You’d think that spending a few grand would be easy. Not so when car shopping. With fairly flexible expectations, a list of desired characteristics, and a large wad of cash, we set out early with thermoses of coffee, timbits (you have to be Canadian to understand…) and maps to our destinations.
Stop 1: A smoking, hoodied gentleman casually explains that there is no need for us to take the car out for a test drive, but if we “really want to”, we can. Uhh onward.
Stop 2: Two dealerships. No, of course they don’t have cars < $10,000!
Stop 3: This car has to be dug out of snow that fell two weeks ago and also needs a battery boost. The salesman breaks the hood latch doing this but hey, we can deal with that as it means a few bucks off. Out on the road (with the salesman) a cupful of water pours from the visor mount onto the dash. Back we go.
Stop 4: This car is nice. It’s got everything we could ask, albeit a bit larger than we wanted for a 4 cyl, but it’s in great shape. However, it’s boxed in their driveway by another resident who isn’t home, and there’s no insurance on the car which means that even if we could get it out of the driveway, we couldn’t actually *drive* it–though we did have a really nice chat with Grandpa while standing there.
Stop 5: Reluctantly home. Heavy snowfall sent us home earlier than we planned. But it was mainly due to the fact that the heat in our current car is lukewarm (at best)–the ‘defrost’ mode makes seeing out the windshield worse than if we didn’t turn it on–and it was getting dark at 1630 hrs. Frost-bitten and tired, we stopped halfway home for warm food and to get the feeling back in our toes. Six cups of tea later, and a pee break we make it home unsuccessful, but planning the next outting for Sunday.
Day 2 – Stop 1: Dealerships at the Auto Mall. One-stop shopping! Dressed in multiple, wooly layers and another list off we go. We quickly find that Sunday shopping doesn’t exist in the bible belt of the Valley so we settle for walking the humongous lots on our own. Found some good deals, but no way to get in touch with anyone; frustrating, but their loss I suppose.
Stop 2: Smallish, but friendly car lot. Test drive two cars; one noisy, ugly and overpriced, the other nice, clean, running well but out of our price range. Some bargaining, but in the end, not good enough.
Stop 3: Notice a small used-car lot on the way to our next destination. Two possibles! Take the better one out for a road test and see that the wipers aren’t intermittent; they run rapid –or off. We wipe the condensation from inside the windshield and note the large crack running down the centre. Bad brakes, no side mirror and rough idling. We don’t bother with our second choice.
Stop 4: Decent salesman, new car just came in from a trade-in. Bingo! The back seats are a bit roughed up, but not a problem. This is it… our new car. Just needs to pass the test drive. Topped up with gas and away we go. Less than two blocks from the lot, the heating gauge jumps to H. Okay maybe it’s a glitch; we drive a bit further but then notice the smell. We turn around and while stopped at the red light, the car shakes and just about dies. Back on the lot, we open the hood to smoke billowing and the salesman mumbling, “well that’s no good…”.
Stops 5,6,7,8,9... various dealerships, backlots, salesmen, u-turns, illegal and dangerous driving, phone calls, bad directions, train-crossings, drive-bys and non-stop rain.
Home: The goal was to purchase –and drive home a car before the end of this weekend. We weren’t fussy, we had cash, we thought we were as prepared as we could be. It would be easy and fun! Instead we found the weather, our current car and our timeframe were all against us. Who would have thought that spending thousands of dollars would prove to be so damn difficult?
