Agreed, I'm an idiot.
I've bought 2 used cars in the last 10 years, and both times were a pleasure. I'm a personable (charismatic?) IT guy, I tend to get along with just about everyone. Hell, I took work on an indian reservation, where EVERYONE told me I was going to deal with tons of racist shit all the time, and instead am like the local celebrity. I guess I just haven't really had to deal with very much bullshit in my adult life, so I'm always very surprised when I do. I don't usually deal with any confrontation, and I don't know, I'm basically full on pussy mode. I don't even lift, bro.
I'm not usually dumb. My credit has to be outstanding at this point, and the reason I didn't want to get a loan is because I worked so hard to get out of debt. Finally achieved that this Feburary, took like 7 years of putting any extra money towards payments to get completely out, and other than my mortgage, I told myself I wasn't going to do any debt again if I could help it.
As for the dealerships, I have no idea. I haven't needed a car in forever, but I went to 4 different dealerships saying I was looking to spend under 10k and got laughed at on every occasion. They were trying to show me cars that were like 16-18k at the lowest at every place (Except the KIA dealership which said the lowest USED car would be around 20k). So I went "Well fuck" and took the net.
As for bringing my wife and kids, my wife wanted to test drive it with me, and it was such short notice we couldn't get a sitter for the kids. It was a Friday evening (July 19th) and I had to leave in the morning for 8 straight days of work. So, the plan was, my wife drives us up there, my friend watches the kids while we test drive, then my wife drives her car home with the kids, while my friend and I take the new car to catch an IMAX show before heading home. I figured meeting at a bank would be safest, but as long as it was a big public place, yeah, murders aren't super common.
Man, I really should have quoted to answer all these questions. I'm not in Vegas, I'm in Kingman Arizona, just over an hour away. And yeah, I have the girls home address, phone number, and her boyfriends phone number as well. I think I will probably try the "Send a notarized letter from an attorney" idea before I try the "MURDER HER" one though.