THE RIGHT THING: LIVING DOWN TO ONE'S REPUTATION

As fuel prices have risen, used-car prices have come down. Prices have declined since 2006, Scotiabank reports. Those declines have accelerated across North America in 2008, and promise to continue well into 2009.

Nevertheless, I recently found myself in need of a used car.

Immediately my thoughts ran to the most recent Gallup poll that asked people to rate the honesty and ethics of various professionals. Once again car salesman placed next-to-last on the list, slightly ahead of lobbyists. Of the people surveyed by Gallup, 53 percent said that they had a low or very low opinion of car salesmen.

Maybe, I whispered to myself, the car salesmen I was about to deal with would go against the stereotype.

No such luck. Shopping online, I found a used car that matched what I was looking for. I requested more information and was contacted by the dealer, who asked me to come in for a test drive.

I went to the dealership, tried out the car and liked it well enough. But the price was more than the maximum that I wanted to spend. I asked the salesperson if she could do any better, and she said that she'd have to speak to her sales manager -- a first step in a dance that's not uncommon in the industry.

She spoke with him and he came back to talk to me. He pointed out the car's bluebook value and its ownership history, both of which I'd already looked up, and said that the dealership couldn't budge on price because it needed to make some money. The Internet prices, he told me, were the lowest he could go. Nevertheless he came down by $700.

Then he asked me how much I wanted to spend. The answer: another $800 lower than his original price.

The sales manager told me that he would have to call the dealership's owner to get permission for such a discount. I found it curious that the owner of this large dealership would take calls on the weekend of the Fourth of July, so I watched as the sales manager scurried to his office and chatted with another salesmen in an adjoining office, never once picking up his desk or cell telephone.

He returned about 10 minutes later to tell me that he had talked to the owner, but that the owner wouldn't budge on price. He lied.

I thanked him and left the dealership.

Now, I know that a certain amount of posturing is to be expected in used-car transactions, or indeed in most negotiated deals. That's fine. The salesperson and the sales manager played a little game with me, and the sales manager let me cool my heels while he ran some numbers. That's all to be expected, part of the art of the deal. Everyone indulges in some give and take and holds back a few things. I didn't come in and give my bottom-line price to the first salesperson I met, after all. I was ready to play the game.

But I draw the line at blatant, transparent lying. Yank me around, OK, but lie to me -- and do it obviously enough for me to spot it, which is not one of my skills -- and you've lost my business.

The right thing for the sales manager to do was to dance me around as much as he wanted, but to draw the line at lying to my face.

That not being the case, the right thing for me to do was to shop elsewhere, which I did.

The right thing for you to do, when faced with a liar who wants your business, is to walk away. Who needs to build an already-suspect business relationship on a foundation of outright lies?

c.2008 The New York Times Syndicate (Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate)