety of the credit unions tent. After finding out the how things work in this 4.59% sale, we tend out wounds and strike out to search in earnest. Again "We're Fine" spitting out of my mouth as we get approached. We know what we want, we just to see who has it. Most of the cars have big red tags that list the regular price and then the sale price. Easy to tell what cars are in our price range. Until we stumple into Brandon Mitsubishi. They do that cheesy game where there is no price, only a code that the shark knows and so you are forced to talk to them. Not for us though, we pass them buy and keep looking. Having looked at cars at Carmax and Florida Auto Group, we started to realize that we were at the Wrong Presidents Day Sale. I though this was the honest Abe Lincoln and George Washington Presidents' Day Sale. Instead we were at the lying George W Bush /Dick Cheney Presidents' Sale. The discounted prices were still high and it turns out the $5000 discount was a minimum $5000 trade in for our car. We leave the grounds and when we arrive at out car, we decomtaminate ourselves with handiwipes. We felt so dirty, just being surrounded by all those (fill in the blank with your choice of choice words.)

So off to CarMax we go. A saleguy meanders by, gives us his card and goes away. We check out the PT Cruisers which I love but those seats are hard and uncomfortable. We grab the sales guy and test drive a 2001 Saturn (52 k miles) which was also not bad. We head home to get some lunch as I did not want to make any decisions feeling lightheaded.

The decision. Let's Get Focused! So we trek over to Florida Auto Group. We meet Scott and Frank Cannella and tell them we want the car, we get our buyers form and go to the credit union to get our paperwork. We come back and at 5:00PM we own the beige 2003 Ford Focus. Zip over to Stephannos Pizza for one of their great Cobb Salads and home we go. For dessert we eat some very tasty Flan Con Coco from Magy's Dessert (3101 N. Armenia Avenue) that Ginny and Virginia brought over for Susan's birthday.

Now all we have to do is sell Caddie Beamer, Susan's 1990 Toyota Camry. (That car is named Caddie Beamer in a sort of a pun. We bought our first house in Forest Hills from an elderly lady named Caddie Beamer. And will Caddie short Cadillac and Beamer for BMW, well we could not resist. Yes we name all of our cars now. My red Ford Ranger is named Azi, short for Isaac Azimov. We don't know what the Focus will be called.)

So. My recommendations. Want to buy a car? Try Carmax and Florida Auto Group. The sales staff at both places are low key and leave you alone. Plus you can check out their inventory online and get all the details you need. However to buy at Florida Auto Group you need to be a member of a credit union. If you are not a member of a credit union consider joining the Tampa Bay Federal Credit Union. To join all you need to be is a member of one of the three Seminole Heights Civic Associations. Want a good Cobb Salad? Go to Stephannos.

Now someone might take me to task for buying a car from one of the used car lots in Seminole Heights. The problems is not some much that we have used car lots, but that we have so many and that most are ugly. Hey, they gave me the best deal with good service. I'd say keep them and get rid of the rest of those car lots. Maybe we can work on them improving the look of their lot. One other thing. They have a lot cat that lives in the office and hangs outside the front door, that seems to be well cared for. In the vestibule area outside the front door is has a bowl of cat food, a water bowl and even a cat house. Anyone who treats their lot cat that well has got to be good people.