As mentioned earlier, I test drove a white Alltrack SE with the driver assistance package on a Thursday. I told Chris I would return the following week, ready to buy a black Alltrack SE, and again specified the driver assistance package. The buyback money came through on Saturday, and was available to me on Monday, so I took off work a bit early on Monday afternoon, called Chris to let him know I was coming, and went to the bank for a cashier’s check.
My wife and I arrived at Metro VW (now Principle VW) about 2:30pm on Monday. My wife is a master of haggling and she enjoys it, so we were all ready to make a deal on a black Alltrack SE with the driver assistance package. We waited about 30 minutes for Chris to bring the car around, had a quick look at it, and commenced to haggling.
After 45 minutes of excruciatingly slow back-and-forth, Metro VW didn’t budge. They gave me $2500 off because of the construction on the highway out front (all other dealerships on that stretch of 183 are offering a couple of thousand off for the construction hassle, well, except for Toyota) and $1000 because I was a repeat customer, so I was happy enough with the price, especially given extra cost of the driver assistance package.
Then it came time to do the financing and paperwork. We waited about 25 minutes, and were then ushered into Jason the Finance Guy’s office. It was already time for Asr salat by then, and I was antsy to pray, so I was got a bit bothered when we just sat there for a half hour before he even started working on our paper work.
We had to go through the add on sales thing (I sprung for the service plan… note to self: never again. Stay Strong, James!), and then I started signing papers.
Jason screwed up something on the first round of paperwork, so we had to start over again. My hand cramped a few times, but we got through the document signing, and only then did Chris send the car to get washed… After more than an hour and a half with the finance guy, we again we had to wait 25 or 30 minutes before getting the keys.
I expected to get a walk-through of all the functions and buttons, driving modes, etc., but instead, Chris took a couple of pictures of me in the driver seat, we shook hands, and off I went, giddy as a schoolgirl and filled with New Car! Joy, despite the 4 hours, and I rushed home to pray.
After salat, which was somewhat distracted by my New Car! excitement, I drove the Alltrack over to my brother-in-law’s house to keep up with the family tradition. I took my brother-in-law and nephew on a short drive around the neighborhood and while showing them around the car, I noticed that the bumpers were missing the little proximity sensor button things. I climbed in the cockpit and noticed that the adaptive cruise control button was missing. Only then did I realize that I was driving a new, black Alltrack WITHOUT the driver assistance package.
I began to fume. I recalled how long everything took, how everyone seemed to smirk a bit, how my time was not in any way respected, and began to believe that I had been cheated.
My New Car! Joy evaporated. *poof*
I mentioned this bit before. In short, I don’t think Metro VW had a black Alltrack SE with the driver assistance package available on that Monday. Perhaps they had two SE models on Thursday, one with and one without, and perhaps one was sold or traded over the weekend. Or perhaps they had two on the lot, one with and one without, and Chris grabbed the wrong one.And instead of the great deal on a great car I thought I got, I got a decent enough deal on a great car.
After a month with the new car, I’m happy her and look forward to sharing the road with her for many years, but the extremely poor communication, absolute disrespect of me, my darling, adorable wife, and our time, and the 2 hours of rage mixed with self loathing, means that I didn’t get to enjoy the New Car! Joy much at all, and the whole experience and car is still tainted with that day.
I was going to put this in a separate post, but let’s just end it here.
I’ve bonded with the new Alltrack, now. Her name is Caroline, and she might not be Hank, but she’s a fabulous little car in her own right, and I’m blessed to have her. Alhamdulillah!
