Had to have a vertebra and a couple of discs removed, then 2 titanium plates to hold the spine together and a titanium cage to stabilize it but after 5 months I am going back to work Monday. Start orientation with the new job. Still hurts but they give me good meds., just need to give it about a year total to get good new bone growth. Thanks for asking.
The surgeon said it was probably congenital and got worse over time. Should have been picked up by the neurologists I first started seeing 6 years ago and it wouldn't have gotten as bad but it is taken care of now, at least my neck is, still need to do my lower back but I think I am just going to get back in shape and double down on the sit ups to hold off a few years if I can.
Thanks, the hard part is done. Now to try and work again, had my primary doctor and pain management doc tell me to go on disability, I applied but just can't see just sitting on my ass so going to give work a shot, after an hour of physical therapy yesterday and then 11 hours of driving around to dealers and almost 6 hours in the Jeep dealer I think I can handle an 8 hour work day.
This is good advice. It's been a while but I believe they are required to show the dealer invoice price on the cars on the lot too if you are interested in one of those. I'd like to add a couple of things on the negotiation from the dealer invoice up to $500 over. You may need to be stubborn with the salesmen & manager to do this so have a little patience. I would also recommend going up no more than $100 at a time as you're going back and forth with them on this. So start at the dealer invoice, they may laugh and come down a little - take some time before you decide to go up $100. If you have to go up another hundred take more time and give the impression you're not willing to go up much more and may walk. You don't have to say it, just be very hesitant to go up more. There are many dealerships and they don't need to make a ton of money on each car. Someone will sell it to you for the price you want. It's also helpful if the salesmen are trying to meet some numbers for some promotion they may be doing. They care less about making a bunch of money on each vehicle at that point and more about the number they move.
Stubbornness is key to getting the price you want. I got to the dealer at 4 PM and it only took me a little while, maybe 30 minutes to key in on the vehicle I wanted, the next 3 1/2 to 4 hours where back and forth, first with the salesman and then when he thought he had me close he brought in the sales manager and then I got him down a bunch more. Invoice showing on truecar.com as $20,761, average price paid was $19,286 without TT&T so add another $1300-$1400 depending on where you are puts you about $20,600, I came out of there at $20,982 total. I was about $2198 underwater on my other car so effectively about $18,800 out the door for the new vehicle. I think your last point about them hitting their numbers was important, if I was there mid month instead of the last day of the month after 4 PM I doubt I get the price I did. Edit: Another thing, if you can have your bank check blackbook or NADA for you before you go so you know how much you should get for your trade. I checked KBB.com before I went to the bank and I am glad she checked blackbook for me because KBB was about $1900 lower.
Google Edmund's confessions of a car salesman for a great article from 2001 about a guy who spent 3 months undercover as a car salesman, and what he learned in terms of tricks, gimmicks, etc. It's interesting stuff.
