Honda sales people…
Aug 27th, 2005 by Jason
Had hoped to magically convert the Jeep into an Element this weekend. The Jeep’s not new dog friendly (Toby will jump right out of the side at a stop light if the Jeep’s not fully put together, which it isn’t during the summer), and neither the Jeep nor the Cavalier is good for hauling around friends.
We found it’s pretty impossible to haggle with Honda folks during their Year End Sales event. They gave us an awesome quote on the Element (actually lower than invoice) but tried to make it all up by giving us a very low trade-in allowance on the Jeep. They wouldn’t budge on that, and didn’t blink an eye when we walked out. They only had four Elements on their lot (to last them the next two months). I guess they figure it’s highly probable someone eaiser to deal with will walk in within the next sixty days. Oh well. 
Work totally sucked last week. Got called in for an emergency 7pm Sunday. We worked until 2am, went home, and met back up at 6am. 
On Friday I ended up staying til 8 to deal with an issue. Sometimes I wish I was hourly again. 
Life with the new dog is pretty good. When he’s not sleeping he’s a hyper little fuck, which is actually a lot of fun. We just need to somehow train him to ignore his instinct to bay (a sound he makes that’s a combo of a bark and a howl) when he’s chasing JAK around the house. Addy’s finally comfortable enough to come out of the ceiling during the night when Toby’s kenneled, so that’s good. We’ve been able to leave Toby alone a few times (kenneled). He sings when we leave, but only for a few minutes. All in all, it’s working out better than I thought it would. Thinking about getting some private obedience classes — someone to train us on how to train him. Our friend Michelle trained JAK so well that we’ve been spoiled. Jason found a list of how trainable dogs were and labs were #7 and beagles were #72, so we’ve got some work ahead of us.
Blah. Totally overate at Red Robin after dealing with the Honda folks. Time to catch up on Battlestar Galactica.
Hmmm….you guys go through cars like some people go through underware hehehehe. I’m gonna miss the Jeep for ya, it was a blast to tool around in
enjoy BG and it looks like i am staying at the beach now.
Yeah.
I have a pattern, though. Here’s my trade order:
‘85 Honda Accord ->
‘97 Jeep Wrangler ->
‘98 Honda Civic ->
‘98 Jeep Wrangler ->
‘03 Honda Element ->
‘04 Jeep Wrangler
.. no choice but to get a Honda next ..
The whole ‘97 - ‘98 thing wasn’t well planned. I don’t even want to think how much I lost on trade-ins, but the last two worked out well.
Shrug.
wow, not jeep/honda bipolar are you? I have had the full round of cars as well but nothing like you….guess it comes with age
‘82 Jeep wagoneer
‘89 Chevy Celebrity
‘86 Ford Ranger
‘93 Buick Century (land barge)
‘01 Dodge Dakota
Mine doesn’t look so good:
‘80 Plymouth Champ (totaled, not my fault)
‘80 Dodge Colt (totaled, not my fault)
‘70 Chevy Impala (Totaled, it ate a Volvo)
‘72 Chevy Blazer (Sold it)
‘81 Honda Accord (Totally worn out)
‘00 Olds Alero
‘73 Ford F-250 (In the shop)
‘62 Plymouth Fury
‘64 Rambler Wagon
‘72 Datsun 1200
‘72 Pinto Hatchback
‘72 Datsun 1200
‘72 Datsun 510
‘80 Dodge Colt
‘72 Ford Maverick
‘69 Ford Van (Stolen)
‘77 Datsun 610 (Stolen)
‘77 Pacer or Gremlin (Died the day it was purchased.)
‘80 Chevy Citation (Returned the above car and got this one.)
‘76 Ford Maverick
‘63 Mercury Comet Wagon (still own this one!)
‘72 Blazer
‘70 Impala
‘81 Honda Accord
2000 Alero (only new car)
Nothing was ever traded in. Totally skipped the ’90’s.
Jason - I know you used to drive a mustard yellow Datsun B210 . . 72?
Mustard Yellow? That’s being nice. I though it was more like “Blind Oriental Man’s Orange”. Remember how your B210 key would start my car? Nice.
Nothing like learning how to drive a standard-shift in a car like that. If you took your foot off the gas, the engine would die, which made for real fun stops on hills in Oregon. Left foot = clutch. Right heel = brake. Right toes = gas. I used to drive 15 miles out of my way to get to school to avoid a few intersections where the possibility of “killing it” (and rolling backwards) was present. Ah, … good times, good times.
Carol, how was it jumping from an ‘81 to a new car?
Michael, … I remember when you totaled your Colt. Doesn’t seem that long ago. Weird.
Dan, … I’m going to write off your “Celebrity” experience as West Virginia peer pressure.
lol
The ‘81 Honda was replaced because of the trips to Las Vegas and renting cars there. It was the pits coming home from a trip and having a car that 1. wouldn’t start without secret voodoo incantations in the airport parking lot, and 2. felt like a skate board with bad bearings all the way home.
While on all our trips to Las Vegas, we were ‘test driving’ cars, trying to rent something different every time, and when we got an Alero, we knew it was what we wanted. So when we went to the dealer, there was no haggling or shopping we already knew what car out of all of them in the Northwest that we wanted. We just wanted a dealer to get it to us. They failed in their attempts at ‘internet buying’, so we had to drive to Bellingham WA to pick it up ourselves. (We rented a POS Mercury Mystique to get there.) Then from there we drove right into Canada for a weekend trip. Nice car for road trips.
It’s paid for, and I’m going to be sad when we have to replace it. The 72 Blazer is still in daily use, so I guess we could have the Alero for another 18 years, assuming Michael can manage not to total it. I’m sure either the government will outlaw non-hybrid cars, or Michael will get the hots for a new car, and the Alero will be put out to pasture, but I’m personally in no mood to buy a new car.
I do remember that our keys were interchangable. I also rememeber that Porshe that you sometimes drove. The one with the coat hanger “exhaust support” assembly, and the seat belt warning lights that would turn on when you went around a corner.
‘86 Dodge 600 convertable
‘98 Chevy S10 pickup
‘04 Chevy Cavalier coupe
I lead such a sheltered life.
You know, I tried to get an Expedition and they wouldn’t give me crap on the Explorer. Blue book was at 21 K and they wanted to give me 14K. Frickin’ employee pricing screwed me!! Ugh.
Good lord. In the last 1/2 hour I’ve recieved two calls from two different people from the same dealership that booted us out Saturday. Both want to “see if they can make something happen”. (where is the emoticon for “me not holding my breath but amused at the whole situation?)
Hmmmm, using rental cars as extended test drives… That’s something straight out of a Martha Stewart playbook.
Carol, how can ya’ll afford to fill up the ‘72 Blazer? At least if there’s a EMP over Portland, it’ll still run. lol
Is Michael’s insurance sky high because of all of the totals? I pretty much totaled my ‘98 Jeep two years ago, but nobody was held as fault, so mine didn’t budge (thankfully). Of course the reckless driving ticket I got two weeks before caused it jump up quite a bit. (As well as my blood pressure when I found out that reckless driving goes on your criminal record).
(my 2c) The wonderful folk that coded WordPress should work out a better comment system. (/my 2c)
Renting a car as a test-drive is really good for a couple of reasons, and short-circuiting impluse / sales pressure buying is a big one. You also won’t talk yourself into ignoring the flaws, so that you can buy it ‘now’ and drive it today. It can sometimes show you what happens to them if they’re mistreated. You also find out what’s inconvenient in them, or if the seats really are comfortable for a 4 hour drive. You’ll also get to drive them in the normal way, instead of the dealer along for the ride way.
Michael doesn’t fill up the Blazer, my brother David’s teenage adopted son, Patrick does. It’s got a huge tank.
Hmmm. I’m really liking the renting a car system. Definitely will do that on the next next vehicle.
Good lord, how can a teenager afford to fill up the tank on a Blazer?!
I remember back in the day when along with my first car, Bob and Jill gave me a Unocal 76 gas card … that they paid for. I had no sense of the value of gas until that card was taken away from me. (And since I was hanging out on Marine Drive all the time, it didn’t take long for that card to get taken away. I was filling the tank 3x-5x a week!)