Over/Under

**Interlude**

Before I finish this story, I have three pieces of business to attend to:

1.) I love everyone who takes time out of their day to actually read this thing, and a special place in my heart for my followers. That is why I am asking, nee, pleading to find my 10th follower. Call it ego, but I would love to say I have officially joined the ranks of bloggers who have followers in the double-digits.

2.) As of two weeks ago I officially hit my half-way mark for my television abstinence. So for those of you sick and tired of this thing, congrats, we are half-way there!

3.) Joe just made me laugh when he went to touch my leg and I had to warn him I hadn't shaved in a while, to which he replied (with a big funny smile on his face), "What's wrong with you?" Hahhahah, he said it, not in a mean way, but almost in a wonderstruck/smiley way. Made me laugh. Anyway...

We are met by David, the salesman, as soon as we walk back into the dealership from our test-drive.

"Well, what'd ya think?" he booms excitedly.

I'm trying to keep my composure but internally I'm doing back-flips. Joe and I had discussed in the car the possibility of maybe not having to put ANY money down; that perhaps using my car for the trade and being pre-approved might make them cut the price right down. We decided to go into this with that as our bottom-line, and, if push came to shove, merely offer my $200 gift card as some more money down.

David was, however, a ninja in the sales department. He didn't seem to want to give us too much time to think, and instead starting bringing out numbers. He also seemed to slightly use my inexperience to his advantage, handing me things to look at and then papers to sign. I probably would've blindly signed as well if Joe hadn't been there to put the brakes on and ask some questions.

We finally got down to the bottomline price, and I was concerned. Somehow my reasonably priced car had skyrocketed. Joe asked how that happened and David explained that there wasn't much they would give me for my car- only $500.

I casually mentioned that other dealerships were willing to give me nearly $1700.

To which he replied, "Let em. Ha ha ha" I wasn't laughing. For the first time I tried to be on the offensive with negotiations and was immediately shot down. But when David left again Joe explained the reason one dealership was willing to give us more was because they had a larger profit to gain. According to David there was nothing they could do with my car.

"We can shoot it for you," he said guffawing.

We finally saw where everything was breaking down and agreed to the terms. David left one more time, explaining that their financial officer would be around briefly to talk to us. A young-ish woman walked over, a lady I had seen walking around the dealership, and sat down. I was immediately struck by her appearence. She was wearing a fur-lined ski-jacket and her entire eyelid was covered in purple eye shadow which matched the rest of her overdone makeup.

"Hi! My name is Erica, and I heard you bought a car, congradulations!" She had one of those super bubbly and personable attitudes. The kind that made you think, she's gonna swipe this money out of my hand and make me thank her for it.

She explained how the car REALLY needed an undercoating, and that technically the car shouldn't be driven off the lot without it. It freaked me out, but not as much as the price. She tried to "soften" it by saying she'd give us a "discount". I was so flustered I simply agreed and signed.

It wasn't until the next day when I was detailing my experience with my coworkers that they all shook their heads in unison- no one EVER gets undercoating. My fremp Les described it as, "Unless you plan on parking your car in the middle of a lake, you don't need it." That settled that.

To make a super, stretched-out, and winding story short, I emailed David back and forth, knocked off the undercoating, and even stand to make an extra $20 on this deal, but we'll see.

In any event, I dropped the car by my mechanic to make sure it checked out alright (to which he happily reported, "You should buy this car!") and then after that the bank approved the higher loan (and confirmed that the undercoating would not be included in my cost-yay Angela) and finally today I dropped off the check from the bank to the dealership, content that though I'm paying a teeny bit more a month than I wanted, I'm getting much more car. Even though I don't have the plates and title/registration I can say with full confidence I am now the proud owner of a bouncing 2005 obsidian black Hyundai Tucson (better Gull?)

Thanks for taking this long road with me folks, hope it was edutaining. See ya Monday!