Two Cars Bought

After interminable hemming and hawing, Andrew and I have bought our second car. In fact, we bought two new cars today.

When we move into our new house on Saturday, we want to make sure we have two vehicles available to us. This is so because we will be living ten miles further from downtown, and ten and eleven miles away from other family members (Andrew and I will be living “out in the middle of nowhere”, according to Andrew’s mother).

Andrew and I have been car-shopping for months—and, until today, we were unable to make a firm decision what to buy.

The situation was so bad, we had become embarrassed to keep visiting the same dealerships over and over. In fact, things had arrived at the point at which Andrew’s father had started sending Alex with us on our car-shopping sprees, hoping that Alex might be able to jar us into making a decision.

The stratagem of sending Alex with us being unsuccessful, Andrew’s father took matters into his own hands this morning. During breakfast, he announced that he was taking us car-shopping today.

Indeed, Andrew’s father more or less made our choices for us—and conducted the negotiations, too.

We headed straight for the Volkswagen dealership, and made a beeline to the GTI models, with Andrew’s father taking the lead. His first words to us as soon as we arrived at the GTI models: “This model has a hatchback, so you can haul things when necessary. I would get the four-door model rather than the two-door model if I were you.”

Andrew and I looked at each other, and sheepishly shook our heads in an affirmative manner.

“I would get one with a shade of gray” were Andrew’s father’s next words—at which point Andrew and I decided we preferred the “Carbon Steel Gray Metallic” color to one of the other silver/gray/black shades available.

Once Andrew and I had settled upon the particular GTI we wanted to buy, we learned that we were not done.

“I would replace the Jetta with a new Passat” was Andrew’s father’s next announcement. “Do it now instead of waiting another two years.” He was referring to our 2004 Jetta, which Andrew’s parents had bought for Andrew when Andrew enrolled in law school.

Andrew and I had not planned on buying two new cars, but the idea made sense, and we started examining the Passat models in stock. We settled on a “Platinum Gray Metallic” model with black interior—after seriously considering a “Candy White” model, which we ultimately decided would be a poor color for getting through Minnesota winters.

Once our choices were complete, Andrew’s father smiled and said, “I am saving you the trouble of going through this exercise again two years from now. And you’ll get a better deal, buying two cars instead of one.”

I am confident we did get a good deal, although I am not qualified to know. We left everything to Andrew’s father. Andrew’s father stated terms, the dealership accepted the terms without modification, and dealership clerks immediately started taking down information necessary to register the cars in our names.

That was it. We were in and out of that dealership in fifty minutes, two cars bought, one car traded in, all necessary papers signed. We arrived back home at 10:30 a.m., our main business for the day complete.

There is only one thing left for us to do: Andrew and I must return to the dealership tomorrow morning to deliver a check, to deliver the Jetta, and to deliver title to the Jetta—and to pick up our new cars.