“$54,000 — out the door.”

by Mariel Estipona, guest contributor
As told to Ruth Tindugan

It was marked $74,000 at the showroom, slashed to $64,00 for the Memorial Day sale.

Nathan liked the car.

It had been six months since his Tesla was totaled at a car accident. The bright side was, the on-ramp collision did not hurt both drivers. And it happened on the day I retired from my government job so he had been driving my car to work.

After some lessons on car buying and its financial reponsibilites, Nathan decided to get a used car.

I said, “Nathan, we’re going to pray for your next car.”

We searched the ads, compared prices and mileage. Somehow, nothing seemed to fit what Nathan liked. He was getting tired of “waiting and praying”.

One day, a red Lexus RC-F model popped up. It had 15,000 miles. Its “blue book” re-sale value ranged between $53,000-58,000. We both agreed that $54,000 would be fair, and so we prayed for that amount.

It was a day after the sale event when we walked into the dealership.
I said, “Nathan, don’t say a word. I’ll handle this.” He nodded.

A young salesman greeted us warmly. We told him we were interested with the Lexus.

“Great!” the salesman said. “And we will honor the Memorial Day sale price of $64,000.”

“Fifty-four thousand,” I said.

“Oh, no ma’am. This car, which is already a performance-oriented model has been upgraded,” he replied.

“Nice,” I said. “Fifty-four thousand, out the door.”

The salesman looked at me, and sensing I won’t budge, said, “Let me talk to the supervisor. The supervisor repeated the salesman’s pitch. I maintained my footing.

“Well, there’s another appointment that will look at the car if you dont get it,” one of them said.

“No problem,” I replied.

They called the manager. “Lexus has retired its luxury compact coupe red segment and this is the last one around,'“ he said, looking intently at Nathan.

I remained with my bid.

Finally, one of them asked politely, “Ma’am, what’s with the fifty-four thousand?”

“Well, that’s the amount we prayed for,” I said.

Their faces looked puzzled as if that was the strangest thing they’ve ever heard from a buyer.

They huddled for a few moments, then the manager returned to his office.

The salesman said, “Okay. How about $55,500. Just $1,500 for us to have a little gain.”

Nathan gave me a sharp look as if to say “C’mon, Mom. It’s not that much.”

It took three seconds. I wavered on the first two, but reclaimed my stand on the third.

“No,” I said. “Let’s go.”

As we stepped out Nathan, who kept his mouth shut as instructed, finally blurted, “Mom, it wasn’t that much!” The disappointed look for missed opportunity was all over his face.

I stopped, turned to him. “Son, we prayed for $54,000. Trust me. They will run after us.” He looked at me, shook his head, possibly thinking “this is incredulous,” but he knew me well enough not to argue.

We were about to get into my car when we heard it.

“Wait! Mr. Estipona, you got the car!”

Nathan signed the papers, and got the keys.

We parted at the parking lot.

But before he stepped into the Lexus, he turned to me and said, “Mom, you have great faith!”