April 21, 2006

April 21, 2006

Kingston, Ontario

YEAR 2 DAY 308

 

Today was another sunny, pleasant, warm day.

This morning after regular chores and preventive maintenance, I prepared and printed a "feature sheet" for the truck, to assist dealers in assessing its trade in value. I have many "after market" improvements installed on the truck. We left about 11:30 A.M. for our meeting scheduled at noon at Kingston Dodge. When we arrived, or sales rep had not yet done the "homework" we had expected him to complete by the time we returned this morning. We sat down in his office, to await the preparation of his list of trucks that met our requirements that he could quickly obtain from other dealers, and his dealership's assessment of Dee-Dee's trade in value. He tapped at keys on his computer. He left his office and returned many times. He seemed to be "spinning his wheels". After 45 minutes I asked " Did I mention how impatient a man I am ?". He didn't seem to grasp my subtlety. I had to tell him outright to get productive or we were leaving. I repeated those sorts of comments a few times until we had been there 2 hours. Finally, after 2 hours, he had produced 2 printouts of trucks that met our requirements, that he could quickly obtain from other dealers, and ... finally ... a trade in value.

I freaked ( again ) ! The approximate retail value of our truck should be approximately $15,000. I expect that to translate into a trade in value in the vicinity of $10,000. Their trade in offer was $5000 ! I don't think so ! That's less than the cost of the repairs I've done to the truck in the last 3 months. I expressed my contempt and we left. If I'm wrong, I'll find out from the next couple of trade in assessments I get, but I'm certainly not about to accept that kind of low ball bullshit from the first dealer. I'd like more trade in "opinions".

We went to a Tim Horton's for lunch. We found an RV dealer and I bought a new shower faucet assembly. We found a large shopping mall. I went for a haircut and beard trim. Joanne went to withdraw some Canadian money from an ATM, and shop at Zeller's. I phoned MTS Mobility and changed our cell phone plan from a North American plan to a Canadian plan. I phoned Autopac and asked some questions about buying a new vehicle in Ontario that will be registered and insured in Manitoba. We drove across the street from the large shopping mall to a public library. The library had Wi-Fi, so I was able to get online on my own laptop. Joanne went to do some Yellow Pages research on car dealers. I sent and retrieved e-mail. I updated my blog. I retrieved both the Canadian and U.S.$ MasterCard statements. I retrieved some recent investment trade details.

When the library closed at 5:00 P.M., I was just finishing on the Internet, and Joanne was just finishing with the Yellow Pages. We drove to another nearby mall with a large grocery store. Joanne went into the A & P to start grocery shopping. I went to the PET VALU store, in the same mall, owned by our friends Brian and Joyce Malley. Their son, and store manager, Jason was there. I chatted with Jason for awhile, then joined Joanne in the grocery store. By the time we finished our grocery shopping and returned to Rideau Acres it was 7:00 P.M.. We were out longer than we had anticipated we would be. I walked Bo, and fed Teddy and Bo while Joanne put away groceries and began preparing supper. I did today's accounting.

We had supper, then I worked on today's journal entry. I studied a used car sale magazine I picked up to try to ascertain the reasonable value of Dee-Dee. Late in the evening I went and purchased a Truck Trader magazine, for the same purpose. I drove by the home of our friends Sep and Susanna Liang, who are in the process of relocating to Alberta. Their house was dark, and vacant. A sold sign was on the lawn. I guess their relocation to Alberta is complete.

Another long, trying day.

DSK