Our New Car

Well, we did it. David finally traded in his Honda Accord that he had for 10 years. The dealer up here in Prescott did not have any more Civics, so we chose to go to Phoenix. David did all the haggling online and got a good quote for a new 2008 Honda Civic. We loaded up the kids, drove almost 2 hours, spent 3 1/2 hours at the dealership, had pizza and drove 2 hours home. Everyone is completely exhausted. It took way longer than it needed to. First, our salesman comes back with this ridiculous price that was $2,000 more than what he quoted in an e-mail. David was visibly livid and was getting ready to storm out of there. He was certain this guy was full of it and that we'd just wasted 6 hours of our Sunday and a tank of gas to listen to this guy's B.S. Luckily his manager stepped in and helped out from that point. He got down to business and honored the price quoted in the e-mail. Seriously, our salesman should've been named "Pokey." He had no idea how to multitask. "We got 2 small kids here who are hungry, move it along buddy!!"

About 5 months back, we bought our mini-van from Prescott and were in and out of the dealership within 1 1/2 hours and we even went to the grocery store in the middle of that time to get a few things and give the kids something to do while they got the paperwork ready. There is something to be said about doing business with a small town dealership, although "Pokey" mockingly remarked to David something to the effect of, "Oh yeah, that dealership. They probably sell 40 cars in a good month...Pfff." Well we have news for "Pokey", he could sure learn something from hanging out in a smaller dealership where the dealer honors its word without trying to pull one over on its customer at the 11th hour. The customer service was 100 times better. In the end though, we got a good deal and "Pokey's" manager salvaged the day for us, as "Pokey" sat silently by, moping and stewing with egg all over his face. I'm sure he learned a thing or two after tangling with us, since he looked none too happy when all was said and done, though he managed to flash us a plastic smile once or twice.

Pokey's co-worker was nice to us. He took it upon himself to make our kids popcorn and get a crying Ben, a huge balloon. David and I both love the color of the car. They only had red, beige or silver. Since the van is silver, we both thought we'd go for beige assuming the red was a fire engine red. Much to our surprise, it was more of a dark cherry red and David and I both loved it immediately. There wasn't even a discussion. If only everything could be that simple.