Saturday, December 20, 2008

It never works out like I thought it would...

You know that picture you get in your head about what it will be like when you...

Buy a car. I have two scenarious in my head. The first I never seem to recognize until it doesn't happen. I expect to walk into a car dealership and turn the corner when...oh, my...the perfect car is sitting there at the perfect price. No one has been looking at this little, low mileage baby because it is painted that incredible shade of purple (or yellow or green) that I had my heart set on. The second is that car dealerships are in the business of ripping me off. In fact, I'm fairly certain that after hours, car salesmen and their managers laugh their heads off about how they suckered me into buying a perfectly awful vehicle. "She didn't even notice that the engine block is cracked!" or "I wonder how long it will be before she loses the chewing gum I sealed the radiator with."

Somewhere in between is the truth. In between the good and bad, between the dealerships that ignore you when you are purchasing a lower priced vehicle and the one's without a decent car in my price range, "would you like a little rust with that car, ma'am?" are the places with reasonable deals shown by salesmen who understand that they aren't necessarily making the deal of a lifetime on this purchase, but are possibly making the start of a potentially long-term relationship with people who will likely purchase other cars in their lifetime and may know other people who will buy vehicles as well.

They don't pretend that something is what it isn't, nor do I pretend that I am some super-important client whose purchase will set their sales goal for the month. It is human beings dealing with human beings.

I am not indecisive, what I am is unprepared to buy something I don't want. There are red flags that pop up in the back of my mind that sometimes take me a half hour or so to figure out what they are about, but my biggest problem is that I feel like I am being rude or taking up someone's time unnecessarily if they don't have what I want. I feel for salespeople. It is a difficult way to make a living. Sure, it can be a fairly well-paying proposition, but it is also a risky one.

I had in my head that I would buy a Jeep. Or a Toyota or a Honda. I bought a GMC Yukon in all it's glory. Big enough for a comfortable road trip with the dogs, big enough to haul things needed for the house, or to haul things to the Goodwill, big enough to haul a load of firewood, and comfortable enough for me with my arthritis and other issues. This is a wonderful vehicle.