February 14, 2008 - I don't recall any Valentines Day doing anything particularly special, and today was no exception...but at least I feel somewhat justified this year. I drove Ellie to work, then drove to work myself. After work, I picked Ellie up, and then we quickly fed the dogs, and drove out to 19 to sit in traffic. We finally made it to Chipotle for our free burritos earned 2 days ago by buying $10 gift cards, and picked up the order we had phoned in. Ellie dropped me off right down the street at the Pontiac dealership, and then continued on to class. We hardly had any time to see each other today, so it's not like I could have done much for Valentines Day, even if I wanted to...same for her. My dad showed up after a while, and we talked with the dealer. My dad is a much more practical buyer. I'm an emotional buyer, so I needed him there to get the price down. He didn't mess around, and within about 5 minutes had the dealer talking about invoice and discounts. We ended up leaving anyway, because I still have a few used cars to look at. Buying a car is something that I really dislike. Unlike most everything else, where the price is set, and at most someone might use a coupon to buy something, or a few people might know the owner and get a personal deal, when it comes to cars, everyone pays a different amount, and you have absolutely no idea who got the best deal and who got the worst, or where you fall in that spectrum. Car dealers have so many different options to choose from, and different model years available, that there is no practical way to compare your total price to someone elses. Then they take that final price (if you ever even negotiated on price - dealers prefer negotiating your monthly payment because then they can set their profit at whatever they want) and whip it up into some kind of financing plan that maximizes their profit. The dealer I talked to last Sunday said it right. "It doesn't matter what price we sell them at, we still make money." From hold backs to dealer incentives to destination charges, there are ways for them to make a few hundred here and there. What a scam.