Need cookie salespeople !

I can't actually remember that far back but wouldn't it be better if door to door salespeople brought tangible stuff to sell you ?

Lots of people actually seem very keen to sell me stuff right now. I'm not actually that interested in buying but people seem very keen on selling.

The latest was a fella from Lovefilm (who immediately got a negative due to having no ID) who was keen. Gotta give him that. But ... I've seen all the various adverts from Lovefilm and have zero interest in their services. Yeah, there is some shininess there but :

Films - I'll buy it on bluray
Music - I buy it on cd or via iTunes/Amazon
Games - I buy them via Steam

The operative word there being "buy". I'm not keen on the renting services like Lovefilm and Spotify. There's numerous disadvantages like : Paying more in the long run. Not having free choice of what you watch. Having to wait between choice and watching. Losing all benefit at the whim of the renting provider. If they go bust ? Byebye collection.

Fella from Lovefilm also didn't understand the meaning of "I'm not interested". I don't really have a huge problem with salespeople but I will very quickly start to get impatient with those that insist on wasting more of my time than it takes to tell them to go away the first time.

No - I'd prefer to buy actual movies which will give far superior quality to streaming it from the internet. It's also cheaper to get 5 for £30 and watch several times than it would be to rent.

There does seem to be a shift though. People are looking to make it so you don't own what you buy. Things like software effectively being on a rental scheme. You aren't free to transfer ownership of items like mp3s. I don't think I could transfer any of the items in my Steam library to a third party like I could with my games on dvd.

But that's enough about Lovefilm. Car people seem very keen on selling things at the moment ...

Had the call from the Lexus people at the weekend offering me a deal on a new CT. That's been followed by a "confidential" email telling me about a marketing event this weekend. Deals etc. Worth looking into, I can only say good things so far about the Lexus experience. But ... I like my car and it's given me no reason to change it.

That's more than can be said for the other offer today ...

Yes. Carcraft are also out for sales. At least that phone call stayed polite as I told them to go away. I think their guy got the message as soon as I told them that I'd already changed car. Let's have a look at Carcraft's terms ...

12.9% APR or 19.9% on representative. That's the big nasty. It's what makes car ownership expensive. That interest really adds up over the years. Let's look at 2 examples :

Carcraft Jaguar XF - 2 years old, 32k miles, £23k. That works out as £533 per month over 4 years or £577 over 5 according to their "representative" calc. Scary numbers.
Lexus GS450h - 2 years old, 30k miles, £23k. That's £513 per month over 4 years at 5/10.5% APR or £428 per month over 5 years at the same 5%.

The totals are £28k/£35k for Carcraft or £27k/£28k for the Lexus. Dunno where that really expensive representative calc kicks in though for the Carcraft car, it's probably the figure you actually pay rather than the figure you believed you'd pay.

Anyway. Going to a main dealer can actually work out cheaper than going to the car supermarket. Main dealers need custom too. There's lots of competition out there and the more there is, the better it is for the buyer.

Oh and Lexus didn't pressure me into getting any PPI or servicing or other stuff like that. The servicing and warranty from Carcraft were derisory. The service wasn't a full service, it followed the Carcraft schedule instead of the manufacturer's recommendations and the warranty did not cover the mechanical failure my Focus suffered with its inlet manifold.

All that sales pitch call from Carcraft has earned them is a bit more disclosure on what my experience was with them. Glad that's over !

PS That Lexus GS looks shiny. But I wouldn't go for it as my next car. I have my fingers crossed that a hybrid version of this Lexus will come out soon ... It is an incredibly shiny car. But ... 9 secs to 60 is too slow for it, 30mpg combined is too greedy and 213g/CO2 is ouch worthy for road tax.
PS2 But it is shiny. And I have hopes for the LF-LC although I suspect that one will be too rich for me or have too much roof.

Last PS - if girl scouts came round here with cookies ? They'd only need to visit one house. But they should make sure to ring first to make sure I have enough cash to mean they don't have to visit anyone else.