I bought a new car today. We headed to Oklahoma City around 11:00 this morning. Got to the car dealership around noon and didn’t complete the deal until close to 5:00. I am exhausted.
The salesman was a very pleasant young man. He got a sense of what I was looking for and pulled up a Forester Premium and the Outback Premium. I drove the Forester first. I fell in love with it. I liked the visibility and how it handled. I was surprised when I drove the Outback that I didn’t like it. It was too much vehicle for what I need and felt a bit pretentious to me.
The car has a weird cruise control that adjusts to the car in front of me. It also has lane control. The car can basically drive itself although if you take your hands off the steering wheel it beeps at you.
I like the side blind spot alert on the side windows and the back-up mirror. I didn’t have either of those on my Prius. It doesn’t have GPS but when I plug my iPhone in the GPS shows on the control panel of the car. I have unlimited cell service so no problem. I do have Sirius radio which I will enjoy.
I didn’t like the business manager. He tried to sell me the extended warranty and to get me to pay for some sort of service that needs done at 36, 000. When I told him I didn’t want any extras but understood if he had to pitch them to me anyway his whole tone changed. He told me that his Subaru customers are smart and over 90% buy the extra warranty and prepay for the service. He didn’t call me stupid but he implied it. If that had been the salesman I would have walked out.
The salesman did give me some wrong information a couple of times. I bargained the price down and asked about KS sales tax. He told me the $399 fees would cover them. When the sales manager came to finalize the price it jumped $399 from what the salesman told me it would be. What a game they play! Not my favorite thing to do.
We did go out for lunch at some point during the negotiations to give them time to get the paperwork ready. I had hoped it would speed up the process when we came back but it didn’t seem to.
We stopped at Costco and picked up a few things and than headed to Stillwater. By than it was dark and I turned on the head lights on the car. They are much better than the ones on the Prius. The car handled beautifully. I think I will enjoy it.
My GPS took me a different way home than the way we came. Jim didn’t approve of the different route but hung it there and we made it home. I never know why the GPS routes me differently but assume there must have been an accident that they were routing us around. We went through two toll booths – one had an attendant but the other you had to throw cash in the box. I had no coins so put in paper bills. I hope they don’t come knocking on my door with a ticket. There was no attendant and I didn’t know I needed change to pay to get off. What is a gal to do?
Feels a bit like I wasted the day. Didn’t get anything done around here. Glad the car purchase is complete though.
I got an email from Carlos today. I had met Carlos the first day on the Camino and we walked together for the first week or so. I had sent him an email over a year ago and hadn’t heard back from him. It was a delightful surprise to get his email today. Brings back wonderful memories.
Jim and I are trying to nail down a wedding date. We need to check with the preacher and church and see what is available. We may move it up to the end of March as our summer seems full already. Good thing we are going to keep it simple and it won’t take much to plan.
Jim is feeling better today. He had gotten his shingle shot December 31 and was very achy and tired all day yesterday. He took a four hour nap yesterday and slept for nine hours last night. Grateful he is feeling better today. It is rare that he doesn’t feel good.
Grateful for a new car, grateful to have heard from Carlos, and grateful Jim is feeling better.