Rhonda and I were off work yesterday, and decided to look at a couple of cars to replace our aging 2016 Subaru WRX. It had almost 100k miles on it and was starting to look pretty beat up. We did the dealership visit and decided to purchase a new white 2025 WRX.

I’m pretty used to haggling and dealing with dealerships, having bought a few cars of my own and also the boys’ cars. I mentioned to the salesman that once we’d decided to buy, when the time came to meet with the finance manager, that I wouldn’t be purchasing any of the additional items she would be waving in front of me.

I got through the initial barrage of offers as I normally do, bristling at the “why? Is it an affordability issue?” That they use to shame you into buying packages. What I didn’t expect, however, was that once we’d agreed to a loan term and expected an approximate monthly payment, she mentioned that she got us a really low APR on the loan (0.9%) and was “able” to keep the monthly payment the same as we’d agreed on even with an eight-year extended warranty.

I asked if that was an additional warranty beyond the factory, and if so, what it cost. She dodged the question and said that the monthly payment would be the same. So I asked what it would cost without the warranty, because I didn’t want the warranty. She tried pretty hard to push the warranty, but I pulled out the original workup that the salesman had given me and I asked where on the sheet the warranty was. It was not, of course, on the sheet.

So we got out of there with a much lower monthly payment. Over the term of the loan, we would have paid an additional 5k for the extra five years of coverage.

That’s a nasty business. Vipers lurking in every corner.