Adventures in Car Shopping
Now, I'm a pretty laid back person. Actually, I'm as easy going as it gets. Yes, I can be a little high strung, and yes, I can get a little rowdy and upset at times, but for the other 90% of the time, I'm easy going...trust me, if you had the life I had before I got married, you'd be laid back too in just sheer relief that I WON'T be going through that again. Plus, because I'm taking Zoloft, I don't get upset very often anymore.
For the time being, since he had total knee replacement surgery, my father has kindly loaned me his car. I'm his chauffeur on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's to take him to physio and drive him around town to do his errands.
My husband, as I've said a million times is and AWESOME guy...and I mean absolutely fantastic. I've been in a mean catch-22 for the last year and a half. If I don't have a car, I can't get a job, If I don't get a job, I can't have a car. It's the most frustrating situation I've ever been in.
My husband, when he bought his new car, he called me and said, what are your preferences? Well, being the laid back person I am, well, I just told him to get whatever makes him happiest...what did he bring home? A manual transmission car! I don't drive stick!!! Well, that pigeon holed me but good. What do I always say, Common Sense, it isn't all that common. I figured for sure that the love of my life would KNOW my limitations and take them into consideration when he made his choice, knowing that it would be the only car we would have and that I just might need to drive it. What did he bring home? A manual stinking transmission which I am not AT ALL comfortable driving. In a pinch on the highway, I can get behind the wheel of that car and take over driving because he gets tired when we're on long trips, but that is all I am comfortable with. I don't do traffic or hills in a standard transmission...I get really nervous and it lends me to panic attacks. I don't like rolling backwards and risking hitting someone, it makes me supremely nervous...I absolutely HATE standard transmissions...and he KNOWS that, but what did he bring home? A car with a manual transmission. In the six years that I've known my husband, he's only screwed up royally twice...TWICE in 6 years is really something to brag about! Most husbands screw up royally all the time! Mine doesn't...Thank God!!!!!!!!!! He is really on the stick, but Lord knows, when it comes down to making those crucial decisions, ooh, I get nervous. Every time I think about him making the REALLY big decisions without me since the "car incident", I don't leave anything to chance. He hears EXACTLY what I think. I don't quibble with it, I make my point very clear. The "car incident" is something I think for the rest of my life I'm going to be insulted over. Every time I think of it, I get sooooo mad. I just want to go ring his neck or beat him over the head repeatedly with something soft screaming "Why in HELL did you do that? Were you wearing your head up your butt that day? Do I mean absolutely nothing to you? Did you not think of my limitations and the consequences of your choice? Do you not know that this is insulting to me? How the hell am I supposed to be autonomous when you've just made it that I'm NOT!!!" But I don't because 2 screw ups in 6 years gets you a lot of slack from me. God bless him, he tries really hard to make me happy and I'm not going to be ungrateful. He has to cart me everywhere now and it's his own doing. So he's just going to have to live with the consequences of making a bad decision. He doesn't complain about having to take me places, he rather enjoys it, so it's not as bad for him as it is for me. The other hum-dinger he pulled was after I moved up to Montreal after his divorce. He is absolutely one of the kindest men on the planet. His ex-wife took the mother-load. I'm still so irked over that, but that is his life before me and I just have to like it or lump it...and trust me, I'm definitely lumping it. The other hum-dinger was a part of the divorce. Instead of keeping our very nice double bed that was only about 2 years old, what does he do???? OH MAN, I'm still mad about this and it was four years ago...he gives his ex-wife our GOOD BED and he takes the old run-down, dilapidated, hump-in-the-middle, king size bed from hell. I mean there were dents in either side of the bed! It slept HORRIBLY!! It was like looking at a nightmare every single time I went in our bedroom. When he told me that he gave her the good bed, I nearly about flipped. Again, I wanted to take out the firmest pillow I could get my hands on and totally beat the ever-loving bejeezus out of him. That man! He has his head on straight about 98% of the time, but oh man, if it's not...LOOK OUT. Something is going to get screwed up which is probably going to insult me and hurt my feelings very, very badly.
So, let's get on to the car thing...because the light of sense has fallen onto my husband and he says that it's time for me to get my own car. HALLA-FREAKING-LUJAH!!! It's about damn time. I'm so sick of not being able to go and do like I want to that I'm ready to start screaming and pulling my hair out. It's not fun to know when you get up in the morning that you can't go and do the grocery shopping, you can't go shopping for Christmas alone, you can't do ANYTHING without someone with you! It's frustrating! I'm a very private person and I like my private time. He respects that and I appreciate it, but the lack of autonomy is driving me absolutely insane!
So, he calls me up and says, "Hey, they've got a sale on over at the Toyota place, go see if there is anything you like over there." My whole body went limp and I almost cried I was so happy. I'm getting a car. Holy God, I'm getting a car.
So, I go over to the Toyota dealership. It's right by my Mom and Dad's so it was an easy trip after taking Dad to physio. I park my car in the lot and no sooner had I opened the car door, WHAM! I was wearing a Car Salesman up my butt. I was like..."Dude, come on, don't be so stereotypical, can't you just leave me alone and let me look at cars?" But noooOOOOoooo this bastard had to follow me around and hump my leg. I wanted to die and I REALLY wanted my husband at that very minute so he could have slapped that guy into next week. So he asks me what I'm looking for, and I explain about what my husband does in Environmental Education and that I'd really like to look at the Prius Hybrid. So, we went over and looked at them. The first one I saw was this cherry little Silver one...oh man, was I in love. Now not only is it a car I really really like, but it was also a hybrid so I was sending the proper message. AND it was the cheapest Prius they had, it was only $25K, which is not bad, with tax it would come out to $27K. Well, I took all the information that my husband asked me to bring home and got in my car and sped as quickly away from there as I could. Holy GOD! Car salesmen are the worst! That night when we talked about it, I already knew, with a payment of $500+ a month, there was absolutely NO WAY we could afford it. The phone rings, it's the car salesman from hell, I tell him, we're talking about it now, we'll see you tomorrow. So I tell my husband, you tell me what cars I can consider and fit in the budget and I'll make my choice from that. My husband goes over there Saturday morning and he spends like 3 hours going the rounds with those guys...the total Camel Trader he is, he got them down to $21K, but it still wasn't enough to meet our budget of a $300 or less car payment each month. I'm not working, so if my husband says, "That's the budget" that's it, I'm not arguing with him. For God's Sake! HE'S the one buying ME a car...I'm not about to even think about fighting him on it. So he comes home after wraggling with the car salesmen and says, there are some other cars there that fit the budget. I calmly said, OK, which ones? He says the Yaris and the Matrix. Well, I horse around and finally get ready, but while I'm putting on my makeup, my cell phone is ringing off the hook! The car salesman from hell called me 8 times in a matter of about, oh, 40 minutes! I HATE car salesmen!!! They'll bother you and pester you and push you...and I HATE THAT WITH A PASSION!!! Anyone who knows me will tell you, If I get pushed, I'm like a mule, I'll just politely sit my ass down and do nothing. Nobody pushes me around. NO ONE! Especially not a car salesman who could care less about me, and more about the money he's going to fleece off of us. Greed, it's one of the Seven Deadly's...and I've got no time for it from people who are trying to take our money from us. So we get back to the dealership, there's the salesman from hell ready to hump both mine and my husband's legs...he just would not lay off! So we look at the Yaris...uh, HATED IT! We looked at the Matrix...DEFINITELY HATED IT MORE!!! I wanted the Prius!!! But since it was so expensive, it's a no-go until I get a job and I'm able to bring in extra fluidity to the monthly budget. However, before we leave, I see this little Scion...ooh, me likey likey...great gas mileage and it's super sporty...mmmhmmmm...I liked that little car. So, I talk to a woman over on the Scion side...OMG she wasn't like the car salesman from hell at ALL! She was so laid back and so nonchalant about it, she didn't pressure, she didn't do anything, she just said, why don't we make an appointment one day that is convenient for you and we'll test drive it! Plus she said to me...uh, by the way, you can get this little car for about $350 a month. Angels sang! Birds flew! I was so happy I could scream! A car I liked, a saleslady that wasn't shoving herself up my butt...right on, I want to go back and see her again! I shake her hand and my husband and I are getting to leave the showroom unimpeded. So my husband and I are walking out of the door of the showroom and the salesman from hell comes back again...he's got another number to throw at my husband...greedy little bastard! OMG! Let us out the freaking door!! Finally I just told him, "Look, don't push, it doesn't help, actually it does the opposite. You're talking to two people who eat dinner in no less than 2 hours, ok? We're going to think about it and that is all we are going to do until we make a decision and you'll know either way." I had to jump down the little bastard's throat! I couldn't believe it!!
So we jump in the car and head out of the Toyota lot...fine, good, GREAT! Let's get away from the greedy bastard! So we head over to the Hyundai place. My husband drives a Hyundai and it was a great opportunity to get a burnt out headlight replaced and look at cars at the same time! Well, the service area was already closed for the night, but we look at cars anyways. Now the world's worst thing in car shopping is that you're always going to get some greedy bastard humping your leg. Hyundai was no different. The guy is playing to my husband when the car we will be buying is MINE! HI! Talk to the decision maker! I am choosing my car, not my husband, he just Camel Trades and works the numbers...I'm the one that is going to be driving it! Anyhow, it's cold, it's dark and this a-hole is floundering for keys! I test drove the Tuscon, I could feel every single bump in the road. NOT GOOD. Then we were going to test drive a 3 door Accent...but the one I wanted to test drive, well, the battery was dead in it and we stood out in the cold for over 30 minutes waiting for that bozo to find the battery charger, but by this time, I wanted to leave, I wasn't even going to mess with it and I tell my husband "Let's go". It just so happens that their "floor manager" comes out with the greasy little salesman and starts to hardcore pressure my husband, I mean HARDCORE. Now, in the 6 years I've known my husband, I live by one simple rule:
Don't piss him off.
It's four words and very easy to understand. Don't piss him off. It's just a fact of life. Underneath my husband's Zen Exterior is a raving lunatic with a VERY nasty temper. His Zen keeps it in check and he's usually such a cool cucumber that you'd think he had been put in the deep freeze. However, the floor manager, he just kept pestering my husband...I'm sitting in our car shaking my head, going, Don't piss him off, dude, don't do it... Yep, you guessed it, my husband's Zen shell cracked just a little bit. He got pissed. He told the guy that if he pressured him one more time, he would never EVER come back to that dealership and the owner would hear about it. I was surprised that my husband didn't pop that guy in the mouth. OH MAN! I thought for sure this was the day that my husband did his best impression of Michael Douglas in "Falling Down". However, the "floor manager" just didn't get the hint. That guy better thank his lucky stars that my husband has a lot of control, or he'd be a dead man right now.
After that incident, we went and looked at Honda Civic Hybrids...same price range as the Prius, so it looks like I'm going to be getting a Scion.
All that in less than 24 hours...car shopping is just painful.
I'm grateful for my husband today...he's the most spectacular and loving person I've ever met in my life, he's my husband, my best friend and I don't think I could live without him. But oh man, I would have loved to see him belt that guy in the mouth. Oh well, maybe someday.
For the time being, since he had total knee replacement surgery, my father has kindly loaned me his car. I'm his chauffeur on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's to take him to physio and drive him around town to do his errands.
My husband, as I've said a million times is and AWESOME guy...and I mean absolutely fantastic. I've been in a mean catch-22 for the last year and a half. If I don't have a car, I can't get a job, If I don't get a job, I can't have a car. It's the most frustrating situation I've ever been in.
My husband, when he bought his new car, he called me and said, what are your preferences? Well, being the laid back person I am, well, I just told him to get whatever makes him happiest...what did he bring home? A manual transmission car! I don't drive stick!!! Well, that pigeon holed me but good. What do I always say, Common Sense, it isn't all that common. I figured for sure that the love of my life would KNOW my limitations and take them into consideration when he made his choice, knowing that it would be the only car we would have and that I just might need to drive it. What did he bring home? A manual stinking transmission which I am not AT ALL comfortable driving. In a pinch on the highway, I can get behind the wheel of that car and take over driving because he gets tired when we're on long trips, but that is all I am comfortable with. I don't do traffic or hills in a standard transmission...I get really nervous and it lends me to panic attacks. I don't like rolling backwards and risking hitting someone, it makes me supremely nervous...I absolutely HATE standard transmissions...and he KNOWS that, but what did he bring home? A car with a manual transmission. In the six years that I've known my husband, he's only screwed up royally twice...TWICE in 6 years is really something to brag about! Most husbands screw up royally all the time! Mine doesn't...Thank God!!!!!!!!!! He is really on the stick, but Lord knows, when it comes down to making those crucial decisions, ooh, I get nervous. Every time I think about him making the REALLY big decisions without me since the "car incident", I don't leave anything to chance. He hears EXACTLY what I think. I don't quibble with it, I make my point very clear. The "car incident" is something I think for the rest of my life I'm going to be insulted over. Every time I think of it, I get sooooo mad. I just want to go ring his neck or beat him over the head repeatedly with something soft screaming "Why in HELL did you do that? Were you wearing your head up your butt that day? Do I mean absolutely nothing to you? Did you not think of my limitations and the consequences of your choice? Do you not know that this is insulting to me? How the hell am I supposed to be autonomous when you've just made it that I'm NOT!!!" But I don't because 2 screw ups in 6 years gets you a lot of slack from me. God bless him, he tries really hard to make me happy and I'm not going to be ungrateful. He has to cart me everywhere now and it's his own doing. So he's just going to have to live with the consequences of making a bad decision. He doesn't complain about having to take me places, he rather enjoys it, so it's not as bad for him as it is for me. The other hum-dinger he pulled was after I moved up to Montreal after his divorce. He is absolutely one of the kindest men on the planet. His ex-wife took the mother-load. I'm still so irked over that, but that is his life before me and I just have to like it or lump it...and trust me, I'm definitely lumping it. The other hum-dinger was a part of the divorce. Instead of keeping our very nice double bed that was only about 2 years old, what does he do???? OH MAN, I'm still mad about this and it was four years ago...he gives his ex-wife our GOOD BED and he takes the old run-down, dilapidated, hump-in-the-middle, king size bed from hell. I mean there were dents in either side of the bed! It slept HORRIBLY!! It was like looking at a nightmare every single time I went in our bedroom. When he told me that he gave her the good bed, I nearly about flipped. Again, I wanted to take out the firmest pillow I could get my hands on and totally beat the ever-loving bejeezus out of him. That man! He has his head on straight about 98% of the time, but oh man, if it's not...LOOK OUT. Something is going to get screwed up which is probably going to insult me and hurt my feelings very, very badly.
So, let's get on to the car thing...because the light of sense has fallen onto my husband and he says that it's time for me to get my own car. HALLA-FREAKING-LUJAH!!! It's about damn time. I'm so sick of not being able to go and do like I want to that I'm ready to start screaming and pulling my hair out. It's not fun to know when you get up in the morning that you can't go and do the grocery shopping, you can't go shopping for Christmas alone, you can't do ANYTHING without someone with you! It's frustrating! I'm a very private person and I like my private time. He respects that and I appreciate it, but the lack of autonomy is driving me absolutely insane!
So, he calls me up and says, "Hey, they've got a sale on over at the Toyota place, go see if there is anything you like over there." My whole body went limp and I almost cried I was so happy. I'm getting a car. Holy God, I'm getting a car.
So, I go over to the Toyota dealership. It's right by my Mom and Dad's so it was an easy trip after taking Dad to physio. I park my car in the lot and no sooner had I opened the car door, WHAM! I was wearing a Car Salesman up my butt. I was like..."Dude, come on, don't be so stereotypical, can't you just leave me alone and let me look at cars?" But noooOOOOoooo this bastard had to follow me around and hump my leg. I wanted to die and I REALLY wanted my husband at that very minute so he could have slapped that guy into next week. So he asks me what I'm looking for, and I explain about what my husband does in Environmental Education and that I'd really like to look at the Prius Hybrid. So, we went over and looked at them. The first one I saw was this cherry little Silver one...oh man, was I in love. Now not only is it a car I really really like, but it was also a hybrid so I was sending the proper message. AND it was the cheapest Prius they had, it was only $25K, which is not bad, with tax it would come out to $27K. Well, I took all the information that my husband asked me to bring home and got in my car and sped as quickly away from there as I could. Holy GOD! Car salesmen are the worst! That night when we talked about it, I already knew, with a payment of $500+ a month, there was absolutely NO WAY we could afford it. The phone rings, it's the car salesman from hell, I tell him, we're talking about it now, we'll see you tomorrow. So I tell my husband, you tell me what cars I can consider and fit in the budget and I'll make my choice from that. My husband goes over there Saturday morning and he spends like 3 hours going the rounds with those guys...the total Camel Trader he is, he got them down to $21K, but it still wasn't enough to meet our budget of a $300 or less car payment each month. I'm not working, so if my husband says, "That's the budget" that's it, I'm not arguing with him. For God's Sake! HE'S the one buying ME a car...I'm not about to even think about fighting him on it. So he comes home after wraggling with the car salesmen and says, there are some other cars there that fit the budget. I calmly said, OK, which ones? He says the Yaris and the Matrix. Well, I horse around and finally get ready, but while I'm putting on my makeup, my cell phone is ringing off the hook! The car salesman from hell called me 8 times in a matter of about, oh, 40 minutes! I HATE car salesmen!!! They'll bother you and pester you and push you...and I HATE THAT WITH A PASSION!!! Anyone who knows me will tell you, If I get pushed, I'm like a mule, I'll just politely sit my ass down and do nothing. Nobody pushes me around. NO ONE! Especially not a car salesman who could care less about me, and more about the money he's going to fleece off of us. Greed, it's one of the Seven Deadly's...and I've got no time for it from people who are trying to take our money from us. So we get back to the dealership, there's the salesman from hell ready to hump both mine and my husband's legs...he just would not lay off! So we look at the Yaris...uh, HATED IT! We looked at the Matrix...DEFINITELY HATED IT MORE!!! I wanted the Prius!!! But since it was so expensive, it's a no-go until I get a job and I'm able to bring in extra fluidity to the monthly budget. However, before we leave, I see this little Scion...ooh, me likey likey...great gas mileage and it's super sporty...mmmhmmmm...I liked that little car. So, I talk to a woman over on the Scion side...OMG she wasn't like the car salesman from hell at ALL! She was so laid back and so nonchalant about it, she didn't pressure, she didn't do anything, she just said, why don't we make an appointment one day that is convenient for you and we'll test drive it! Plus she said to me...uh, by the way, you can get this little car for about $350 a month. Angels sang! Birds flew! I was so happy I could scream! A car I liked, a saleslady that wasn't shoving herself up my butt...right on, I want to go back and see her again! I shake her hand and my husband and I are getting to leave the showroom unimpeded. So my husband and I are walking out of the door of the showroom and the salesman from hell comes back again...he's got another number to throw at my husband...greedy little bastard! OMG! Let us out the freaking door!! Finally I just told him, "Look, don't push, it doesn't help, actually it does the opposite. You're talking to two people who eat dinner in no less than 2 hours, ok? We're going to think about it and that is all we are going to do until we make a decision and you'll know either way." I had to jump down the little bastard's throat! I couldn't believe it!!
So we jump in the car and head out of the Toyota lot...fine, good, GREAT! Let's get away from the greedy bastard! So we head over to the Hyundai place. My husband drives a Hyundai and it was a great opportunity to get a burnt out headlight replaced and look at cars at the same time! Well, the service area was already closed for the night, but we look at cars anyways. Now the world's worst thing in car shopping is that you're always going to get some greedy bastard humping your leg. Hyundai was no different. The guy is playing to my husband when the car we will be buying is MINE! HI! Talk to the decision maker! I am choosing my car, not my husband, he just Camel Trades and works the numbers...I'm the one that is going to be driving it! Anyhow, it's cold, it's dark and this a-hole is floundering for keys! I test drove the Tuscon, I could feel every single bump in the road. NOT GOOD. Then we were going to test drive a 3 door Accent...but the one I wanted to test drive, well, the battery was dead in it and we stood out in the cold for over 30 minutes waiting for that bozo to find the battery charger, but by this time, I wanted to leave, I wasn't even going to mess with it and I tell my husband "Let's go". It just so happens that their "floor manager" comes out with the greasy little salesman and starts to hardcore pressure my husband, I mean HARDCORE. Now, in the 6 years I've known my husband, I live by one simple rule:
Don't piss him off.
It's four words and very easy to understand. Don't piss him off. It's just a fact of life. Underneath my husband's Zen Exterior is a raving lunatic with a VERY nasty temper. His Zen keeps it in check and he's usually such a cool cucumber that you'd think he had been put in the deep freeze. However, the floor manager, he just kept pestering my husband...I'm sitting in our car shaking my head, going, Don't piss him off, dude, don't do it... Yep, you guessed it, my husband's Zen shell cracked just a little bit. He got pissed. He told the guy that if he pressured him one more time, he would never EVER come back to that dealership and the owner would hear about it. I was surprised that my husband didn't pop that guy in the mouth. OH MAN! I thought for sure this was the day that my husband did his best impression of Michael Douglas in "Falling Down". However, the "floor manager" just didn't get the hint. That guy better thank his lucky stars that my husband has a lot of control, or he'd be a dead man right now.
After that incident, we went and looked at Honda Civic Hybrids...same price range as the Prius, so it looks like I'm going to be getting a Scion.
All that in less than 24 hours...car shopping is just painful.
I'm grateful for my husband today...he's the most spectacular and loving person I've ever met in my life, he's my husband, my best friend and I don't think I could live without him. But oh man, I would have loved to see him belt that guy in the mouth. Oh well, maybe someday.
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