Fossil Fueled
As every news report starts to portend war with Iran, Orville Redenbacher in our tanks, and $17/gallon gasoline by July 4th, I can't help but feel a little relieved to have almost nearly come this close to more or less virtually well-nigh purchased a Ford Escape Hybrid, which recently beat out the Mexican Mono Toalla X5 as the
After settling on the car I wanted, and convincing my espousa, I worked with USAA to do the price-haggling for me -- a great, free service they provide to its members. The Dayton dealership I had been working with came back with a fair price and I paid a deposit, knowing that they would have to go searching for an Escape with the specs we wanted (the Hybrids are not as popular out here as they are on the East coast). (Not yet, anyway.) (Word.)
While I waited, I sent an e-mail to a Ford dealership near our home in Woodbridge, just to see what price they were offering on the same vehicle and if I was getting a good deal. Turns out I was, as Woodbridge's offer came back almost $1,000 higher. I was happy.
Unfortunately, Dayton could not find one in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois... they started asking me how many miles I was willing to have on the vehicle if they had to fly someone somewhere to go retrieve it... and might even charge me extra for delivery. I was going to have words about that, but held my tongue until I saw what they could come up with. They even said that one of the few places they found an Escape with our specs was in the 703 area code, in a town called "Woodbridge."
"You don't say."
I told Dayton that I was not one of those people that decided on a car and had to have it RIGHT NOW DAMMIT. I could wait. Take your time, order one from the factory, if it takes six weeks, that's cool. I really liked the salesman I was working with, and I wanted to bring the sale to his little rinky dink dealership in a rather rough part of town.
In the meantime, Woodbridge wrote me back, and when I told them that I still hadn't purchased a car, they told me they'd beat the Dayton price by sixty-eight entire American dollars, but also give me a $500 military discount, and informed me that while Ford nationwide has a 0% offer on Hybrids, in the DC area that financing rate is good for up to 60 months, whereas elsewhere it's only good for a 36-month loan. Which means that even though we're paying no interest on the car either way, that's about $200 left in our bank account each month for the first three years, which is a lot more comfortable way to live now that we have a child who's going to be going cuckoo for cocoa puffs here pretty soon. So thanks to good timing (Ford's financing specials), my career (the military discount), and your elected congress (providing for a $2600 tax credit), this Spring turned out to be the perfect time to buy a Ford Escape Hybrid.
Rather than pay delivery charges to Dayton for a car they might be getting from Woodbridge, and try and figure out how to title and tag an Ohio-bought car with Virginia plates since I'm moving in two months, I went back to the Dayton dealership, shook hands with the man I admired, got my deposit back, and parted company. To work with some guy over the internet I'd never met.
2006. Weird.
I'm just awaiting some paperwork they said they were overnighting me, though three overnights have passed so far... the car is en route and should arrive early next month, so I won't get to play with it until I move back after graduation. I have about eight more weeks with my fabulous Thunderbird I bought when I was 24 and gas was only a nickel (I'd asked the Woodbridge dealership if they wanted it as a trade-in, but when I said it had 140,000 miles on it, they said they'd trade it for two lollipops and a Kent Tekulve* card, so I passed).
We also changed our minds when we saw the Titanium Green on the road from Dulles Airport, since it looked less manly-sleek robotic spaceship 3rd Army infantry green and more like the car in National Lampoon's Vacation the dealer described as "the Metallic Pea." So we have gone with the Dark Shadow Gray,
as immortalized in the Super Bowl Kermit the Frog commercial.
After settling on the car I wanted, and convincing my espousa, I worked with USAA to do the price-haggling for me -- a great, free service they provide to its members. The Dayton dealership I had been working with came back with a fair price and I paid a deposit, knowing that they would have to go searching for an Escape with the specs we wanted (the Hybrids are not as popular out here as they are on the East coast). (Not yet, anyway.) (Word.)
While I waited, I sent an e-mail to a Ford dealership near our home in Woodbridge, just to see what price they were offering on the same vehicle and if I was getting a good deal. Turns out I was, as Woodbridge's offer came back almost $1,000 higher. I was happy.
Unfortunately, Dayton could not find one in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois... they started asking me how many miles I was willing to have on the vehicle if they had to fly someone somewhere to go retrieve it... and might even charge me extra for delivery. I was going to have words about that, but held my tongue until I saw what they could come up with. They even said that one of the few places they found an Escape with our specs was in the 703 area code, in a town called "Woodbridge."
"You don't say."
I told Dayton that I was not one of those people that decided on a car and had to have it RIGHT NOW DAMMIT. I could wait. Take your time, order one from the factory, if it takes six weeks, that's cool. I really liked the salesman I was working with, and I wanted to bring the sale to his little rinky dink dealership in a rather rough part of town.
In the meantime, Woodbridge wrote me back, and when I told them that I still hadn't purchased a car, they told me they'd beat the Dayton price by sixty-eight entire American dollars, but also give me a $500 military discount, and informed me that while Ford nationwide has a 0% offer on Hybrids, in the DC area that financing rate is good for up to 60 months, whereas elsewhere it's only good for a 36-month loan. Which means that even though we're paying no interest on the car either way, that's about $200 left in our bank account each month for the first three years, which is a lot more comfortable way to live now that we have a child who's going to be going cuckoo for cocoa puffs here pretty soon. So thanks to good timing (Ford's financing specials), my career (the military discount), and your elected congress (providing for a $2600 tax credit), this Spring turned out to be the perfect time to buy a Ford Escape Hybrid.
Rather than pay delivery charges to Dayton for a car they might be getting from Woodbridge, and try and figure out how to title and tag an Ohio-bought car with Virginia plates since I'm moving in two months, I went back to the Dayton dealership, shook hands with the man I admired, got my deposit back, and parted company. To work with some guy over the internet I'd never met.
2006. Weird.
I'm just awaiting some paperwork they said they were overnighting me, though three overnights have passed so far... the car is en route and should arrive early next month, so I won't get to play with it until I move back after graduation. I have about eight more weeks with my fabulous Thunderbird I bought when I was 24 and gas was only a nickel (I'd asked the Woodbridge dealership if they wanted it as a trade-in, but when I said it had 140,000 miles on it, they said they'd trade it for two lollipops and a Kent Tekulve* card, so I passed).
We also changed our minds when we saw the Titanium Green on the road from Dulles Airport, since it looked less manly-sleek robotic spaceship 3rd Army infantry green and more like the car in National Lampoon's Vacation the dealer described as "the Metallic Pea." So we have gone with the Dark Shadow Gray,
as immortalized in the Super Bowl Kermit the Frog commercial.
posted by Dan at 10:17 AM
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