Nancy... Let it go

Tuesday... I think.  Yesterday the store was so slow.  Black Friday cometh.  Customers are waiting for special deals... surprise, they're already here.  Appliances aren't going to get any cheaper.  We're not Walmart, or Target.  What you see is what you get.  Oh, sure, they're filling the aisles up with all sorts of... junk.  This is the time of year we sell Keurigs, and toasters, and irons.  Friday morning there are going to be big fluffy teddy bears, and rocking horses...  yeah, pink and blue rocking horses for all those conservatives who only want to use two colors to define gender.  And people will buy this stuff for presents.  For those who don't know, the new definition of 'present' is:  something you will use a few times before it either breaks or you realize you will never use it again... ever.
Biggie is not too happy with the diet thing.  Ah, well, this is how it goes.
And what about that Goshn guy from Nissan?  Arrested for failing to report 44.(some number) in income.  What the hell is it with these rich people?  We're not talking about a couple of bucks here.  My money says he read "The Art of the Deal," at some point and thought corruption was a good idea.
Then there's Nancy Pelosi, a 78 year old woman in a bit of a power struggle to be Speaker of the House.  Remember when she said "This is just going to be a transitional position for me."  Well, that was horse shit.  Power, you know?  The most corrupting force in the Universe.  Nancy needs to let go.  Older is not so much wiser as it is unyielding.  She has lost the flexibility to unite a younger more diverse base.  Nancy needs to just "Let it Go."  There's a new princess waiting in the wings.

The new car

Well, I did get a new car.  And it's red, which is what I wanted.  The CR-V is gone.  To be perfectly honest, I really didn't like that car.  Black leather interior is horrible if you have big dogs that drool.  My Ipod wouldn't work, I kept getting USB errors.  The driver's seat belt never went back, you'd have to give it a tug just to get it to retract.  Road noise was loud - that was a major complaint back in the 2013 reviews.  The car just wasn't a good fit.  In fact, this is the 2nd Honda which wasn't a good fit.  Just because they tend to last forever, doesn't mean you're going to like the car.  This is why I lease.  When the lease is up, if I like the car, I just buy it.  I bought the first car I leased, a Saturn 2000 because I liked it.  The next two cars, both Hondas, I hated.
Anyway, my final decision was between a Subaru Forester and a Nissan Rogue.  I'd driven both over two weeks ago and had been doing my research.  Picking the options I wanted for both cars, I made appointments with both dealers.  I met with Mike at Faulkner Subaru first.  He noted down everything I wanted and then disappeared into a back room.  About 10 minutes later he returned and told me there were no Forester 2.5I Touring, Venetian Red Pearl cars to be had.  Sitting down opposite me, he said "now what options can you live without."  Not the right thing to say.  If I'm going to get a new car, I don't want to be told I'm going to have to downgrade.  He talked about having one shipped in on the "pipeline," of course these were all lower end models, less expensive but more poorly equipped.  I nodded and smiled and told him I still needed to talk to Nissan, and that I'd let him know what my decision was going to be.
When I got to Brenner Nissan, I sat down with my salesman Charlie.  He said, "let's go over again what it is you're looking for."  We looked at the options available.  And then he said, "let me go check my inventory."  He came back about 3 minutes later and said "I have a fully loaded Rogue SL in my lot, would you like to take a look at it?"  Of course, it had everything in it I was looking for.  Two hours later I drove out of their lot in my new Rogue.

The new car

I did sent Mike at Subaru and email notifying him of my choice in cars.  He asked why, so I responded:  "Availability.  When someone walks into your showroom and asks for a certain type of car, don't tell them "that's nice, but this is all we can give you."

Red Cars

As I'd said earlier, I'm gong to be getting a new car in July, after the house has been paid off.  I was talking to a friend at work and she suggested a new Volvo.  I've seen the new Volvo SUV's and they are nice, but, as I said to her, "it's all about the money."  Not that I couldn't afford one, but I have dogs.  And I take those dogs places.  I take them to the park several times a week, and because they're Boxes, they drool, and they shake their heads, so I'm looking for something that's fully loaded but not as expensive.  I want to be able to cart things around and not cringe when I open the tailgate.  Leather is okay, but not black leather.  That's what I have now and it's horrendous with dogs.

Reflecting on a car deal

Oh, and I want it to be red.  My first car was a red Mustang.  I owned a red truck for 12 years (I usually hold on to my vehicles), and my first Honda was red.  My CR-V would have been red but Honda decided that year they weren't going to have red cars.  I've already been told by one dealer that I may have to chose a different color if I want a 2016, which means I may have to order a 2017.  Of course, there's nothing wrong with a brand new 2016.  I'm not one of those people who need to have the latest updates, it just has to be new.  And, as I said before, it has to be red.

Not buying the Ford

Well, it's time for me to get a new car... not because my CR-V is shot, nope, not at all.  What I tend to do is lease a car and if I like it, buy at the end of the lease.  I did this first back in '98 with a Saturn, the first year they came out with what they called a 'luxury sedan.'  I really liked that car, and kept it until 2010.  That was a bad year for Saturns.  GM, which had purchased Saturn a while back, needed to be bailed out by the US Government.  And, of course, after they'd bought Saturn they'd started to put GM parts into it which meant if it need repairs, parts were going to be a problem.  So, I traded it in on a Honda Insight, which I leased.  There was a difference this time, however.  I hated the car.  Oh, sure, it test drove well and the mileage was good, but I didn't like sitting with my ass 15 inches over the road.  So, when that lease was over I switched to the CR-V.  This car is the most popular compact SUV in the country.  And mine is fully loaded.  I have no problem hauling around 2 full sized Boxers.  Except, I hate.  There's a lot of road noise (something that had been brought up in the reviews I'd read).  I don't like the fact that the interior is black, it shows every bit of dog drool.  And after 3 years, I don't find the ride all that comfortable.
So, I'm looking for a new car.  Possibly this one:

That's right, it's a 2017 Subaru.  This is what the interior looks like:

which is fine with me.

I also checked out a Nissan (which is actually owned by Renault) and that car too was very nice.  In fact, right now the decision lies somewhere between the Subaru and the Nissan.  I did drive another CR-V, same problems, and, of course, the salesman said "I don't work on commission so all prices are set," which isn't true.

Ford was another dealership I checked out because both the Edge and the Escape get decent reviews.  Unfortunately the salesman was a fat, lazy turd of a man.  He said,"I can order what ever you want in a 2017, do you want to take one for a drive?"  I said "yes," and waited while he slowly lumbered back into the dealership for the keys.  And then waited as he slowly lumbered back to where I was in the parking lot.  A horn sounded as he pressed the fob and he turned towards the sound and groaned, "oh, we can't take that one, it's still in its shipping packaging,  I have the keys for a 2016 in my pocket, if you want, you can take one of those for a drive.  It's the same thing."  Idiot.  I did take one for a drive, and while riding in the car with me he tried to create chit-chat by asking where I worked.  When I told him, he said, "oh, you should know me.  I just bought 13 gallons of paint there to paint the inside of my house."  So, I asked him which paint since we sell several brands and he replied, "oh, indoor paint."  Super Idiot.  I'm not buying the Ford.

Flyer hell

I always enjoy getting old fashioned snail-mail (do they still call it that?) because I never know just what's going to be waiting in my old fashioned, metal mail box.  Yesterday I received a brochure from Honda regarding their "Spring into a Honda Sales Event," which I found rather peculiar.  You see back in August of 2013 I purchased a brand new CR-V.  Now I know there are people out there who feel they need to get a new car every two or three years.  Not me.  When I get a new vehicle I plan on holding on to it for at least a decade, most of the time even longer.  Hey, if you're going to go into debt you might as well get your money's worth, right?  Yet after 7 months Honda seems to think I'm a prime target for a new car.  Actually, I know that isn't true.  By buying my CR-V I put my name and my address on their mailing list.  This means I will be finding their brochures in my old fashioned, metal mail box on a regular basis.  What a waste of paper and postage.  And it's not only Honda, Toyota does the same thing, as does Ford and GMC and every other car manufacturer who can access your information.  Now, through out the years, I have owned on various occasions a Ford Mustang and a Chevy pick-up but I've never owned a Toyota so why do I get crap from them?  I suspect it's because several years ago I paid a visit to Bobby Rahal Toyota in Mechanicsburg.

At one point I thought I might like to buy a Prius.  Of course the sales associate there, seeing I was driving an 11 year old Saturn, felt he should put me into a less expensive vehicle.  In fact, he pretty much came out and said the Prius was too expensive and I should look at cheaper models, cars I might better afford.  He did this without even asking about my finances. So I did what every smart customer should do, I walked, of course he already had my address.  What I ended up doing was going to Honda and buying an Insight, their version of the Prius.  I got great mileage but did not like sitting so close to the ground.  I also got the hankering to get another full sized Boxer.  I already had Gert and, weighing in at just under 80 lbs, she took up the back seat.  It was obvious another one just wouldn't fit.  So, even though I'd only owned the Insight for 4 years I started a vehicle search.  The idea of purchasing a Toyota RAV-4 never occurred to me.  I looked at a Jeep Compass, a Nissan Rogue and finally settled on the CR-V, and then got another Boxer.

Gert and Lilly watching me vacuum

As a result, I'm eternally going to be getting flyers and brochures from Honda about vehicles I have no intention of purchasing.  As I said, I hold onto my cars a long time.  Ford, GMC, Honda and Toyota are never going to wise up.  Oddly enough Nissan sends me nothing and I came really close to buy a Rogue.  Of course it doesn't really matter as it all goes into the recycle bin.  Twelve years from now, when I no longer have the dogs, I may trade in the CR-V or something smaller.  Or, maybe I'll just sell the house and move to the south of France where I can drink wine and ride my bicycle.