Talk about stressful. I'm a little prone to anxiety anyway, but this one really wrecked some havoc on my stomach. That's the price you pay for a sweet ride though.
Let's go back a few days. After my old car was in the shop for two consecutive weekends, plus had a $650 repair pending with the service department at a local dealership, I decided that maybe instead of pumping money into repairs, I should pump money into a new car loan. And with all the ads screaming "EMPLOYEE PRICING" I felt like the Jeep gods were sending me a message: buy that Wrangler you've always wanted! So I went online and did some research and contacted some dealers. Stress!
One of my primary worries, however, was cancelling the "special order part" at the dealership and getting my money back. I worried and fretted for days, wondering if they would give me a hard time about cancelling the order. I even debated going ahead with the repair, on the off chance that it would make my trade in value higher. But I finally grew a set and called them up ... it took a bit of running around, but without any static (just some confusion and an unproductive and unnecessary drive to the dealership) I got my money back, minus an inflated "handling fee." Whew!
You'd think I would have used up all my worry on that one, but no luck. Wouldn't it be great if we could run out of worry? We could use it up on stupid stuff and then be able to focus better on the big, important stuff. Or maybe not. But whatever, I apparently have big stashes of worry somewhere, probably hidden behind the barrells of stress and trunks of self-doubt.
Anyway, I won't give you the day-by-day, blow-by-blow of the car buying process, but suffice it to say, I DID MY HOMEWORK (online and through conversations with KeeperDad, the King of All Car Buyers) and some car salespeople heard a feminine voice and thought JACKPOT. Pricks!
I will tell you this, at the first dealership I went to, the salesprick came out to where I was looking at Jeep Wranglers and asked me what color I liked. When I asked him why he thought I only cared about the color he said "That's how it works sometimes with the ladies." I knew right then and there that I wouldn't be buying a car from him, but I still made him walk all over the lot in the hot sun showing me cars and then I made him squeeze into the small front seat of a Wrangler Sport and go for a test drive, and then I made him search for (and admit he couldn't find) the keys to another car that I had no intention of buying, then I was rude to him when he offered me a pathetically low trade-in value for my car. Then I left. Awesome!
But then later on the day, fortified with a Wendy's double cheeseburger (and mutually felt outrage from Twizler) I went to another dealership, where they were pretty great. They had a car I liked on the lot, it was a good price, they offered me a fair trade-in, and even let me take the car for a couple days to try it out. Yep, I bought it. Clearly, I hadn't run low on worry at all during this process, because the day I finalized the loan and went to finish the process of buying the car, I was a nervous fucking wreck. But it's done now and I have a great new car. Wanttoseeit? Hereitgoes!
Mama said knock you out!
Click here if you think I'm a keeper!
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