My daughter's car is broken, well it is still drivable but it is broken, so she needs a new one. I figured, wrongly, that father and daughter would spend a delightful day, happily going from one boring car yard to the next until she had found her dream car. I figured I would have some blissful quiet alone time while this expedition took place, the last thing I figured was that I would be ordered to attend the frightful outing.
The happiness starts before we have even left home. There is a discussion over which type of car she is hoping to get today and apparently 'pretty' just doesn't give G enough to go on. It made perfectly good sense to me, but I was not permitted any input so I just sat back and observed. I might try to influence my daughter and that was just not on!
The next question was a natural progression to what was the price range she wanted to spend and of course she gave the correct answer of 'not too much' which didn't have the desired effect on her father that she intended. But after a few more questions and lots of pointing to lots cars in the newspapers and car magazines all spread out before them and with the main description of 'a pretty car that's not too old and doesn't cost too much', we were off to a very stressful and tense start to the day.
I figured, wrongly again, that G had done all the ground work and would know which car yards to go to and that this painful experience would not be dragged on for too long. But no, I was mistaken. He took us to big car yards and small car yards, to pretty car yards and even one that looked like every car had been either stolen or retrieved from the tip. We both refused to go into that one. I shudder just thinking of it, what was he thinking!
We finally arrive at the car yard with the car that G likes and wants Steph to buy. Which strangely is right around the corner from where we live! Yet it has taken us hours to get here... It is not very pretty and it hasn't been detailed yet so naturally straight away neither Steph nor myself like it. Apparently we need to see past the dullness and look at what the car actually offers, oh right, yeah of course... yawn.
G's choice, I forget it's name
Steph and I were ready to move on, we had sat in it, looked at it and checked out the CD player, the drink holders and the speakers... it has to have good speakers. There, that was another important point we discovered to add to the desired 'pretty car that isn't too old and not too expensive', now it has to have 'speakers that aren't 'shot'. What wonderful progress we are making.
A few more car yards, a few more 'discussions' and a piece of bubble gum that went POP one too many times for G later and we arrive at the car yard with the car that I like the most. It is pretty and black and not to old and did I mention... pretty. It is a SAAB 180T, the T stands for turbo, turbo means fast. I am learning about cars, how about that. Steph and I almost bought it right there and then. In my excitement I mistakenly spoke to the sales man (bad move, I saw the look on G's face) and told him we lovvvvvvvvvvvve that car. Apparently we did NOT love that car at all. Ha, who knew. There is a sad ending to my car choice, we are not allowed to buy it as it is too powerful for a P plate driver and it is illegal for her to drive it. So onto the next yard. This is getting very tiring and very boring, very quickly.
My choice but a bad photo of it, it's a SAAB 180T
At long last we arrive at what will be the last car yard for the day as there is only one hour left before closing. This yard only has two cars for us to look at and one of them is green. Green just happens to be Steph's favourite colour. I discover it first as I turned left while they turned right. Right seemed so far away at the time. My first impression of the car was... it's green. Then I thought 'oh it's green, Steph loves green'. So I call out to Steph.... Loooooooooooooooook over here, I found a GREEN car and it's kinda nice ish. They both come over and G is not impressed at all but Steph says 'ooooooooooooooooooooo it's green'. So we sit inside and play with all the buttons, it has a CD player, cup holders, the speakers are not 'shot' and did I mention it was green. It is not too expensive and it's not too old. So Steph falls in love with it. G paces around it like only a man can. humming and ahh-ing. I suggest we look under the bonnet cos I have seen that on movies so we look under the bonnet. Yep there is an engine in there, well that was boring. I try to think of an intelligent question to ask because Steph is asking me what I think. So I ask the sales man 'what kind of petrol does it take? (I know nothing about cars and I know nothing about petrol or how to fill up a tank, can you tell?). Who knew that all new cars have to have unleaded petrol. I have learnt something else today, oh and I have also learnt to keep my mouth shut so as not to ask any more silly questions.
G has decided that we can take the car for a test drive so off we go. Of course we have to go at 100 km/ph to see what it can do. We have to over take and go backwards and turn around and all that boring stuff. G is not happy with it, he says it is sluggish and has no power. But Steph is in love and just must have this car. So we take the car back and start the dealing process. Of course I had no idea that we had started the process. G asked the man, 'so how much movement is in this car' and the man says 'not a lot I'm afraid'. Now I had no idea what the movement was, but not a lot sounded like a good thing to me but G was not impressed with that answer and asks him again. 'Come on, there must be some movement' he says. But the man says a whole lot of stuff that went right over my head then said 'let me go see the boss' and walks away. That gave me the opportunity to ask G what the movement was and he tells me, he was 'negotiating the price' but that this was 'just to see how they deal in this yard'. So I look at Steph and say, I think he is playing boys games because that is not how I would try to get a discount on the price. The man comes back and says the best he can do is to take $200 off the price because 'blah blah blah' he lost me again with his jargon. So we said we would have a think about it and be back on Monday.
Steph's choice, it's green and called a Hyundai Elantra
Steph says she doesn't want a car that is too expensive and too pretty because she would be worried all the time that she would scratch it or hit something, like the driveway fence. That is why she likes this one, and did I say it was green!.
Well I survived the day, it was hot and boring and stressful. I learnt two things about cars, forgotten one of them already and hope I don't have to go out car shopping again any time soon. Although, my car IS getting old and it is time for me to buy a new one. But mine will be pretty and expensive, just gotta wait for G to say yes.
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