"Nice car! Where'd you get your ride? A trophy, badge of honor, over compensation?"
Ok, so car shopping is done and over with and what fun it was.
We headed out around 10am, first we went to Honda to check out the Fit. They only had one left. Iit was ok, a bit bigger than I pictured it, which was good, but it still looked like a baby minivan. As per usual with car dealers, we get out of the car and have 20 people on us trying to help us out. I could never do that job, fuck that shit.
Anyway, dude goes on to tell me every last little detail about the car, even down to how to check the air in the tires, just rambling away, ramble ramble ramble. We went for a test ride and, yeah it rides nice, especially compared to my car now, but it was nothing spectacular. The guy wouldn't shut up the whole time and was trying to be my buddy, asking about my tattoos and what music I like and all that shit, which got annoying. There is also this weird feature on it, it was an automatic, but you can put it in "sport mode" which essentially turns it into a stick shift, minus the clutch, and you switch gears using buttons on the steering wheel, so he tells me it's good for racing around and shit like that, I say I'm not really into that type of stuff, he ignores me and tells me to try it out, so I do so and don't like it, so I turn it off and he's all "no, you gotta use it, it's a great feature, blah blah blah". It did have a cool feature for iPod that would display song info on the stereo display, which is cool because the iPod screen is a tad tough to read when driving. More driving, then we bring it back and discuss prices and all, price was good, but alas all they had was this really gay blue color, and they didn't know when they'd be getting new ones in and what colors they'd be, and of course we had other cars to check out, so we attempt to leave and they go on about other things and how they have other cars and "lets work out a deal" and the usual. God I hate car shopping. We finally get out and head over to the Dodge dealer to check out the Caliber.
These guys were much better than Honda, much more laid back, not so much jumping all over us. They also only had one on the lot. Aside from the color (sunburst orange) I really liked the look of it. We took it for a test drive and it drives beautifully. It has this new steel belt "Continuously Variable Transaxle" transmission, which basically means no gears, or no shifting of gears, or something like that, I don't quite get it, but it makes it drive much smoother. Somehow it is a big car that feels small AND a small car that feels big, if that makes any sense. It felt very sturdy and powerful, but not bulky and over powerful. It also has an auxiliary input, for easy iPod connection, which is great, plus a special compartment in the arm rest to hold the iPod. It had other.... interesting features, including light up cup holders and the "Chill Zone", which is essentially an air conditioned compartment in the glove box, to store drinks and what not in. The car really impressed me so we went to talk prices and all. The guy was really cool and not at all pushy, not that it mattered as I was ready to buy anyway, but alas it is a very popular car and he said most of them that they have on order are already purchased. They had the orange one that I drove, but I didn't want that exact one as it was missing some features I wanted, and had some I didn't. They had a few coming in within the next few weeks that I could get, but again, they had some shit I didn't want, and were missing some shit I did want. He said that unfortunately the company is not taking any more orders for the 2007, and I would have to wait until the 2008 model came out to get one exactly how I wanted it. FUCK. So we head across the street to Kia.
This place was odd. We get there and walk around for like 10 minutes without anyone saying shit to us, we actually had to look for someone and ask for assistance. The guy we get seems to not give a shit about selling a car. We tell him I am looking for a Spectra5 and he's "yeah, we have like 7, let me show you". My Dad asks him a few questions about things and the guy didn't know any of the answers then just kind of mumbled a few features "mm, well, it got disc breaks.... um.... tinted windows, it's automatic, yep... um.. anything else?". How helpful. We took it for a test drive, wasn't too impressed. Yeah, it was better than mine, but for a new car it was rather loud and a bit unsteady. The car itself didn't really even seem that sturdy, it seems like they kind of just threw it together and would break very easily. It had pretty much no features, and they added $3,000 to the sticker price, making it about $20K. Overall it wasn't awful, but nothing amazing either. We discussed prices anyway and all of a sudden they got excited like "wow, someone is actually going to buy shit??". The guy told us stories of how he has a photographer friend that is a "car guy" that got a Spectra5 "so you KNOW it's good". Huh? Because your friend knows cars and got this one it has to be good? Right. Then later he said he told us how he sold a bunch of the Spectras (not the Spectra5's) to nurses, they didn't want the 5's because it was "a sports car". Um.... no it's not.
Anyway, dude rambled for what seemed like hours, especially since I wasn't even that interested in the car, trying to "relate" to me, talking to me about the internet and ebay and my tattoos. What a douche. We tell them we are not buying right then anyway because we wanted to look at more cars and discuss things and they were "what do we need to do to get you to buy this now?". We basically said "sell it for $100" the laughed and then continued trying. Even said they'd give me $1,000 for my jeep (if you've seen it you know how good a deal that is for me), they tried offering me other cars, even said they would take $5,000 off the price, but we said no no no no no and left.
Stopped right quick at King Street Body Gallery to watch hack_me_bitch get some ink done, then went to lunch and discussed the cars. I had pretty much decided on the Dodge Caliber, one way or another, whether it be having to get the ugly orange one today, or waiting a few weeks and getting the black one with extra shit I didn't really want and missing some stuff I did want. I wasn't too impressed with the Kia Spectra5 really and the Honda Fit wasn't so bad, but the blue was hideous and we didn't know how long it would be for others to arrive. Before any final decisions we decided to check out the dealerships in Melbourne and see what they had there.
We went to Dodge first, all they had was an orange one, and it was stick, so that was no good at all, they had some others coming in in a few weeks, no black ones available, but some there were some other acceptable colors, the guy then said "well you can always just order one how you want it" I say I thought they couldn't be ordered, he says "well, they closed orders on the 06/07's, but the 07/07's are available". Basically just a different production quarter or something, I don't remember his exact wording, but he assured me they COULD be ordered. I already pretty much had decided on this car, even if I had to get it not exactly how I wanted it, so since I COULD get it how I wanted the decision was final.
So we put together the shit I wanted, discussed money, and got my order sent in. I ended up getting a black Dodge Caliber SXT, pretty much just the standard deal, but I added on the MusicGate Power Sound System, which is an additional 5 speakers, including an 8" subwoofer. Total, after all taxes and fees and everything, it came out to be $18,508.16, so yay to being broke again as I am going to be paying this off $350 or so a month for the next 5 years, but at least I now have a nice brand new car that runs and had A/C, or at least I will in about a month when it gets here, waiting is going to suck so much ass. I was really hoping to get a car today, it sucks I have to wait, but at least I am getting the car I want and not just something that was available.
We headed out around 10am, first we went to Honda to check out the Fit. They only had one left. Iit was ok, a bit bigger than I pictured it, which was good, but it still looked like a baby minivan. As per usual with car dealers, we get out of the car and have 20 people on us trying to help us out. I could never do that job, fuck that shit.
Anyway, dude goes on to tell me every last little detail about the car, even down to how to check the air in the tires, just rambling away, ramble ramble ramble. We went for a test ride and, yeah it rides nice, especially compared to my car now, but it was nothing spectacular. The guy wouldn't shut up the whole time and was trying to be my buddy, asking about my tattoos and what music I like and all that shit, which got annoying. There is also this weird feature on it, it was an automatic, but you can put it in "sport mode" which essentially turns it into a stick shift, minus the clutch, and you switch gears using buttons on the steering wheel, so he tells me it's good for racing around and shit like that, I say I'm not really into that type of stuff, he ignores me and tells me to try it out, so I do so and don't like it, so I turn it off and he's all "no, you gotta use it, it's a great feature, blah blah blah". It did have a cool feature for iPod that would display song info on the stereo display, which is cool because the iPod screen is a tad tough to read when driving. More driving, then we bring it back and discuss prices and all, price was good, but alas all they had was this really gay blue color, and they didn't know when they'd be getting new ones in and what colors they'd be, and of course we had other cars to check out, so we attempt to leave and they go on about other things and how they have other cars and "lets work out a deal" and the usual. God I hate car shopping. We finally get out and head over to the Dodge dealer to check out the Caliber.
These guys were much better than Honda, much more laid back, not so much jumping all over us. They also only had one on the lot. Aside from the color (sunburst orange) I really liked the look of it. We took it for a test drive and it drives beautifully. It has this new steel belt "Continuously Variable Transaxle" transmission, which basically means no gears, or no shifting of gears, or something like that, I don't quite get it, but it makes it drive much smoother. Somehow it is a big car that feels small AND a small car that feels big, if that makes any sense. It felt very sturdy and powerful, but not bulky and over powerful. It also has an auxiliary input, for easy iPod connection, which is great, plus a special compartment in the arm rest to hold the iPod. It had other.... interesting features, including light up cup holders and the "Chill Zone", which is essentially an air conditioned compartment in the glove box, to store drinks and what not in. The car really impressed me so we went to talk prices and all. The guy was really cool and not at all pushy, not that it mattered as I was ready to buy anyway, but alas it is a very popular car and he said most of them that they have on order are already purchased. They had the orange one that I drove, but I didn't want that exact one as it was missing some features I wanted, and had some I didn't. They had a few coming in within the next few weeks that I could get, but again, they had some shit I didn't want, and were missing some shit I did want. He said that unfortunately the company is not taking any more orders for the 2007, and I would have to wait until the 2008 model came out to get one exactly how I wanted it. FUCK. So we head across the street to Kia.
This place was odd. We get there and walk around for like 10 minutes without anyone saying shit to us, we actually had to look for someone and ask for assistance. The guy we get seems to not give a shit about selling a car. We tell him I am looking for a Spectra5 and he's "yeah, we have like 7, let me show you". My Dad asks him a few questions about things and the guy didn't know any of the answers then just kind of mumbled a few features "mm, well, it got disc breaks.... um.... tinted windows, it's automatic, yep... um.. anything else?". How helpful. We took it for a test drive, wasn't too impressed. Yeah, it was better than mine, but for a new car it was rather loud and a bit unsteady. The car itself didn't really even seem that sturdy, it seems like they kind of just threw it together and would break very easily. It had pretty much no features, and they added $3,000 to the sticker price, making it about $20K. Overall it wasn't awful, but nothing amazing either. We discussed prices anyway and all of a sudden they got excited like "wow, someone is actually going to buy shit??". The guy told us stories of how he has a photographer friend that is a "car guy" that got a Spectra5 "so you KNOW it's good". Huh? Because your friend knows cars and got this one it has to be good? Right. Then later he said he told us how he sold a bunch of the Spectras (not the Spectra5's) to nurses, they didn't want the 5's because it was "a sports car". Um.... no it's not.
Anyway, dude rambled for what seemed like hours, especially since I wasn't even that interested in the car, trying to "relate" to me, talking to me about the internet and ebay and my tattoos. What a douche. We tell them we are not buying right then anyway because we wanted to look at more cars and discuss things and they were "what do we need to do to get you to buy this now?". We basically said "sell it for $100" the laughed and then continued trying. Even said they'd give me $1,000 for my jeep (if you've seen it you know how good a deal that is for me), they tried offering me other cars, even said they would take $5,000 off the price, but we said no no no no no and left.
Stopped right quick at King Street Body Gallery to watch hack_me_bitch get some ink done, then went to lunch and discussed the cars. I had pretty much decided on the Dodge Caliber, one way or another, whether it be having to get the ugly orange one today, or waiting a few weeks and getting the black one with extra shit I didn't really want and missing some stuff I did want. I wasn't too impressed with the Kia Spectra5 really and the Honda Fit wasn't so bad, but the blue was hideous and we didn't know how long it would be for others to arrive. Before any final decisions we decided to check out the dealerships in Melbourne and see what they had there.
We went to Dodge first, all they had was an orange one, and it was stick, so that was no good at all, they had some others coming in in a few weeks, no black ones available, but some there were some other acceptable colors, the guy then said "well you can always just order one how you want it" I say I thought they couldn't be ordered, he says "well, they closed orders on the 06/07's, but the 07/07's are available". Basically just a different production quarter or something, I don't remember his exact wording, but he assured me they COULD be ordered. I already pretty much had decided on this car, even if I had to get it not exactly how I wanted it, so since I COULD get it how I wanted the decision was final.
So we put together the shit I wanted, discussed money, and got my order sent in. I ended up getting a black Dodge Caliber SXT, pretty much just the standard deal, but I added on the MusicGate Power Sound System, which is an additional 5 speakers, including an 8" subwoofer. Total, after all taxes and fees and everything, it came out to be $18,508.16, so yay to being broke again as I am going to be paying this off $350 or so a month for the next 5 years, but at least I now have a nice brand new car that runs and had A/C, or at least I will in about a month when it gets here, waiting is going to suck so much ass. I was really hoping to get a car today, it sucks I have to wait, but at least I am getting the car I want and not just something that was available.