‘Used car salesmen’ has a certain connotation for a reason. You can get into financial trouble really fast if you’re sweet-talked into buying a car you can’t afford.

But what would you do if your spouse fell in love with a car and sided with the salesman?

In this man’s case, he just said NO and almost dragged his wife out of the car dealership, but afterwards she pointed out that he was “cold” and inconsiderate of what she wanted.

Was he in the wrong?

Let’s read the whole story.

AITAH for vetoing my wife’s car purchase in the dealership and walking her out of there without looking at the car she picked out?

So my 29M wife 27F is a SAHM mom by her choice until the kids are old enough to go to school.

Her older Honda SUV recently bit the dust when it needed some major repairs that totaled more than the value of her car.

This was right at the beginning of the work week for me, so I unfortunately didn’t have the time to sit with her and look at the car immediately.

But he knew it would be better if someone experienced helped her.

I told her she can do some research first or she can hold off until my days off and we could do some research together.

I gave her a maximum budget of 20,000, but it was flexible if she found something she really liked.

In the meantime, I lent her my car (Mustang Mach E) and took public transit/uber to work during the week.

But she didn’t wait for him.

On one of my half days, I get a call from my wife saying that I need to come to a dealership after work and look at a new car she wants.

I get a sinking feeling knowing she went to a dealership without me knowing how predatory they can be, so I ask her for the address.

It’s a Lexus dealer.

I asked her who recommended it, and she said that one of her friends has a boyfriend who works there and that they would work out a nice deal for her.

That friend happens to drive a Lexus and managed to get my wife in love with her car.

It was as if his wife were being recruited to join a Lexus cult.

I got off work and drove over to the dealership. On the phone with my wife, I locate her and this “car sales professional”.

I ask if she’s seen and driven the car. She says yes, she likes it.

I ask the salesman, “how much is it, out the door?”

He says “Well your wife and I were discussing some options, how much do you have down?”

He heard enough.

I said “Honey, we’re not buying a car today, let’s go.”

She asks why, I say because he can’t give us a straight answer about how much the car costs.

He says hold on, and prints out the sheet.

The *used* 2020 Lexus GX 460 she was looking at was an eye-watering 56,000 dollars after taxes, fees, and addons.

I said “No, honey that’s not what we agreed on”.

But she tried tempting him like she was a saleswoman.

She asked if I could at least look at the car before I left, but I said no.

The salesman tried to butter me up and sell me on the car and say they could work on the price, but I just took the keys from my wife and left.

Eventually, I was able to sit her down and show her some much more affordable options that wouldn’t require us financing the car and going back into debt.

She ended up purchasing a nice used Honda Pilot Touring that she ended up liking.

But his wife is still upset.

That car all told purchase price and then some overdue maintenance items came out to about $21,000.

This incident in the grand scheme of marriage was a blip.

But she did say I seemed cold and unreceptive to what she wanted at the dealership.

I defended myself by saying that the sales strategy in a dealership sometimes is to make one spouse love the car, and make that spouse feel like the salesperson is on their side.

This is so that they might purchase a car from them even if it’s not a good decision for the couple.

Her friend is also a little upset that I treated her boyfriend rudely at the dealership.

But from my perspective, that wasn’t my wife’s friend’s partner, that was a car salesman trying to put us in $800 a month worth of debt for the next five years.

AITA?

Maybe the way he handled the social aspect wasn’t exactly nice, but he was quick on his feet.

Let’s see what Reddit thinks about this.

An insider’s scoop.

Something to mull over.

Exactly.

A reader shares some thoughts.

Oof.

Another reader chimes in.

It was a win.

He got out of there faster than Max Verstappen and saved them a lot of money.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.