Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Update at looong last!!!



So what the hell has been going on with me this past month or so..... where to begin......

I have been working lots trying to save up for my trip(s) to Vancouver and Saskatoon. I had to miss my Kiss concert because my car decided to be an asshole and fall apart on me.

Chris and I found a pretty neat little house online, four bedroom, living room, bath, kitchen dining room for $46,0000, seriously where can you get a house at that cost in this country???. We decided for curiosities sake to take a look at it one day, and we fell in love with it instantly. The next few weeks were spent going to bank meetings and and trying to get pre-approved for a mortgage. We were, and Chris's parents were going to front us the money for the down payment (as we hadn't really planned on buying a house and hadn't saved for said purchase). We phoned up the realtor to take a second look at the home pumped to be making this big step together and then.......APPARENTLY the f*cking home had an offer put in on it two days before we called to take a second look at it.

Being pre-approved for our mortgage we decided to continue looking at houses within our price range and same damn thing happened again and again. We would phone to view a house and it would literally have been taken out of the equation only days before our call. I was pissed to say the least!! The real estate agent said she would love to show me all her listings as it seemed all the houses we took an interest in seemed to be hot shit after that. What really ticks me off is a few of these places had been sitting idle for a few months before we noticed them. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

So as we were on our house hunting, our car failed its MVI and we were driving it illegally for a few weeks...oops. It would have cost us $1000.00 to get it fixed and that's if Chris did the body work himself, the repair guy said in our cars condition and at its age (98 for Taurus) we may put the money in to fix it and then find out it needs more repairs in a few months. It was pretty apparent we needed a new vehicle, especially since we have to drive up to Halifax (5 hr drive) to get to the airport for our trip and Chris will be needing to make business trips to Halifax this fall.

What really made me angry was the fact I would have to miss Crab Fest in Loisbourg because of our crappy car. Since Chris and I have been living together we haven't really made any traditions, holidays come and go and we pretty much skip them. No kids to make happy and if it comes down to cooking up too much food for two people to eat at Christmas or buying myself a present on ebay then I chose the online shopping. Having no family and a limited amount of friends out here pretty much eliminates the need for Christmas trees, Halloween decor etc... BUT since we moved out here two years ago we have gone to Crab Fest every year...it was our only maritime tradition, and as crappy as it may sound~ getting cheap crab and eating it for breakfast in overcast old Loisbourg makes me happy. So I was determined to get a NEW $1000.00 car that wouldn't fudge up our mortgage pre-approval and we could use it for 6 months until we were in our own home then we could apply for a car loan.
So we saw an add on Kijiji for a car it was $1000.00 had an MVI sticker for the next 5 months and we figured perfect it should get us to and from Halifax and around town for a few months until we get our home..... We drive out to North Sydney to see it. I have never been to North Sydney before........people told me it was the ghetto, I grew up in freakin' Surrey, B.C so when small Town Nova Scotian's tell me about the ghetto I tend to disbelieve the stories. Well~ when easy going humble small towners start talking trash about a place in the future I shall take there words a bit more seriously. We drove into the "down town" section of North Sydney, every window in the business sector was smashed in accept for the one dollar store, the well maintained historical homes were becoming more paint chipped and seedy looking. We drove up to the house to see this car, car parts laying around a dirt lawn....does not bode well. We walk up and see this purple monstrosity...when I say purple think "the Phantom" hue. "Well can we take it for a test drive around the block" Chris asks. This guy looks at us like were crazy~as if just looking at this thing should have us pulling out our wallet.... Chris offers him to come with us he says "no take it but I don't want you taking it to far". Okay fine we get in and drive her around the block, the first thing I hear in my head "bang bang chitty chitty bang bang, chitty bang bang we love you!" this car sounds like an old man in the throes of his final death cough. Chris looks at me and asks "what do you think?". I look at him and tell him "I think these people have a very different opinion of what a $1000.00 car is worth. Hell our car was $1000.00 and at the very least the interior siding isn't coming lose from the f*cking doors. The worst part was there was a baby seat in the back.

We get in our car and go to drive back home, As we are not accustomed to driving around North Sydney Chris somehow misses our turn back home and we find ourselves on some weird back road. Houses are becoming spaced out about a three minute drive apart. The gas light dings on...were driving in the middle of nowhere, At this point Chris notices he doesn't have his wallet on him and I left my purse at home as we just brought the check book in case the car worked out. Did I mention the cell phone is dead..... So essentially were screwed we have to make the car home or walk if it dies. The only thing I can think to do at a time like this~look at Chris and say "You got a perty mouth" and begin humming some hill-Billie banjo tune as I braced myself for the inevitable hill-Billie death rape that would surely ensue should the car decide to die out here. Chris was not impressed. Eventually we did in fact make it home to my relief, but Crab Fest was looming near and my only crap-tastic tradition was in danger of being ruined.....having already missed the KISS concert it made my mood even worse.

Essentially I had a choice to make... keep house hunting and rent a car to Halifax missing Crab Fest or get a new car. So we decided to put our house hunt on hold and get a vehicle instead have I mentioned how much I LOVE cheap crab for breakfast???. So we drove around a few car lots after hours to check out a few vehicles without the commission vultures circling us like a pair of dying baby Gazelles. We narrowed it down to the Golf, Matrix and Yaris as we figured a small little car would be perfect for our lifestyle and good on gas too!

So we go back to the few lots we found a decent vehicle at and decide to test drive a few cars. On our first car lot (Toyota) we checked out the matrix and the golf, they were nice, but nothing to write home about. The sales guy seemed so defeated, like his plans on making commission this month had been bludgeoned to death like a baby seal. He just gave us the keys to some cars and went back into the building telling us to come see him if we found anything we liked. As we were leaving to check out the next lot he made a point of letting us know he could drop the price on a few cars if we wanted. He didn't even try to play hard to get. The next two lots were crap so we didn't even bother test driving anything.

Then we made it to the Chevrolet dealership, we wanted to test their used Yaris, as we reinspected it during the daylight we realised it was a standard and lets face it I can barely drive an automatic, so it was a no go. They did however have a 2007 Ford Taurus in our price range that Chris wanted to investigate and that's when I noticed a PT Cruiser sitting there on the lot. "LOOK CHRIS A 2008 PT CRUISER!!!" I squealed.

"Absolutely not those are the ugliest cars I have ever seen" he replied. "Well come on it cant hurt to just look inside" he looks at me and shrugs "fine but were just looking".

We walk up to the dealership when a guy comes out and asks if he can help, he gets some keys and we sit inside the PT. "Hey Its kind of nice in here, huh Chris?" he looks at me and says "yeah it is kind of nice, I guess its not on my NEVER category anymore". We go check out the Taurus its just a newer sedan style of our current car so there is nothing new or exciting to report. The sales guy gives us the facts about each car we ask about then tells us to come back if were interested in taking any of them out for a test run.

We decide to head back towards home and wing past the Volkswagen dealership on our way. The second we hit the lot a slick commission buzzard is on us like a fly on shit, this guy is absolutely EVERYTHING I HATE about commission sales people. I look to Chris the second he walks off to get some keys and tell him " I don't like this guy, he would sell an Eskimo a refrigerator to make a buck". Chris looks at me and says "really I don't see that?" I smile and say "watch".

He has his schmooze button on max and hes telling us "unlike allot of sales people Michelle, I listen to what people tell me they want" he tells us a car in our price range is just on another one of his lots and invites us into his car for a ride up. This car that we get into is apparently the car he has just purchased for his daughter, Chris tries to open the back seat and the door is jammed shut. I just smirk~ if this piece of crap is what hes giving to his own flesh and blood I don't want to see the cars hes trying to pawn off on the unsuspecting public. The car he takes us to is not at all what we were looking for and before we know it hes throwing Chris a set of keys and telling us to take it back to the other lot. We cant refuse, were on the other side of town and have no way back to our car. He has successfully pushed us into his forced test drive sales tactic, at this point Chris can see what I was trying to tell him. I tell Chris I wouldn't buy a car from this guy if we found our dream car on his lot, so we have decided to kindly say thanks but no and go home.

We get back to the dealership and the guy somehow worms us into his office where he eventually tries to sell us ANY car on his lot (our budget was 15,000 at the most for a used car) hes trying to sell me 30,000 suv's by the end of our conversation. So much for "listening to what the customer wants". Gah I swear this guy was so greasy my face broke out from the 20 minutes spent in his presence. To make matters worse the very next day whose number shows up on my call display~ Jim Sampson, Volkswagen dealership.

The following afternoon we went back and test drove the Taurus and PT cruiser and eventually we came home with.........



The 'never in a million years PT Cruiser' a.k.a "PETEY"...TA DA!!!!

The next day I call from work to get a ride home and Mr. "I-hate-pt-cruisers" is out joy riding in the middle of nowhere, when he eventually comes to get me, I open the door and the first thing I hear from his mouth is "Man I love this car".

So that has been the highlights of the more exciting portions of July for you stay tuned for menial day to day nonsense in the near future :).