The Mock Dock

Mr. Mock and I are in car-shopping mode, because the lease on my current car is set to expire in a few months, so we left the house this morning on the hunt for whatever it is that I’ll be driving next.

My current car is what most people would consider a top-of-the-line, luxury car.  And, if I hadn’t been driving it for the past 48 months, I would agree with them.  But the problem with my car is that it’s just too much car for me.  It’s got a huge engine and huge brakes and it’s roaring and powerful instead of being nimble and fun.  Note to all car-buying couples:  When shopping for a car, you should BOTH test drive it.  I made the mistake of taking Mr. Mock’s word for the fact that it was a great car, and not testing it out myself.  For him, it’s a great car.  For me, it’s like driving a tank.  And seeing as how it’s MY car, this is a problem.

Anyway, the lease people called me last week to “discuss my lease-end options” with me. Here is how the conversation went:

Lease Lady:  Would you like to purchase the car at lease-end?

Me:  No.

Lease Lady:  Can I ask why not?

Me:  Because I don’t like it.

Lease Lady:  Have you considered your other lease-end options?

Me:  I believe my lease-end options are to keep the car, or not keep the car.  I’m going to go ahead and not keep the car.

This didn’t sit particularly well with the lease-lady, because clearly she doesn’t want the car either.

Anyway, Mr. Mock and I narrowed down our choices of cars that we wanted to look at and went to our first choice dealer.  I pretty much fell in love with our top choice car after I drove it, which is really good news because as Mr. Mock will attest, I am VERY PICKY about cars.  If it doesn’t feel like it wants to be my friend almost instantaneously, and if I’m not immediately comfortable in it, I don’t want it.  And I LOVED this car.  And even better is that Mr. Mock loved it too.  In fact, I’m kind of bumming that I have to wait another 4 months for it. 

And guess what!  It’s got so much crap on it that’s fun and gadgety and technologicalified that I think I could easily have more fun sitting in it, in my garage, without going anywhere, than even driving it around.  I’m pretty sure it can cook a 4 course meal.  It’s that technologicated.  I’m even considering letting it do my taxes in April.

You know what’s dumb about talking price with car sellers?  All the mysterious breaks that they’ll give you if you just look disappointed enough with the initial price.  So the dude we talked to comes out of his manager meeting with an initial number, and we balked.  So his manager comes out and says, “Well, we were able to apply this certain special discount and then another one-time offer super special discount and so we got you down to this number.”  And we balked.  So they both run off to the back room and in a few minutes emerge to tell us that they were able to apply another mysterious double-secret discount and on top of that they were able to ”find another $10 a month off”.  Whaaaa?  Where could they have found another $10 off per month?  What IS IT about car sellers that makes them go through this totally unnecessary process? 

Anyway, happily, we came to a price that was pretty much exactly what we wanted to spend, and now we just have to wait till November to get it.  I bet, though, that if we’d have just held out a little more, we would have ended up getting the “the sky is blue today” discount and the extra-special “you are a human being” discount.

Come November, I just need to warn you that there might be a few days where I can do nothing but talk about how much I love my new car.  I could be totally insufferable, in fact.  But we’ll get through it.