Ralphie as Adult [narrating]: [T]he Old Man loved it. He had always pictured himself in the pits of the Indianapolis Speedway in the 500. My old man's spare tires were only actually tires in the academic sense. They were round and had once been made of rubber.
—A Christmas Story (1983)
---------------------------------------------
On Saturday evening, GF and I started looking at cars, since my Hyundai (R.I.P.) is about to be torn asunder and its parts sold off. I'd done a little research on the Web to see what was out there, and so it was that we went to Jerry's on Joppa Road. The people there were pretty nice and quite straightforward, once they realized that GF wasn't fooling around with the whole "How much were you thinking about paying every month?" routine, or the "write down a number" bit. They also learned (as did I) that GF's parents are neighbors of Jerry himself, and that one fine evening a few years ago, some of his cows(!) got off the property and were wandering around the road. (Snay, have you seen any wandering cows while on the Franchise job?) They had a fairly attractive offer on a 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt (coincidentally blue), but since it was the first car I'd looked at, I didn't want to jump on it right away.
I wanted to see what Hyundai was up to (the damage to the Accent was my fault, not theirs; I still really like the cars), so this morning we headed over to Schaefer & Strohminger to see what they know. Not much, as it turned out.
I was teetering between the Elantra and, if I could afford it, the Sonata. The first one we looked at was the Elantra. So the salesman went to find a key for one of them. This took several minutes. To be fair, the one they usually use for test drives was already out, so this is why he couldn't locate it right away. Anyway, he located a key and got the car out of its parking space.
I pull the car out of the parking lot and immediately we hear it: "Wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa". GF thought it sounded like a flat tire. That's when I noticed there was an indicator light on the dash for the tires. "I guess we have a low tire, or a flat," I said, although it wasn't handling like a flat. I make the U-turn and go back into the lot. The guy goes to get another car. We look around it and none of the tires appear flat, or even especially low. He returns with a second key and fetches the car. As soon as I sit in the driver's seat I see that this car has the tire indicator lit as well. He gets out to get another key, handing me the dealer plate so he doesn't have to keep track of it.
While we're waiting, one of the other salesmen, who didn't realize that we were being waited on, started to chit chat with us. We noted the problem with the tire light, and he started to say something about how cold it was. "It's not THAT cold," I said. "We had rain last night, not snow." His response went something along the lines of "Uh". Thanks, bub.
When the FOURTH car had its light illuminated, that's when I handed the plate back to the salesman, telling him, "OK, I think we're done, here." Either something is substantially wrong with the tire sensors or there's something wrong with the way the tires are mounted, or something. At any rate, I was very disappointed, because the Accent was my second Hyundai, and until today I had no questions about their reliability.
Earlier today, GF had called another Chevrolet dealer (Koons, I think) and they had a 2007 Cobalt with the same features as the '08, so it would have been a few thousand cheaper, so we started to head over there. On a whim, we stopped in at the White Marsh Carmax, which has a Nissan dealership. GF didn't want me to simply jump on the Cobalt just because it was there, so she had me look at the Elantra and the Versa. The Versa is nice, but just a wee bit too small for me, so we started poking around the Elantras.
Surprise! It's a pretty nice car, and it gets decent mileage (25 city/33 on the highway). There was a small problem with a blemish on the passenger front door that they couldn't manage to buff out, but it was nearly invisible and they offered to knock $200 off the price. How could I say no?
So now I'm up to here with the car payments again and practically zero in the bank (and by "practically" I mean I'm likely to be late on most a few of my bills), but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Another few weeks and I swear I'll be in slightly better shape.
Wandering cows? He lives up on JV Pike by the Gardens, I gather? None. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen a cow farm up that way, unless it's tucked away off the road. I almost hit a horse standing at the intersection of Stansbury Mill & Manor, once. Stopped at the horsefarm on the corner and was told it wasn't theirs. Well, maybe they should've gotten out and brought it in then.
I too have a car payment (again!), but the check from my insurance company helped fill my depleted savings account. :)
Posted by: Malnurtured Snay | January 01, 2008 at 10:41 AM