So, you may have heard: Our car broke with approximately 4,410 miles left to go on our little Road Trip. The car breaking down was always a possibility. She was old. We'd always thought that we'd just rent a car if this happened. But it turns out that renting a car one way across the country is crazy expensive. So we did what still seems super crazy: we bought a new car.
Happy dog in a new car.
Neither one of us had ever bought a new car. Actually, neither one of us had ever spent money at a car lot, never spoken to a car salesman with the intent to buy, never applied for a car loan, never experienced this universally known sleazefest.
Happy Betsy in a new car.
Despite expecting sleazeville2000, quite a few things still managed to surprised us about the whole experience:
- 3 out of the 4 salesmen we talked with actually knew nothing about the cars they were trying to sell us.
- One of them tried to sell us an Impala (not that there's anything wrong with that...)
- The financing guy pretended like he had no idea what price we'd agreed on with the salesman, tried to mark up the gap insurance by $200, and tried to sneak in a $1599 extended warranty.
- Despite all of this, we were able to find the one good salesman in the haystack of unhelpful hacks, and pick out and buy a really good car in just over 24 hours.
All of this surprised us. What's more, in the middle of all this, we stopped by Lark Home/Apparel and wrote up a nice order with the even nicer Katherine and Amy. Double surprise!
Happy couple in a new car.
After we signed the car papers, we drove straight to Charleston, SC and promptly ordered a margarita at Santi's.
Awesome bridge in Charleston.
The very same margarita was spilled all over Betsy as the waiter placed menus in front of us, which made the whole dinner free. We had, indeed, returned from the land of sleaze.
Tequila at Santi's.
***Song of the Moment: I Love You, by The Teeth***