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_{Exploring buying cars, calmness, and information leverage}

Happy Sunday! Thanks for reading Intentional Dollar — where we look at old money ideas through a new perspective.

What’s inside?

• One idea to experiment with

• Two quotes from others

• Three questions to dig deeper

• Four lines of poetry for the point

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.

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_{One idea to experiment with:}

Buying Cars:

My wife and I recently bought a car, very recently actually, last night, and I’m reflecting on the process. My sample size of buying cars is small. Still, I think many people share similar experiences. Not everyone, of course, but enough of us that it feels like a pattern.

As I’ve been reflecting on the process, one question keeps circling my mind: why is this how it works? I have a lot of questions about car buying, but that’s the main culprit.

Why is buying a car like this?

We went to a dealership yesterday morning, pulling in right at open. The moment we entered the lot, it felt like we were helpless, hapless, wounded fish that had inadvertently swum into a den of sharks. They all stare at you. Hunger in their eyes. You can almost see their pupils dilating, their jaws expanding.

From time zero, you are a prized meal to be consumed and ushered through the process that is buying a car. It’s a terrible process, and I know I’m not alone in thinking that. With fifteen sharks staring at you, your mind keeps wondering which one is coming for you. So you’re already on the defensive. Before you even step out of your car, your alert systems are screaming.

You know the niceties are pomp. The photos of families, oddly, the only personal items in these bleak, bland “offices,” are always positioned to face you, the customer. They’re a ruse meant to disarm the alarms that have been deafening since you pulled in. They’re all a ploy to get your dollars.

They know they need one thing from you early on: for you to tell them you love a car. That’s their first goal. Find you a car. Hear you say you love it.

How did it feel? Do you have children? This one has our highest safety rating.

The single orienting goal of each shark is to consume as many of your dollars as possible. A secondary goal might be to make you feel good about what they just did to you. Once they know, because you told them, that you’ve found your car, you’re on the hook. Concession one goes to them.

They continue to deploy tactic after tactic, all designed to turn up the heat: scarcity, incoming demand, timely incentives, urgency, facetious compliments, relatability, friendliness, family-oriented signaling, more sales tactics than I could write in my notebook.

They make it raw and personal:

“I can’t do that.”
“I won’t make any money if I do this.”
“I’ve got no profit in this vehicle now.”
“You’re costing me my job.”

Why? Because the more of this they tell you, the better you think you’re doing in the process, and the less margin you’ll actually extract from the deal. They are kindly, and sometimes, if you run into a used car sales manager named Carlo(s), very unkindly, ushering you toward the checkout line.

After the sales specialist finds you a vehicle you’ve said you love, it’s time to “get the numbers.” If you don’t negotiate, you probably only deal with this specialist. Maybe the sales manager comes in, lays it on thick, thanks you profusely, and compliments your choice. You pass go and head to the finance manager, or business manager.

But many people know this is how the process works, so they negotiate. If you go back and forth more than once, you unlock a new level: now it’s you and the sales manager.

After deploying the full suite of sales tools, you arrive at a price. The sales manager earns the sale. Now you, too, get to head to the business manager.

After an exhausting span of time, where you believe you’ve finalized pricing, the business manager “wraps things up.” You are sold again. Interest rates. Warranties. Maintenance packages. And because you’ve already agreed to the sale, they know you’re likely to go along for a few more dollars each month. You’ve got to protect what you just spent all that money on, right?

So why is the process like this?

The textbook delays. Splitting the difference. Tiny concessions. Making you feel like you “won.” When, no matter what, no car sold is a solo win. Dollars are paid in many forms. Maybe they cleared inventory that sat on the lot too long. Maybe they earned more allocation for next year’s model. Maybe they captured more dealer holdback than they let on, or margin from your financing rate, extended warranties, or month-end volume bonuses.

I don’t know why it’s like this, so for now I’m still shaping the lessons from our car buying interaction, lessons on how we can better sell our dollars in the future.

• Ask as many questions as you can. Leverage is an information game. The more you know, the more power you have.

• Buy on key dates: month-end, quarter-end, year-end.

• Don’t buy their attempts to make it personal. It’s a business for both buyer and seller.

• Learn how long the car, or similar cars, has been on the lot. Days on lot are the dealer’s golden key. Aging inventory is costly and risky.

• Use their process against them. Understand the stages. If the sales manager is done budging on price, hint at higher-margin add-ons (like extended warranties) to reopen flexibility.

• Always be ready to walk away.

• The more time they invest in you, the more likely they are to sell to you, at your number.

• Think in terms of out-the-door cost. They want you focused on monthly payments. Keep those cards hidden.

• A car’s value is not its price, but its circumstance. In this sense, value is ever-changing, negotiable (very), and elusive.

_{Two quotes on calmness:}

Quitting happens when we project and ruminate. It never happens in the moment. It’s always a recollection of how hard the past was and how difficult the future will be. A calm, evenness to the present moment is the path to endurance. Life is endurance. Money is endurance.

_{Three questions on information leverage:}

1. How can you use questions to get more information, more leverage?

2. What are the questions I need to ask to get the information I need?

3. What information do I need to have the leverage?

Which question stuck with you? Questions like these are spotlights for the mind. Reply to this email and let me know which one shined light on a previously dark cave.

_{Four lines of poetry for the point:}

Contact Me:

Content ideas, questions? Reply to this email or reach out to me at [email protected]

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.

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_{*Per Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd}