Hunting the Outback.

It's snowing in Tarrytown as I write, the first snow of the year. This is no Syracuse or Buffalo or even Loveland, but s**w happens. Iliya, with whom I work, told me that there will probably be four or five days when I won't be able to get to the lab. That got me thinking. Once I turn onto the Columbia campus, it's about 3/4 of a mile to the lab, and 1/2 mile of that is somewhat steep downhill. Predictably, it's uphill on the way back. The roads and the driveway might not be plowed at 3:45 AM, and my Prius, although otherwise a wonderful car, has often been stuck on the flat driveway outside our garage in Loveland.

That's when I decided that this might be a good time to get an all-wheel drive vehicle. I'm happy with the Prius, but better traction would help with getting to and from work, and would also be really helpful in Colorado. I started looking for the right car. It turned out that Twila, too, had been thinking about AWD, and she'd chosen the Subaru Outback. Eventually that's where I landed, too. We picked identical vehicles, even the same color. If we eventually get them, I suppose we'll have to mark hers with red paint, or something. (Kidding!)

Buying the Outback would be no problem, I assumed. After all, things are different now. Go on the Internet, find out what the price should be, go to a dealer, drive away in a shiny new car. But it didn't quite work out that way.

Armed with a price from Consumers Reports, I went to a local dealer. He coughed and sputtered about losing money on the deal (would never happen), but we might have made it happen. Unfortunately, I needed the title for my Prius, which is in a safe deposit box in Loveland. Thanks to government bureaucracy, it took 5 weeks to get a duplicate title, and by that time the dealer was getting picky and unreasonable.

I went to Costco.com and got a price and a dealer, in the Bronx. He agreed to the base price, but the dealer-installed accessories added up to a bundle. For example, a trailer hitch. The MSRP is $463 and the Costco price is $347. The guy in the Bronx wanted to charge $463 plus installation. I searched online and the highest price I could find for an Outback trailer hitch was $180. I told Bronx Guy in no uncertain terms that he was charging too much. It didn't seem to bother him.

Then I did some research and I'd erred. The dealers can charge whatever they want for the accessories. I sent email to the three dealers CR had given me and asked them what their price would be if I ordered the car with all the options I want dealer-installed. No-one responded within several days, so I ate humility pie and called Bronx again. I said, "Sorry, my bad." He said, "Come on down on Friday. Bring your title." Bronx Guy's price was $29,418 (plus tax and license).

On Friday I cleaned everything out of the Prius, erased all the codes and other personal data, gathered the papers, and headed for the Bronx. I was sure I'd surprise Twila on Sunday by picking her up in an Outback.

It wasn't much of a dealership, just a garage on a corner with some Subarus parked in front. Bronx Guy was older than I'd imagined but seemed friendly. He was the only one there. He took a key to go look at the Prius, but I don't think he knew how to work it. When he came back, he told me he'd called someone to come look at my car. He gave me my key back and said I'd better hang on to it, which I thought was strange, since I'd be leaving it there. Then he made copies of the title and registration and my driver's license. After a while he told me the guy had arrived to look at my car, and he asked if I had a price I was looking for. I told him $9240, which was the lower of the Edmund and Kelley Blue Book dealer trade-in prices. He laughed.

When he came back he immediately launched a big story about how dealers don't follow Edmund or KBB blah blah blah, and I'm thinking, "Just give me the damn number." "Anyway," he said, "I can give you $6800." I was flabbergasted. I argued and pleaded, but Bronx Guy seemed to be having fun. I almost caved in, because I'd been so sure I'd be driving away from there in a new car, but eventually I came to my senses. I walked away to the sound of chuckling.

When I got home I went on eBay Motors and saw that cars like mine are getting much higher prices than even the Edmund number. Probably Bronx Guy had been running a trip on me. Then something even more surprising happened. One of the CR dealers finally wrote back and gave me a price with all the accessories installed - $27,615! Not caving in and buying the car from Bronx Guy had saved me $2000 without a trade-in and at least $4400 with it.

So far I've avoided calling him and chuckling.