New Car Craziness

We avoided the minivan...barely!  Mate and I have been keeping an eye out for a slightly used Toyota Highlander Hybrid for a few months.  There was one a couple of hours away in Pennsylvania that looked perfect. The price was recently reduced, so I gave the dealership a call.  We negotiated a bit over the phone and set up an appointment to buy the car at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.  Needless to say, I was very excited.  When we got to the dealership, I didn't see the car.  We went in to find the salesman that I spoke to on the phone and I could tell by the look on his face something was wrong.  Another salesman sold the car the night before even though they knew we were coming.  He was apologetic and said he called our house, but we were already on our way.  I didn't even know what to say. 

We walked back out to the parking lot in stunned silence.  Did we really just drive two hours for no reason?  People will do anything to make money.  As we stood by the car to give the girls a break before strapping them back in, the salesman walked by.  We made eye-contact, so he tried to apologize again.  I told him I just couldn't believe that he knew we were coming and didn't make sure the other salesmen knew there was a buyer.  There wasn't really much else to say, but he kept trying to make it better.  I get it's a business, but really.

Anyway, we piled back into the car and Mate checked cars.com to see if anything else was available.  Luckily, a newly listed car popped up at a dealership 10 minutes from our house.  Although there was another possible option, we weren't immediately comforted.  I was totally bummed, Mate was irritated, and the girls wanted out of their car seats.  The first half of our trip home was terrible, but luckily the girls fell asleep and we were able to research this other option.  We were ready to play hardball.

It took the guys at the next dealership forever to find the keys to bring the car around.  Figures.  Anyway, they got it together and our day was starting to look up.  I took it for a test drive first and then Mate went for a spin.  Our next step was the double stroller test.  It went in with tons of room to spare with the third-row seats down.  When we put the third-row seats up, however, no luck.  Now what?  We were told the only way to get all the seating and storage space was to buy a minivan.  Great. 

So, we decided to have a look at a minivan just to make sure we weren't making a mistake with the Hybrid SUV.  They showed us a fully loaded Volkswagen Routan.  Yes, it had all the bells and whistles plus room and storage, but neither of us got excited.  We had a dilemma.  After talking through the pros and cons we came to the conclusion we already knew...no minivan for us...ever.   Back to the other side of the dealership we went.  The negotiations began and we had a bit of fun sending the salesman back to the manager a handful of times.  We had done our research and were prepared to walk away.  Luckily, they didn't want that to happen and there is a much more family-friendly car sitting in our garage.  Feeling very appreciative for good deals and a generous husband.

I need to read the owner's manual because this thing is far more high-tech than I am used to.  It doesn't even have a key.