Buying a car from a 6’7” salesman

I just bought a 2024 Subaru Outback XT with 4,000 miles for $32K plus taxes, title, yada, yada, yada from Casey Subaru in Newport News, VA. It was the best car-buying experience of my life.

Now let me tell you why. Buckle up.

I loved my old car — more than my 1964 Chevy Impala (with a 2-speed power “slide” automatic transmission), more than my 1967 MGB (which I flipped and totaled, but survived without a scratch), more than my 1962 Dodge Power Wagon (which I paid $600 for, got into an accident with inside of a week, then sold three days later, with the damage, for the same $600), more than my 1964 Cutlass convertible (its V-8 was a gas hog: 8 mpg, but it only cost me $400), more than my 1964 Chevy C10, more than my 1972 Chevy Nova, more than my 1967 Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider (which Dustin Hoffman drove in “The Graduate”), more than my 1980 Audi 4000 (which ate me alive in parts and service after five years), more than my 1990 Mazda Miata (which was like my MGB, but with Japanese reliability and electric windows), more than my 2008 Toyota Camry Solara (equipped with a Lexus RX330 V-6 engine–sweet!).

My old car was a 15-year-old VW Passat Komfort Wagon 2.0T with 177,000 miles.

Now let me tell you why I loved it:

It performed better than any car or truck I have ever driven. Why? Here’s the secret:

It wasn’t the turbo, or the finely tuned German suspension or the Michelin tires. What made that car special — and unique — was its 6-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission built by Audi.

So it was a VW driven by an Audi transmission. And because the engine was only two liters, it got 40 MPG on the highway. I’m an INTJ. And INTJs prize efficiency over anything else.

Even though the engine was on the small side, when you mashed the pedal to the floor, the turbo spooled up and the transmission took off. Turbo+Audi transmission=Zoom-Zoom (sorry, Mazda).

And, because it’s a station wagon, it’s long enough to hold my 8-foot-long dinghy. That’s right, I could put an 8-foot boat inside my car. SUVs have more cubic feet of storage, but I’m a sailor and needed length because lots of things on sailboats are long. And if you need length in a relatively small vehicle, you need a wagon.

But here was the other hitch: 2010 was the last year for the Passat wagon. So I couldn’t just buy another. So, I tried and tried to keep that car running — shout out to Derek Patton at Checkered Flag in Virginia Beach — but as they say, time and tide wait for no man. Sadly, the time had come for my Passat.

Yesterday, I was thinking strategically about my car: I need a car to perform the basic functions of daily life — and to continue unabated with the work on my website.

My old car was 15 years old, the heater was broken and winter was coming, and the engine light had been on for a year because there was an oil leak at the rear engine seal that would cost $2,500 to repair.

And yesterday, the airbag warning light came on.

As a pilot, safety is always Job 1 (sorry, Ford) — I am very serious about my physical safety, even though I am a big-time risk-taker.

And now water had become trapped between the floor and chassis, due to a leak, so the car was probably “totaled” because all the electrical wiring would need to be replaced. But I really loved that car.

And, I did not want to give up on its performance, because I think a car needs to be both practical and fun to drive.

So my options were really slim. I saw two German station wagons on Monday: a BMW for $120,000 and an Audi for $157,000 — are you kidding me?

So yesterday I drove a Subaru Outback — a Japanese station wagon that performed like my German Passat wagon — it had all the length of my Passat (so my dinghy would fit), it had a turbo, and it handled the road as well as my Passat because it had all-wheel drive.

And it was only $32,000 and it was only one year old with only 4,000 miles — virtually brand new. And for a little more, I could get bumper-to-bumper coverage from Subaru for 8 years.

I dealt with Nathan in Sales, Donnie the Sales Manager, Paul the Finance Manager, Thomas in Service, Tabitha in Parts and Chloe in Scheduling. Each and every one was open and friendly. They seemed undaunted by my neurodivergence — that’s what I’ve been calling it lately. I don’t know what it is clinically — I’ve never been diagnosed — but I know I am not like other people.

We shared stories about cars we had owned — Paul agreed that the old Jaguars were beautiful, but Pieces of Shit because of their Lucas “‘Prince of Darkness” electrical systems. We talked about Audis — Nathan drives an Audi even though he sells Subarus and he agreed that maintenance on a German car is a bear. His had blown a head gasket.

Oh, one more thing about Nathan. In a word, he was great.

If you look up the word “chill” in the dictionary, you will see a picture of him. I asked him what was the greatest number of cars he had ever sold in a day, and he said five — and on that day, he went home early, so he had sold five cars in fewer than eight hours.

But I spent almost five hours with him, so I asked him “How could you sell five cars in less than a working day, when you are spending so much time with me?”

And he said, “I normally don’t spend so much time selling a car.”

I apologized for monopolizing his time, and he said “No man, we’re cool. You’re cool. Don’t worry about it.” Did I say Nathan was chill?

I am a short 5'5", nebbishy-looking, 70-year-old Jewish man. I look like an accountant. Or a dentist. Or a urologist.

Nathan is a handsome, 6'7" Black man. We made quite the odd couple. But we bonded instantly, and he was the best auto salesman I have ever met. I would buy anything from him — no matter what he sold. He made the process fun and frictionless.

I really like to drive. It is entertainment for me. I don’t drive recklessly — I have a spot-free driving record. I don’t drive fast, but I like to “push a car” hard. I need to know what a car can do. Because sometimes, in an emergency, you may need more than everyday capacity. I think this “need to know” comes from decades of flying high-performance aircraft. So I need to know the performance “envelope” and know where the limits are.

And I told this to Nathan before we took a car out for a test drive. I basically warned him what I was about to do — I was going to take a sharp turn at 30–40 miles an hour. And I was going to lean on the accelerator to “power me” through the curve, rather than ride the brakes, like most people do — that’s the way you drive an under-powered foreign sports car like a ’67 Alfa or a ’67 MGB or even my 1990 Mazda Miata.

But I did scare the shit out of him. He told me he had never seen a human being do what I did.

Like I said, I once owned a 1967 Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider — the same car Dustin Hoffman drove in The Graduate, the 1967 social commentary starring Dustin Hoffman and directed by Mike Nichols. The soundtrack was by Simon and Garfunkel.

The Alfa only had a 1.6 liter engine. No fuel injection back then — it had dual, side-draft Weber Carburetors — which passed for “high-performance” in its day. It had no turbo, so to get any performance out of that little engine, you really had to “work the gearbox” — you needed to keep the revs pretty high, because that was one thing that little engine could do.

Unlike a horizontally-opposed engine, like the one I had on my BMW motorcycle (super reliable, by the way — I rode it to California and back — in 5 days) or an inline 4-cylinder, transversely mounted engine, like I had in my Passat, the Alfa was double overhead cam (DOHC) and those engines are “spirited” and high-revving — like a Ferrari — but you have to keep the revs up to maintain torque.

So I explained to Nathan what I was about to do — and why — and Nathan said he was cool with it — until after I did it.

“Whoa!” he said, as he grabbed for the overhead handle to steady himself.

I didn’t mean to frighten him, but I guess I did. He claimed that he felt the car “drift” — and I fully expected it to, and I knew what to do if it did — in advance. Because a good pilot always knows what he’s going to do next, while he is doing whatever he is doing in the moment. (I’m using the word “he” because it makes my writing clearer. But my close friend, Bill, who flew 757s, told me his training officer was a woman and he said she was great. So, no offense intended, ladies.)

But I didn’t feel it drift — so I was satisfied with the performance. Just his surprise. Nathan remained cool. Because Nathan is cool. He’s Nathan!

But there was one problem — no turbo — and I love the on-demand performance a turbo delivers. My Passat had a turbo, and my last airplane — the plane that Tom Cruise flew in “American Made” — had four turbos.

So I asked Nathan if he could find me an Outback with a turbo. So he started looking through his inventory online. I told him I preferred pre-owned to new.

He said “So what are we talking about here? 27? 32?” I thought he was talking about mileage.

But he was talking price. I thought, Shit, if I can drive outta here for $32K in a car that was safe — remember, my car was displaying an airbag warning — I will buy a car today. Right now. And then Nathan said he found a car with a turbo — which I craved!! — and it was on the lot and it only had 4,000 miles on it.

So the stars seemed to be in alignment for me. All I needed to do was test drive it to see how it compared to my 2010 VW Passat wagon. Not to repeat myself, but my Passat was really special, because the 2010 model was the only Passat wagon that also had a 6-speed, dual-clutch transmission built by Audi — and Audi is all about engineering.

While I was waiting for Nathan to finish the paperwork, I struck up a conversation with Thomas from Service:

I was happy to learn that my new Subaru has a horizontally-opposed engine, which I think is a terrific setup for an engine — it’s the same configuration as the engines in all the airplanes I once owned — because the movement of the pistons in the horizontally opposed engine naturally balance within the crankcase.

From Google: A Subaru horizontally-opposed engine, known as a BOXER engine, is a flat, compact design where pistons move in opposition, canceling vibrations for a smooth ride and allowing it to be mounted low in the chassis for a lower center of gravity. This design improves vehicle stability, handling, and safety, while also contributing to a more direct power flow and potential fuel efficiency.

Nathan offered me the car at a fair price, so I didn’t haggle. I wanted to build a relationship with Casey Subaru, and attempting to save $500 or $1,000 would have interfered with that. I really value relationships, because when you need help, you don’t want the other person to hesitate.

I met Chloe in Scheduling — a young girl, maybe 24. I emphasized to her that I am old and probably neurodivergent. She said, “No, you’re not. I really like your personality.”

She was having trouble with a balky computer. I told her it wasn’t her fault. It was the fault of the guy who created the UI, who hadn’t made the UI easier for her to use. Instead, he made it easier for him to code. I told her when I write UIs, I work hard to make them easy for users, like her, to use. I told her I really care about my users.

So. Why did I choose Casey?

I live in Norfolk. There are three Subaru stores near me — one in Virginia Beach, one in Chesapeake and one in Newport News. But I live in Willoughby, so for me — even though I live on the Southside — it takes no more time to for me to drive to Newport News than Virginia Beach or Chesapeake.

So, why Casey? Even though Checkered Flag VW had serviced my Passat for 15 years, I had had one bad experience there a couple years ago, and I vowed never to return because I was treated disrespectfully, even though I was a long-time customer.

So I took my VW to Casey VW and I had a good experience.

However, a year later, I went back to Checkered Flag VW for some major problems no one could seem to fix. I met with Derek Patton, who by then had been promoted from Service Advisor to Shop Manager. Derek is great. I can’t recommend him highly enough. Some of the new, young service advisers at Checkered Flag VW are inexperienced and really don’t know cars — they are the polar opposite of Derek.

Derek is a big guy, and I’m just a little shrimp. But he is a “gentle giant” and really knows cars. He also treated me with kindness and he could “get in the weeds” with me while I tried to keep my aging, and since-discontinued, VW Passat running. I remain indebted to him.

So here’s my conclusion: I had one satisfactory experience with Casey VW and one outstanding experience with Casey Subaru. From Nathan’s patience, to Donnie, Paul, Thomas, Chloe, Tabitha, Casey made the process fun, frictionless, and deeply human.

I highly recommend Casey for any brand of car.