Saturday, May 7, 2016

The Stress of Buying a Car, Relived and Relieved

It was time to put OG to rest. OG is my name for my trusted 2002 Camry. It’s short for Old Girl. We are sisters in that way, with many miles clocked and regular maintenance to keep us on the road safely. OG was good to me and I to her.

When it was clear that my daily miles were beginning to be too much for OG, I was forced to part ways. 

The stress of buying a car and dealing with the dance of sales and negotiating is nothing I do well. Truthfully, I don’t do it at all. I am not a negotiator and don’t have the emotional energy for such ‘dancing’. I don’t want to do the dance of parlaying and sashaying with salespeople, their managers and whoever else needs to be consulted for me to drive away in a car.

My husband’s last two car purchases were made through the same salesperson, John Sireci. At that time he was with Kia. Hubby’s experience was such that he sent relatives to deal with John when it was time for them make a car purchase, plus Kia makes a fine vehicle. We learned that John had left the Kia dealership and found him on Facebook, of all things, now with Matt Blatt , a family owned dealership.

Working with John is a pleasure. His diplomacy in steering me away from a less than desirable choice is silky smooth. I was clear that my next vehicle was one that I wanted to be fun but functional. My initial choices I thought were exactly what I had in mind, and I test drove every one of them. John, being the seasoned salesperson that he is, let me get that out of my system before recommending what ended up as my final selection, a cherry red  Elantra, sporty looking with excellent gas mileage and well within my budgeted price range.


I wish there were more sales people like John Sireci. He treats you like he would want to be treated as a customer. That kind of customer service is invaluable.  It goes a long way in wanting to keep doing business with that person.