Originally Posted by Tam

I'll never forget the first time I went to buy my own car. I went to my father in law and asked him to give me pointers on what to ask, and of course he wanted to go and work the deal as he was a car dealer himself and he knew all of these guys. But I was hell bent on doing it myself. I had him tell me what to ook for and told him if I got in a bind, I'd let him know.

So I got to the car lot, it was a black 79 Trans Am I was after. I told him I wanted to drive it and he handed me the keys. He wanted $4900 or something like that.. I drove it and let it get up to operating temp and took it out on the main highway and floored it, the instant I did, it started sputtering and by the time I took it back 20 minutes later it was over heating.

Guy came to meet with me and asked me how I was going to pay for it, and I looked him and said "Well, first thing, the seat isn't bolted to the floor, it runs hot, is burning oil because I lifted the hood and there is fresh oil all over the motor so it's blowing oil. It has a nasty knock in the bottom of the motor, and the wheels are way out of line, and that's just for starters. So unless you plan to give uit a complete rebuild or charge me under $2000, I won't be taking it today." and when I looked at his face after all of that, he was just looking at me stunned and didn't have a damn clue what to say or do.

YOU can teach her what to say and what info to have on hand, give her some tips, but let her work the deal all on her own, give her the tools and let her figure out how to use them. Otherwise she is going to get worked over and who do you think is going to get the blame for that one? YOU are. lol

Always give them the tools, make it come off like you are going to show her what to do and how to paint the picture but give her the brushes and let her paint it the way she wants to. She needs you to teach her, but she needs to DO it.

That's how I do with all 4 of mine. I give them tools, but let them make their own mistakes with those tools.