Hell Car Buying Day
Jul. 2nd, 2021 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickI'm just -- let me see if I can explain how it went down:
-->Got up at 9 AM, dithered briefly about what I wanted for breakfast before just settling on a smoothie and fighting with the last frozen-in-the-skin banana. Had breakfast, made bed, got dressed -- we left around 10:30 AM.
-->Ride to the dealership was full of Mom being cranky despite finally getting the insurance check for her car because she was arguing with Dad about whether or not she might owe taxes on it, and about having to go to her sister's place on July 5th (we were supposed to go tomorrow, but the general weather of this weekend can be summed up as "miserable"), Dad being cranky because of the aforementioned argument, and me being cranky because I'm stuck with them in the truck. Also we stopped off at the post office to drop off stuff which took longer than it should have, meaning we got to the dealership later than expected.
-->Finally get to the dealership, where it takes us a minute to find decent parking (it really wasn't clear where we could go), then we sit around in the dealership itself while one of the salesmen goes and gets the car (the "passion fruit" hatchback). Once we get outside to look at it, it becomes clear than this is an EXTREMELY basic version -- roll-down windows (which wasn't too big a deal), no automatic door locks (which was more of a big deal), different gauges than I'm used to, a seat belt in the back my Dad can't find the other end of. . .really didn't help that I was distracted by the AC blasting cold air in my face. Despite being unimpressed, Mom and I take it for a test drive --
-->Which ends up being super-short and super stressful as I'm unfamiliar with the area, unfamiliar with how hard you have to press the gas and brakes, and unfamiliar with the traffic patterns, meaning Mom has to warn me off turning too soon when a bunch of cars appear when I'm trying to get back into the dealership. Couple that with the fact that I'm PMSing and, you know, only one month out from a car accident, and. . .well, I manage NOT to start crying while in the dealership (just telling the salesman, who looks genuinely concerned, that I'd prefer to keep looking), but the car ride home is a different story.
-->Car ride home is also full of Dad telling me that I shouldn't be nervous, driving is just driving no matter where you are or what car you're in (fucking bullshit), with Mom apologizing for possibly making me more nervous (which okay, but also yes please stop me from getting into another accident) and saying that I need more test miles under my belt -- so the decision is made that I will test-drive this more expensive 2020 Sonic we found at another dealership that we initially rejected because a combination of the price and the salespeople being REALLY PUSHY over e-mail and text. (Please note my parents make this decision -- I initially say I don't want to because I don't want to be bullied by said salespeople into buying the car (and also because it's taking me a depressingly long time to calm down because THEY WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE FOR FIVE MINUTES), but am overruled shortly thereafter because fuck my opinion, huh?) We eventually get home after taking what feels like every side street in the damn state and break for lunch around 1:30 PM, with the dealership responding to us and setting up an appointment around 2:15 PM.
-->After lunch, we go to this other dealership, where we meet the guy on the phone, who gives us a spiel about how someone new has bought the dealership, and how they have this "customer service code" or something -- honestly, all I could think was "gotta parrot what corporate tells you about customer service, right?" We get through that, review the car with him, then go out to take it for a test drive. In stark contrast to the other hatchback, THIS one is much more technically advanced --
-->To the point where it takes us a while to figure out a) how the hell I can adjust my seat so I'm not permanently reclining, and how to START the damn thing (it's keyless pushbutton start, and it took us a while to figure out in which order to push the button and press the brake). I am extremely not impressed, but we take it for a test drive anyway.
-->Test drive goes well enough -- again, the gas is more sensitive than what I'm used to, and the dealer plate stuck into the front windshield keps sliding all over the place as I take corners. But the road is a little quieter (with me trying not to tense up every time someone came close up behind me), and we successfully make it to the post office (yes, the same one we visited earlier) and back. My parents clearly love the car -- I'm still not thrilled with the bad first impression and the fact that it's more than I wanted to pay, but listening to them go on, I realize that I can either keep car shopping and keep dealing with this bullshit, or I can just buy this stupid car and have that part of the thing over with.
-->I buy the stupid car. We go in, I tell the salesguy that we're willing to buy it, we wait around some more (I swear we spent more time waiting in the dealerships than doing any actual car-buying), then go over some of the paperwork. I refuse some of the ridiculous extras, and the question of insurance comes up -- I tell them I intend to go with the same people who do my house, Nationwide, and that I intend to call them when I get home.
-->And then it comes up that we could take the car home today if I get the insurance in time, and suddenly it's back home so we can contact Nationwide and see about bundling my car and home insurance. We get home, I grab my homeowner policy for the number, and we try to contact the local guy that we originally got the insurance through --
-->His office is closed, despite the automated message stating he usually closes at 5:30. We allow it to switch us to the Nationwide hotline, where after quite a lot of fiddling through an automated system, we get a guy on the line whom we explain the situation to. He says he's not a licensed agent and puts us on hold so he can get one. . .only for that agent to tell us that no, we HAVE to go through the original local guy who got us the house insurance. Whom we can't get to because he's closed.
-->My Dad, frustrated, says that if we'd gone with my parents' car insurance, we'd have a quote already -- I figure "Fuck it, might as well" and we call them up. Dude asks me a bunch of questions, which I do my best to answer -- and quotes me a price of over two thousand for six months. I'm stunned, Mom's stunned -- and when we ask, it turns out that it's because I was previously on their policy and had the minimum liability, and that apparently puts me in "high risk for small claims" according to their algorithm or something like that. So yeah, that's -- not good.
-->So Mom, having gotten a number for a GEICO agent from our car salesguy, decides to call THAT and see what happens. We get the poor woman while she's DRIVING HOME, but she turns out to be willing to pull over and do a quote on her laptop if we can text her a picture of my license and the car's VIN (which we have on a piece of paper from the dealership). SHE gives us a quote of a little over a hundred a month, which is shockingly reasonable after the previous quote, so we go ahead, sign up, get the policy number, print out the insurance "cards," and rush back to the dealership.
-->Cue more waiting around, more paperwork, and finally the car being brought around to the front so I can drive it home with Mom, finally properly ending our day around 7 PM. Oh, and right before we leave the dealership, Mom discovers the pants I'm wearing -- set of green linen pants I sometimes wear to work -- are torn, so I have to ditch those once we get home. *sigh*
tl;dr -- I had a very poor first test drive experience at the first dealership with a car I didn't like, then had a somewhat-better test drive experience at the second dealership and ended up buying that car for more than I wanted to pay because it was decent enough, my parents liked it, and I just wanted everything to be OVER WITH. And then spent most of my afternoon dealing with trying to get an insurance quote before a holiday weekend.
As you might imagine, anything and everything else I wanted to do was pretty much SHOT. The only thing I managed to accomplish that wasn't extremely-stressed-out car-buying was just keeping up on today's YouTube Subs:
A) Started with James Turner and “Rags To Redecoration, Part 17!” As Hazel missed her gig at the Goths’ due to The Great Bigwallet Timeline Cleanup (aka The Great Bigwallet Kill-Off), and James really wanted to upgrade her own house (like getting her stairs to her basement), he replaced that gig with one of the $14,000 Level Renovations, for a single woman named Hanna! As her house was one story, this ended up being an entire house renovation, which James poured a TON of effort into – basically selling everything and redoing the house bottom to – well, not quite to top; he couldn’t change the roof. But he updated all the windows, doors, floors, and wall paints; opened up the kitchen onto the living space; got rid of all the green as Hanna actually disliked it (she’s a fan of yellow instead), and just redesigned everything so she got her own ensuite bathroom and walk-in wardrobe, an office instead of a second spare bedroom, and plenty of yellow items and modern furniture. Hanna was delighted with the renovation – and with Hazel, randomly starting up a bit of flirting. Hazel, having lost previous love interest Lord to the Kill-Off, reciprocated a bit, then headed home with $29,300 ($16,300 from the gig, a bonus from being promoted again, and Hanna’s $10,000 computer from the old build XD). She spent a bit at one of Katrina’s old vet clinics to get an age-up treat for Hagrid (James currently has aging off for played Sims), then headed back to hers with her now-adult dog. I assume the next episode will be renovating Hazel’s place some more – should be fun!
B) Then it was onto Call Me Kevin and the video highlights of a stream where he had his stream audience decide on things he should buy, up to a total of $1,000, and the later unboxing of all the items that won! Highlights included cardboard stand-ups of Brendan Fraser, Hagrid, and JackScepticEye (the former two life-size or nearly; the latter mini); a maid costume (which Kevin put on and then sung a cover of Katy Perry’s “Firework” in); a red panda onesie (complete with tail); a red panda plushie (so soft! And apparently named “Echo” by the chat); a pair of pink cat-ear headphones (Kevin actually looks pretty good in them); a Shrek chess set (very cheaply made for being one of the more expensive items); a mini inflatable wavy man (Kevin himself asked for this one after seeing it with Jack’s mini-stand-up, and the stream obliged); and two bags full of tiny babies like you might use for cake decoration (Kevin was so creeped out by them). XD One of his WEIRDER streams, but it definitely looked like fun! Except for the clean-up. Oh lord the clean-up.
C) And finally we had GrayStillPlays and more Happy Wheels! A good selection of impossible boards today, starting with the simple-but-cruel challenge of getting up and over a giant triangle without being murdered by harpoons (took Gray QUITE a few tries, but he managed). We also had a brief return of the bottle flip (with Gray AGAIN getting bottles where there shouldn’t be bottles); a super-long spike fall (Gray got lucky and managed it on try #2); a pogo jump through a mine field, complete with crossbow to set off the mines (Gray got VERY LUCKY and didn’t blow up); a multi-layer board of bottle runs that started with “Baby” (where the bottle run was four bottles but you got smashed to pieces by the boosts, meaning it was deceptively hard to get the win) and ended with “Impossible” (TWO drunken bottle runs in a row followed by a win area full of mines and harpoons – it took a few tries); a truly painful obstacle course full of triangle bumps and crossbows, an early fake win covered by an invisible floor, a fake bottle run, and a harpoon run so low it was impossible to pass (so instead Gray cheated his win by showing that people don’t usually remember to cover the SIDES of their fake wins); and a couple of “Sanic” levels (one where he controlled Sanic himself to get the coins; the other where he had to escape Sanic’s murderous love). It was – an experience.
So those were nice at least, but -- yeah. And NOW Mom's getting me to drive again tomorrow to one of the malls so I can get a haircut and we can do a bit of shopping, and -- *sigh* I'm not even going to try to make a new to-do list for tomorrow -- I'll use the one I previously set up, and we'll see what I manage to get done. Night all -- hope you all had good days.
-->Got up at 9 AM, dithered briefly about what I wanted for breakfast before just settling on a smoothie and fighting with the last frozen-in-the-skin banana. Had breakfast, made bed, got dressed -- we left around 10:30 AM.
-->Ride to the dealership was full of Mom being cranky despite finally getting the insurance check for her car because she was arguing with Dad about whether or not she might owe taxes on it, and about having to go to her sister's place on July 5th (we were supposed to go tomorrow, but the general weather of this weekend can be summed up as "miserable"), Dad being cranky because of the aforementioned argument, and me being cranky because I'm stuck with them in the truck. Also we stopped off at the post office to drop off stuff which took longer than it should have, meaning we got to the dealership later than expected.
-->Finally get to the dealership, where it takes us a minute to find decent parking (it really wasn't clear where we could go), then we sit around in the dealership itself while one of the salesmen goes and gets the car (the "passion fruit" hatchback). Once we get outside to look at it, it becomes clear than this is an EXTREMELY basic version -- roll-down windows (which wasn't too big a deal), no automatic door locks (which was more of a big deal), different gauges than I'm used to, a seat belt in the back my Dad can't find the other end of. . .really didn't help that I was distracted by the AC blasting cold air in my face. Despite being unimpressed, Mom and I take it for a test drive --
-->Which ends up being super-short and super stressful as I'm unfamiliar with the area, unfamiliar with how hard you have to press the gas and brakes, and unfamiliar with the traffic patterns, meaning Mom has to warn me off turning too soon when a bunch of cars appear when I'm trying to get back into the dealership. Couple that with the fact that I'm PMSing and, you know, only one month out from a car accident, and. . .well, I manage NOT to start crying while in the dealership (just telling the salesman, who looks genuinely concerned, that I'd prefer to keep looking), but the car ride home is a different story.
-->Car ride home is also full of Dad telling me that I shouldn't be nervous, driving is just driving no matter where you are or what car you're in (fucking bullshit), with Mom apologizing for possibly making me more nervous (which okay, but also yes please stop me from getting into another accident) and saying that I need more test miles under my belt -- so the decision is made that I will test-drive this more expensive 2020 Sonic we found at another dealership that we initially rejected because a combination of the price and the salespeople being REALLY PUSHY over e-mail and text. (Please note my parents make this decision -- I initially say I don't want to because I don't want to be bullied by said salespeople into buying the car (and also because it's taking me a depressingly long time to calm down because THEY WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE FOR FIVE MINUTES), but am overruled shortly thereafter because fuck my opinion, huh?) We eventually get home after taking what feels like every side street in the damn state and break for lunch around 1:30 PM, with the dealership responding to us and setting up an appointment around 2:15 PM.
-->After lunch, we go to this other dealership, where we meet the guy on the phone, who gives us a spiel about how someone new has bought the dealership, and how they have this "customer service code" or something -- honestly, all I could think was "gotta parrot what corporate tells you about customer service, right?" We get through that, review the car with him, then go out to take it for a test drive. In stark contrast to the other hatchback, THIS one is much more technically advanced --
-->To the point where it takes us a while to figure out a) how the hell I can adjust my seat so I'm not permanently reclining, and how to START the damn thing (it's keyless pushbutton start, and it took us a while to figure out in which order to push the button and press the brake). I am extremely not impressed, but we take it for a test drive anyway.
-->Test drive goes well enough -- again, the gas is more sensitive than what I'm used to, and the dealer plate stuck into the front windshield keps sliding all over the place as I take corners. But the road is a little quieter (with me trying not to tense up every time someone came close up behind me), and we successfully make it to the post office (yes, the same one we visited earlier) and back. My parents clearly love the car -- I'm still not thrilled with the bad first impression and the fact that it's more than I wanted to pay, but listening to them go on, I realize that I can either keep car shopping and keep dealing with this bullshit, or I can just buy this stupid car and have that part of the thing over with.
-->I buy the stupid car. We go in, I tell the salesguy that we're willing to buy it, we wait around some more (I swear we spent more time waiting in the dealerships than doing any actual car-buying), then go over some of the paperwork. I refuse some of the ridiculous extras, and the question of insurance comes up -- I tell them I intend to go with the same people who do my house, Nationwide, and that I intend to call them when I get home.
-->And then it comes up that we could take the car home today if I get the insurance in time, and suddenly it's back home so we can contact Nationwide and see about bundling my car and home insurance. We get home, I grab my homeowner policy for the number, and we try to contact the local guy that we originally got the insurance through --
-->His office is closed, despite the automated message stating he usually closes at 5:30. We allow it to switch us to the Nationwide hotline, where after quite a lot of fiddling through an automated system, we get a guy on the line whom we explain the situation to. He says he's not a licensed agent and puts us on hold so he can get one. . .only for that agent to tell us that no, we HAVE to go through the original local guy who got us the house insurance. Whom we can't get to because he's closed.
-->My Dad, frustrated, says that if we'd gone with my parents' car insurance, we'd have a quote already -- I figure "Fuck it, might as well" and we call them up. Dude asks me a bunch of questions, which I do my best to answer -- and quotes me a price of over two thousand for six months. I'm stunned, Mom's stunned -- and when we ask, it turns out that it's because I was previously on their policy and had the minimum liability, and that apparently puts me in "high risk for small claims" according to their algorithm or something like that. So yeah, that's -- not good.
-->So Mom, having gotten a number for a GEICO agent from our car salesguy, decides to call THAT and see what happens. We get the poor woman while she's DRIVING HOME, but she turns out to be willing to pull over and do a quote on her laptop if we can text her a picture of my license and the car's VIN (which we have on a piece of paper from the dealership). SHE gives us a quote of a little over a hundred a month, which is shockingly reasonable after the previous quote, so we go ahead, sign up, get the policy number, print out the insurance "cards," and rush back to the dealership.
-->Cue more waiting around, more paperwork, and finally the car being brought around to the front so I can drive it home with Mom, finally properly ending our day around 7 PM. Oh, and right before we leave the dealership, Mom discovers the pants I'm wearing -- set of green linen pants I sometimes wear to work -- are torn, so I have to ditch those once we get home. *sigh*
tl;dr -- I had a very poor first test drive experience at the first dealership with a car I didn't like, then had a somewhat-better test drive experience at the second dealership and ended up buying that car for more than I wanted to pay because it was decent enough, my parents liked it, and I just wanted everything to be OVER WITH. And then spent most of my afternoon dealing with trying to get an insurance quote before a holiday weekend.
As you might imagine, anything and everything else I wanted to do was pretty much SHOT. The only thing I managed to accomplish that wasn't extremely-stressed-out car-buying was just keeping up on today's YouTube Subs:
A) Started with James Turner and “Rags To Redecoration, Part 17!” As Hazel missed her gig at the Goths’ due to The Great Bigwallet Timeline Cleanup (aka The Great Bigwallet Kill-Off), and James really wanted to upgrade her own house (like getting her stairs to her basement), he replaced that gig with one of the $14,000 Level Renovations, for a single woman named Hanna! As her house was one story, this ended up being an entire house renovation, which James poured a TON of effort into – basically selling everything and redoing the house bottom to – well, not quite to top; he couldn’t change the roof. But he updated all the windows, doors, floors, and wall paints; opened up the kitchen onto the living space; got rid of all the green as Hanna actually disliked it (she’s a fan of yellow instead), and just redesigned everything so she got her own ensuite bathroom and walk-in wardrobe, an office instead of a second spare bedroom, and plenty of yellow items and modern furniture. Hanna was delighted with the renovation – and with Hazel, randomly starting up a bit of flirting. Hazel, having lost previous love interest Lord to the Kill-Off, reciprocated a bit, then headed home with $29,300 ($16,300 from the gig, a bonus from being promoted again, and Hanna’s $10,000 computer from the old build XD). She spent a bit at one of Katrina’s old vet clinics to get an age-up treat for Hagrid (James currently has aging off for played Sims), then headed back to hers with her now-adult dog. I assume the next episode will be renovating Hazel’s place some more – should be fun!
B) Then it was onto Call Me Kevin and the video highlights of a stream where he had his stream audience decide on things he should buy, up to a total of $1,000, and the later unboxing of all the items that won! Highlights included cardboard stand-ups of Brendan Fraser, Hagrid, and JackScepticEye (the former two life-size or nearly; the latter mini); a maid costume (which Kevin put on and then sung a cover of Katy Perry’s “Firework” in); a red panda onesie (complete with tail); a red panda plushie (so soft! And apparently named “Echo” by the chat); a pair of pink cat-ear headphones (Kevin actually looks pretty good in them); a Shrek chess set (very cheaply made for being one of the more expensive items); a mini inflatable wavy man (Kevin himself asked for this one after seeing it with Jack’s mini-stand-up, and the stream obliged); and two bags full of tiny babies like you might use for cake decoration (Kevin was so creeped out by them). XD One of his WEIRDER streams, but it definitely looked like fun! Except for the clean-up. Oh lord the clean-up.
C) And finally we had GrayStillPlays and more Happy Wheels! A good selection of impossible boards today, starting with the simple-but-cruel challenge of getting up and over a giant triangle without being murdered by harpoons (took Gray QUITE a few tries, but he managed). We also had a brief return of the bottle flip (with Gray AGAIN getting bottles where there shouldn’t be bottles); a super-long spike fall (Gray got lucky and managed it on try #2); a pogo jump through a mine field, complete with crossbow to set off the mines (Gray got VERY LUCKY and didn’t blow up); a multi-layer board of bottle runs that started with “Baby” (where the bottle run was four bottles but you got smashed to pieces by the boosts, meaning it was deceptively hard to get the win) and ended with “Impossible” (TWO drunken bottle runs in a row followed by a win area full of mines and harpoons – it took a few tries); a truly painful obstacle course full of triangle bumps and crossbows, an early fake win covered by an invisible floor, a fake bottle run, and a harpoon run so low it was impossible to pass (so instead Gray cheated his win by showing that people don’t usually remember to cover the SIDES of their fake wins); and a couple of “Sanic” levels (one where he controlled Sanic himself to get the coins; the other where he had to escape Sanic’s murderous love). It was – an experience.
So those were nice at least, but -- yeah. And NOW Mom's getting me to drive again tomorrow to one of the malls so I can get a haircut and we can do a bit of shopping, and -- *sigh* I'm not even going to try to make a new to-do list for tomorrow -- I'll use the one I previously set up, and we'll see what I manage to get done. Night all -- hope you all had good days.
