One important part of the process in buying or leasing any vehicle is the person selling it. In my experience there are lots of people who will sell you what you ask for whether it is appropriate to your circumstances or not. Being a sales guy myself I understand the importance of being able to talk to someone who is straight about what your needs and wants are, how they may be different, how they may not in reality be practical, be able to identify and separate the fodder from the fluff and help you in your decision making process. There are lots of friendly people around who will answer your questions (although I am always surprised by the lack of product knowledge which seems to be endemic in the car sales profession) and sell you the vehicle.

I experienced salespeople who used a lot of hocus pocus in arriving at their price using tactics like inflating the MSRP, not giving you the advertised sale price right up front, inflating the loan and lease rates and undervaluing the trade. At the end of the day it does nothing but build on car sales people reputations. Here's the facts guys. "Stop treating everyone like idiots, even if we are. After all, we are going to buy a car, but maybe not from you."

The thing here is that you need to do your homework. Obviously if you are considering getting a Pontiac G6 and you are reading this, you are on the right track. Get your priorities straight and by straight I mean in order of most to least important. Write them down. Don't' be too worried about what it is you come up with. You can always change it but make sure you do it for the right reasons. In my case I want to buy a car that will last forever with proper care and maintenance. Guess what?  Short of totaling one in an unfortunate circumstance, they all will depending on much cash you have available. The question then becomes what will it cost and is this something we really want to do for that much money. Do we really want to be driving a 10 year old car in 2015? In my case no unless it happens to be really cool. So that changes the equation and maybe puts you back on track as it did me. I like new cars. I like style. I don't like unsafe vehicles, poor ergonomics, rotten service, undependability and less than affordable gas mileage. I also wish I didn't have to add any pollution to the air when burning up my share of hydrocarbons. So, since it is not a perfect world yet, make your compromises in areas you can live with.

Quite frankly I liked the style of the G6, the handling, power, size, fuel efficiency, and ergonomics. All seemed pretty good and combined with the "Employee cost" promotion and a good lease rate it just made sense. The only thing I was nervous about was the dependability of the vehicle so I purchased the 4th year warranty to take me through the 4 year lease. The last thing I want to do is make lease payments and try to cover the cost of any major repairs. But damn, those warranty programs from GM are expensive compared to other manufacturers. I guess they are betting the car will fail. If you are buying a car for the long term we may want to check the cost of the extended warranty from the manufacturer. Basically it's an insurance policy and you can be sure the insurer is not going to lose. I see it as how well the manufacturer thinks the vehicle will stand up to day to day driving conditions. The more expensive the warranty, the less confidence they have in the vehicle to survive over the long term.

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