Car Crusade Part 1: Dreams

My current car is a 10 year old Toyota 4Runner with 137,000 miles on it. To say it's a little used would be like saying I'm a little addicted to internet porn. Recently I decided to buy a new car. I'm going to tell you the 5 part saga of what turned out to be an epic quest. A battle between good and evil. Between right and wrong. Between two epic forces of laziness. Between me and a Car Dealership.

A few weeks ago, in a town not too far away I took a Saturday trip to a car dealership. I've been looking for a car for awhile so I knew exactly what I wanted. A Nissan 350z. The only question was the color.

Well, like all the other car dealerships I had been too, they didn't have many cars on the lot (that weren't SUVs. Shockingly SUV sales aren't too strong these days). I was approached by seemingly affable Sales Guy (aren't they all) about 2 minutes after I got on the lot. After the initial chit-chat and introductions I cut right to the chase and laid out what I wanted. Sales Guy knew I was not to be toyed around with. Sales Guy said to me, "If I can find you the car you want, will you buy today?" I said, "I'm ready to buy today." Sales Guy ran some fancy inventory searches, using this strange device called a Computer, on other Nissan dealerships in this area of the country. He found one that matched my specifications! Touring package, San Marino Blue, grey and black leather interior. In Georgia! That's not too far away. They "contacted the dealership to make sure the car was available" and it was, so we moved forward.



Now it was time to talk numbers. He gave me the list price, I told him my price and said that was it, I wasn't negiotiating. He said back, "If I can get this price, do we have a deal?" He's a very quizzical Sales Guy. I said yes and shook his hand. Lo and behold, they matched the price and after some discussion and arm wrestling, we agreed on the financing. I put some money down to secure transport and to lock me into the deal so I wouldn't get buyers remorse and try to back out of the deal.

All seemed great. In a few days I would have a brand new car. I didn't realize at the time I had made a deal with the devil.