20070104

buying a car - best quotes

been a while since last post - blah blah...

Anyway, bought a new car (new to us) the other day, been in the hunt since early December, got a few favorite memorable quotes/stories/songs that became to funny not to share with ya'll. The car we bought is at the bottom.

Back story -
We were interested in the (oh so popular) sport wagons. Our 1990 Camry was slowing dying, and we had recently been presented a bill to get her back to normal that was 2 to 3 times her value. Time to head to the dealerships. A recap of our conversations below.

SG = Sales Guy
US = Duh.

The Mitsubishi (or, "Gimpin in the rain")
So we went to drive the Lancer, as I have had a lot of fun watching Evo's tearing up courses throughout the southwestern US. I thought "I bet they are putting some of that great EVO technology into the base Lancer." This was an incorrect assumption. Drove 'meh'. Like that rental you get and say, "well, its a rental" with a disappointing sigh. I'm getting ahead of myself.
We get to the dealership, and no one is there. we are wandering around the showroom, upstairs, looking in all the offices which are abandoned. 5 minutes after we walk in there a guy with a broken umbrella and a rain soaked jacket opens the door, and yells "Is somebody in here?"
I'm ask him "You got any Lancers here in the showroom, here?" He answers, "No" after pointedly looking around at the 3 cars in there, and says "They're all outside". Where it is raining. I became salty at this point, and say, "Well, would you go and look at what you have out there?". He goes. He's dragging his foot. In the rain. You might call it a gimpy leg/foot. It's raining. He is officially Gimpin' in the rain. Cue Gene.

Later - after driving the unimpressive Lancer we get this gem:
SG: So, what is it gonna take to get you into this car today?
US: (Dumbfounded, moment of silence) Wow, you actually said it!

And yet later, after driving the Dodge Caliber (which I liked, but the Doc said she didn't like the admittedly enormous dashboard) we got it again:
SG: So, what is it gonna take to get you into this car today?
US: (Less dumbfounded, still, a moment of silence) Still a good line!


The Honda -
Sadly, not a very quote worthy fella. The Doc says this was her favorite salesman. Too bad he didn't have a car we wanted to buy.
SG: Hi, I'm a nice guy.

The Toyota (also known as the winner) -
1st dealership
US: Here's our (lowball) offer.
SG: No.
US: Ok, thanks. We'll be leaving (make like walkin')
SG: Bye.
US: Oh...(start real walking)

2nd Toyota dealership
US: What do you drive?
SG: Actually, I drive a Sienna.
US: Oh, do you like it?
SG: No, it sucks. I got a big family, tho.
(Note - this conversation happened directly after i put the car in 6th gear thruff the Macarthur Tunnel under the Presidio)
Later, after we lowballed the 2nd dealer-
SG: Ok, well I'll get my kneepads out to go and beg my boss.

The Mazda (or we didn't make it to the Mazda dealership) - short story.

Finally, the winner - (this is the closest approximation i could get to what ours looks like)

1 comment:

smallerdemon said...

Sweet! Glad to see you guys found something you like and decided on it. I'm with you on car shopping, though. Yee-uck.

Hilarious that two of them actually spilled the cliché out so quickly. Of course, as computer tech I get to say my clichés regularly: "Have you restarted the computer? Is the caps lock on? Is it plugged in?" :)

Can't wait to get a real life look at it!

I didn't buy a car, but I did join City Car Share through UCSF, which means it doesn't cost me anything to join. That's a pretty sweet deal. Cost is $4 and hour and $.44 a mile.

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