Buick Park Avenue image from the web.
We needed a car. I had never tried buying a car online before, since it was still somewhat new in 2010. However, my research showed me a 1993 white over grey Park Avenue Ultra that was loaded and had lower miles.
I called the Hyundai dealer which was about two hours away. The salesman whom I spoke with was named Nolan, who was very friendly and helpful. When I inquired about the Buick he told me that it was a very well-kept car, one owner, and perfectly clean.
I asked him to please take some detailed pictures of the car and send them to me. I agreed to call him back with a final decision once I looked at the car closer. When those pictures arrived, I found the car to be in very good condition with no rust, one piece of trim missing and a glossy paint job.
I called Nolan back to negotiate a price. However, I didn’t know that this was his first sale!
They had it priced at $4195 and that was high in my opinion. So I offered them $2300! Nolan didn’t know what to think, so he quickly said he’d talk with his manager. After three times of my giving the same offer, and being turned down, I thanked him for his time and hung up… knowing this was far from over.
In a few minutes, my phone rang, and was Nolan. He was nervous but wanted to sell a car, so he asked me to come up on my offer. I declined. When he asked why, I explained to him that most people are not looking for used Buicks, especially at a Hyundai dealer. So he asked me if I was a serious buyer and when did I plan to make a decision. I told him that I would buy a vehicle in the next 24 hours.
Again, he asked me to hold on for a minute. He was taking this new information to his manager. When he came back on the line, he shared that the “ best price” they would give me was $3300 plus tax, etc. I told him that my original offer stayed, but that now it was reduced to $2300 out the door. I told him to look up the car’s worth and find out how long they had owned it. We hung up.
Again the phone rang and this time Nolan sounded excited. He told me that he had convinced the manager to accept $2800. Once again, I declined and asked him to just let it go, and that I’d start looking elsewhere.
“Please hold on for just one minute”, he asked.
I told him this was the last time and that if his manager wouldn’t talk to me, then he didn’t want to sell that car very badly.
This time he came back with a yes! They would sell me the car, as is, for $2300 out the door. I told him I’d take delivery the next day at 2 pm. With that he thanked me. We hung up but I held my phone in my hand. Nolan had forgotten about a crucial part of the deal –my deposit.
My phone rang one more time and this time Nolan asked me if there was any chance that I would put down a deposit. I asked him how much they wanted and he told me they decided that they wanted $1500 down. I laughed and said I will allow you to have $250 down and I’ll give you my debit card right now. Otherwise, cancel the whole deal. They happily accepted and later on, I would find out why.
The next day, Cindy and I made the two-hour and 15-minute trip to pick up our beloved new 1993 Park Avenue Ultra. When we arrived at the dealership The car was as represented in the ads; very clean very well-kept. We finalized all the paperwork and decided to go to dinner. By the time we were through with dinner and came out, it was dark. I jumped into Park Avenue only to find out that none of the lighting worked. I told my wife to follow me back to the dealership so they could fix the issue. When we arrived, I got to meet the manager. He told me that they would fix the car, and fill the tank in both cars for us for the issue.
Then he asked me where I learned so much about negotiation tactics. I told him that I’d sold cars. He told me that Nolan had left the factory work behind and wanted to sell cars. He said that I was the first car he’d sold. I told this manager that I had asked Nolan how easy it was to sell an older Buick at a Hyundai dealer where most people are buying new cars, and that a person buying an older Buick has the knowledge of how dependable they are. I also told him I knew selling that car was a big loss for him.
Then he opened up: the dealer had taken that car in 10 months prior. When they couldn’t sell it, they sent it to auction. They used a man who would pick up cars from a few local dealers and he would run them through the auction. However, he went bankrupt and all the vehicles were considered as assets. He told me that after all was said and done, he had well over $5000 in that car, between what they paid and all the legal and towing fees.
Park Avenue interior. Image from the web.
We got the car and drove the wheels off of it. It was a very dependable car that was driven all over. Our son drove it from Ohio to Florida and back, it made several trips to Chicago, and I used it when I was still doing flooring measurements. At the three-year mark, we had hit 183,000 miles and it stopped running. After many hours of our mechanics trying to get it running, the best they could do was to get it to run for maybe an hour or so and it would shut down.
I traded that car for a pickup truck. The dealer sold it only to have it returned to them on a flatbed the next day!
And as far as Nolan, well I spoke to him not long ago. He’s a highly respected salesman at the same dealership. He still talks about selling me that Buick which is followed by “So Chip, can I sell you a new car?”
Related reading:
Curbside Classic: 1991 to 1996 Buick Park Avenue – The C Gets An A+
CC Capsule 1991 Buick Park Avenue – A Heritage Of Class
Curbside Classic: 1994 Buick Park Avenue Ultra – No Sin To See Here
You, sir, are a man after my own heart when it comes to negotiating with a dealer for the purchase of a car. And during my recent Charger purchase, our salesman was a young guy who had just started selling cars after spending some time as a power company lineman who had to give up climbing because of an injury. He was a nice kid but we knew that his manager was keeping him on a tight leash by how much time the manager spent at the table with during the negotiations – which I considered to be quite a luxury, the way it eliminated many “I will ask my manager” delays.
It sounds like you came along at just the time when the dealer decided it was time for that oddball Buick to GO. Timing is everything.
The “big Buick at a Hyundai dealer” wouldn’t be the sales impediment today that it once was. I shop for used cars online now using AutoTempest.com, which aggregates nearby new and used car dealers as well as most of the online places used cars are sold (Craigslist, eBay, Facebook marketplace, AutoTrader, Carvana, CarGurus, TrueCar, and some other private sellers.) CarMax is the only big one that seems to be missing. I plug in the car(s) I’m looking for and it comes back with a listing with everything that matches my search criteria, regardless of what place is selling it.
I was a fairly tough bargainer with the last two new cars I bought. The VW dealer where I bought my 2007 Rabbit used some odd tactics, like suggesting it was unmanly to not honor an earlier price offer I had made earlier (sorry, that won’t work with me.) Rather than push the car price lower I asked for more for my trade-in and the lowest available interest rate on the 4-year loan. They thought my credit score was too low. Credit scores though are basically mere suggestions for financial institutions that don’t know you, intended to use demographics and history to determine if you’re a credit risk. They are not directly tied to the interest rate you get. I told them I had never not paid back a loan on time and I should get the lowest rate. When that didn’t change their mind, I told them I would buy my other contender, a Scion tC instead and started to walk out the door. The salesman stopped me and told me to wait a bit longer, he wanted to talk with the top manager. I don’t know what strings he had to pull, but they finally agreed to sell it at the agreed price with a lowest interest rate loan. Lesson here: despite all you hear and read about your credit scores being crucial, knowing how the process works and saying the right things in the right way to the right person matter more than a three-digit number.
In retrospect, I should have pressed that dealer for an even lower price. The car I wanted (which was on their lot) was a top-trimmed green 4-door hatchback with a manual transmission. I realize now what lot poison this probably was and why the manager was willing to placate me on the interest rate.
This generation of Park Avenue is GM’s best sedan of the ’90s; impressive in just about every way, especially interior materials and design, usually a GM weak point in that era. Having driven a non-Ultra ’95 Park Avenue extensively and assorted others on occasion, I’d hold out for a ’95 or ’96 if buying a base PA and a ’96 if an Ultra. Those models got the new Series II version of the Buick 3800 V6 (supercharged in the Ultra), which are more powerful, smoother, quieter, more efficient, and (even) more dependable than the earlier Series I, plus have other enhancements like upgraded audio and switchgear, improved steering feel on some models, and some new features. The older ones are still quite nice though.
Series II 3800s have their own issues, a significant number had problems with the intake manifold and upper plenum, melting from the EGR stove and leaking gaskets. If corrected it is a solid engine though, capable of high mileages.
Best dealer negotiation tactic: be ready to walk.
I’ve read about this quite a bit, those things were frail (plastic?) and apparently it’s a good idea to replace these with newer replacement parts which have been strengthened. Once that’s been done these are super reliable with just routine maintenance. We got lucky with ours which still ran great when we sold it after about 15 years even without replacing the manifold and upper plenum.
We had these in the fleet when I worked at the rental car disposal dealer. With a huge number of Celebrities, Pontiac 6000s, Sunbirds and Cavaliers it was a hard time to like American cars for me. But I liked these Park Avenues. They felt luxurious enough and well built enough that I could see them being a great highway car.
Great story – it’s fascinating to find out the real backstory to a car that was an oddball on its lot. And I’m glad that Nolan ended up being successful in his career as well.
When we bought our most recent car – a Kia in 2018 – our salesman was also rather young, and had only been at his job for a few months. We purchased the car entirely online, so most of the negotiating was done before we arrived at the dealership, but I found both him and his sales manager to be extremely professional. It was the best dealership experience I’ve ever had.
Glad you got to enjoy the Buick for a good long time!
When I was selling Buick’s, the 1991 to 1996 Park Ave Ultra was one of my favorite cars. I liked it best in the white over silver with the gray leather and they were super comfy cars. Great MPG too. I sold my oldest brother and his wife a 1991 just like yours and they loved it.
Great story, and kudos to you for your negotiating skills. I admit that in my younger days, I actually relished getting into it with a car salesperson like you did. The “get up, sit down” and “I’ll need to talk to my manager” stuff was a fun game with the potential of great prizes.
Nowadays though, I have a hard time seeing that I’d put up with any of that. I’m glad that the opportunity doesn’t present often.
I thought that one place you were going in your story was that given that this started as an Internet sale, you’d find out once you got to the dealer that the car “had already been sold”. I have had a few dealers pull that trick on me about 15 years ago. All a scam to get you into the physical dealer where the sit down/get up and “the manager” could work their magic.
Man, I don’t miss any of that.
He still talks about selling me that Buick which is followed by “So Chip, can I sell you a new car?”
ABC
Always
Be
Closing. 😉
He wouldn’t be a successful salesman 👨🏻💼 if he didn’t try. 👍🏻
Great story. I learned some of my negotiating skills from my Dad. When he went to a dealer (me his youngest son in tow) he would not even sit in a car he liked, much less test drive. Then he would start the bargaining process which sometimes took and hour or more. Over 45 years of buying new cars I never test drove before making my offer. I have never been disappointed with a car and always got what I felt was a fair price.
I have been fortunate that I save and pay cash. That cuts out time wasted when a dealer try’s to sell me something with a low monthly payment. I only broke that rule once when I bought a car for my partner. After too many screwdrivers at brunch, partner loved the car, I agreed to finance. Years later after I realized what was paid in interest I said never again (not to screwdrivers but to financing).
My last new car purchase, and hopefully last at my age, was a 2011 Camaro. It was 2010, and I wanted a Camaro in a specific trim and color combination. I have also special ordered new cars my way and never just selected something off the lot. The Camaro buying experience was the best I have had. Even though the dealership was only four blocks from home, all communication was via emails. Once the price was negotiated & agreed (took 2 weeks) I went to the dealership for the paperwork. I lived in Canada at the time and they could not fine one to my specs in the country so it had to come from the factory. Issue: it was late May and the factory had just stopped accepting orders for 2010 models. So we had to order a 2011 model and production would not start until mid June. The dealer did not have 2011 prices but agreed to sell me my 2011 at 2010 prices. Turned out nice for me because the 2011s came with a few other nice upgrades and higher prices. A fun factor was I was kept informed weekly from the day the order was received to the day it came off the assembly line (assembly took about 8-hours). Received my car mid August 2010, and still happy with it to this day. When the deal was done I finally test drove a 2010 model. Because the wait time to get my car was going to be about three months, the dealership even offered me a 2010 loaner for a week, but I only used the loaner for 24-hours. All and all, I got the car just like I wanted, at a price I wanted, and had a wonderful dealer experience.
I, like you, was a new/used car salesman in another life. Knowing the stress and slim margins of that career path, I usually cut the sales person a break and try not to hammer them too hard. Unless of course, they are way off and are asking for it. It sounds like that was not the case with your Buick.
That being said, that’s probably the only 93 Park Ave I’ve seen that’s not emerald green.