![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unrequited car love
Jun. 25th, 2003 03:17 pmAfter some test drives, thorough study of Consumer Reports car reviews, the VW website and the glossy brochure for the Golf, weeks of actually looking at the other cars on the road, much soul searching, some traumatic experiences driving Sweetie's shitbox, and a discussion of the pros vs. cons of diesel engines with one happy diesel driver (mangosteen) and various other geeks, I had decided what I want and what I was going to pay for it.
A new blue Golf GL TDI 5-door hatchback with a manual transmission. Probably somewhere between $16,100 and $16,500.
I was going to name the car Carmine. I foresaw us growing old together. I was getting weak in the knees thinking about this car, waking up every morning at 6:30 thinking about how to haggle with car salescritters. This is what love feels like.
By today I had thought through the pricing, what I wanted, and how I was going to go about haggling to the point that I felt ready-- well, as ready as I would ever be-- to hold my own in a conversation with a car salescritter. So today I started calling dealers, to find who has a Golf TDI in stock. Turns out that there are barely any Golf TDI's in stock. I've called the 10 closest VW dealers; 9 of these don't have a single new Golf TDI in stock, and the other one-- well, they may, but the salescritter on the phone didn't really speak English, and lost my call trying to transfer to his manager.
There are several other VW dealers in the state that I haven't called yet. But the rarity means that I probably won't be able to beat them up on price, even if I do find the car I'm looking for.
There's a used one for sale in Tewksbury with only 12,000 miles, but it has all the fancy silly options so it will probably be way more expensive than I was planning to spend.
I have to re-think things. I know the TDI has a higher price than the Golf that runs on gas. But I had to get the diesel that gets 49 mpg so I wouldn't feel guilty about not getting the hybrid electric that gets 51 mpg. OTOH, while 24/31 doesn't sound to me like really great mileage, it's way better than most of the gluttonous vehicles out there; and didn't I do my greenhouse gas duty by moving so close to work that I can commute on foot, and by thus far not reproducing? I pay attention to how the recycling is sorted, I turn off computers at night, I vote for environmentalist candidates, I don't buy a lot of junk. How green do I have to be to live with myself?
A new blue Golf GL TDI 5-door hatchback with a manual transmission. Probably somewhere between $16,100 and $16,500.
I was going to name the car Carmine. I foresaw us growing old together. I was getting weak in the knees thinking about this car, waking up every morning at 6:30 thinking about how to haggle with car salescritters. This is what love feels like.
By today I had thought through the pricing, what I wanted, and how I was going to go about haggling to the point that I felt ready-- well, as ready as I would ever be-- to hold my own in a conversation with a car salescritter. So today I started calling dealers, to find who has a Golf TDI in stock. Turns out that there are barely any Golf TDI's in stock. I've called the 10 closest VW dealers; 9 of these don't have a single new Golf TDI in stock, and the other one-- well, they may, but the salescritter on the phone didn't really speak English, and lost my call trying to transfer to his manager.
There are several other VW dealers in the state that I haven't called yet. But the rarity means that I probably won't be able to beat them up on price, even if I do find the car I'm looking for.
There's a used one for sale in Tewksbury with only 12,000 miles, but it has all the fancy silly options so it will probably be way more expensive than I was planning to spend.
I have to re-think things. I know the TDI has a higher price than the Golf that runs on gas. But I had to get the diesel that gets 49 mpg so I wouldn't feel guilty about not getting the hybrid electric that gets 51 mpg. OTOH, while 24/31 doesn't sound to me like really great mileage, it's way better than most of the gluttonous vehicles out there; and didn't I do my greenhouse gas duty by moving so close to work that I can commute on foot, and by thus far not reproducing? I pay attention to how the recycling is sorted, I turn off computers at night, I vote for environmentalist candidates, I don't buy a lot of junk. How green do I have to be to live with myself?
