Important Math Principles

I understand salesmen, even if many of them can be annoying. I completely understand that their job is to make money by getting you to spend money, and it's their job to 'help you see' that you actually need to buy more than you originally thought. What I don't understand is what happened over and over again last night.

I'd walk onto a used car lot, grab the attention of a salesman, and give him the price range of car I'm looking for (specifying that I mean out-the-door, after taxes and title). The salesman tells me to follow him and leads me to a much nicer car than I expect. He tells me how great of a car this is and how he thinks I'd like it (cause he knows me so well). And then I look at the sticker and realize that this car is advertised for more than twice what I quoted to the salesman.

Really? I mean I can understand a couple thousand more than my quote if you're ambitious, but more than twice as much???

Needless to say I didn't have much to look at last night. It seems with the economy in shambles all the used cars are being snapped up and it's only the new cars and just-off-lease cars that are left.

Erin suggested I quote the salesmen 50% of what I'm willing to spend and then maybe I'll get to see the cars I want. I guess cooperative mathematical success is not expecting others to do their math correctly, but instead understanding exactly how their math is wrong and preemptively changing the values to make the final answer correct.

And speaking of important concepts in math...

posted by Brett at 8:52 AM