It's a terribly long story that starts with the time our Ford Explorer died in front of the house less than two years ago and we were rushed to get a new car. You should know that Alex and I are not car people. I didn't drive for six years--other than on business trips in strange cities, ironically--when I lived in Manhattan. I don't know the difference between a Volkswagen and a Volvo. And despite the time I've spent at Autonation Chevrolet the past 15 months, I still couldn't tell you what a powertrain is. But back to the story...
When the Explorer's engine blew, we ended up purchasing the old mom Enclave. It turns out that our bad luck didn't stop when our family's only car, which had less than 100K miles on it at the time, decided to croak. Squeezing in a visit to Autonation on the one day Alex was home before a seventeen-day stint out of town (way back in October of 2013) turned into a spot of bad luck itself. It was there that we purchased the aforementioned Buick Enclave, which happened to be a lemon. The car was in and out of the service center every month for the past 15 months. Every time I heard a ding and saw the "Service Stabilitrak" (what the hell is that, anyway?) warning flash across my Driver's Information Center, or DIC--how long do you think it took me to figure out what the DIC was?--I would cringe. And then I would call our guy in the service center. And then he would call Alex back because he was scared of my wild womanly ways. And then the car would go in for service...and it would start all over again approximately 2-3 weeks later.
I know it's too late to make this long story short, but when I was faced with taking the car in again earlier this week, I decided perhaps our energy would be better spent trading in the lemon. Was it too much to ask that our only car be a working car? The decision to trade resulted in Alex and I losing our sanity and a day of our lives as we spent seven hours at the dealership yesterday. Our requests were simple--a functioning SUV with a third row. For some reason it took an entire day to seal the deal. We had our vehicle picked out at 11:00am (we got there at 9:30), and at 3:30pm we were finally ushered into the finance guy's office.
On an empty stomach and six cups of coffee, I signed on [too many to count] dotted lines and became the proud ex-owner of a 2010 Buick Enclave and tentative owner of a 2009 GMC Yukon. The girls wanted the Lamborghini stationed outside of the used car sales office with the hefty price tag of $179,000, but it didn't even have a second row. After nixing the race car we settled on the Yukon because it seemed like more of a family car. It's definitely a beast and not as smooth a ride as I was used to in my former "luxury vehicle," but I drove a Chevy Silverado for four weeks in December (as a loaner), and I think it got into my blood. Besides, we're in Texas--you gotta go big to keep up with these folks.
When the Explorer's engine blew, we ended up purchasing the old mom Enclave. It turns out that our bad luck didn't stop when our family's only car, which had less than 100K miles on it at the time, decided to croak. Squeezing in a visit to Autonation on the one day Alex was home before a seventeen-day stint out of town (way back in October of 2013) turned into a spot of bad luck itself. It was there that we purchased the aforementioned Buick Enclave, which happened to be a lemon. The car was in and out of the service center every month for the past 15 months. Every time I heard a ding and saw the "Service Stabilitrak" (what the hell is that, anyway?) warning flash across my Driver's Information Center, or DIC--how long do you think it took me to figure out what the DIC was?--I would cringe. And then I would call our guy in the service center. And then he would call Alex back because he was scared of my wild womanly ways. And then the car would go in for service...and it would start all over again approximately 2-3 weeks later.
I know it's too late to make this long story short, but when I was faced with taking the car in again earlier this week, I decided perhaps our energy would be better spent trading in the lemon. Was it too much to ask that our only car be a working car? The decision to trade resulted in Alex and I losing our sanity and a day of our lives as we spent seven hours at the dealership yesterday. Our requests were simple--a functioning SUV with a third row. For some reason it took an entire day to seal the deal. We had our vehicle picked out at 11:00am (we got there at 9:30), and at 3:30pm we were finally ushered into the finance guy's office.
On an empty stomach and six cups of coffee, I signed on [too many to count] dotted lines and became the proud ex-owner of a 2010 Buick Enclave and tentative owner of a 2009 GMC Yukon. The girls wanted the Lamborghini stationed outside of the used car sales office with the hefty price tag of $179,000, but it didn't even have a second row. After nixing the race car we settled on the Yukon because it seemed like more of a family car. It's definitely a beast and not as smooth a ride as I was used to in my former "luxury vehicle," but I drove a Chevy Silverado for four weeks in December (as a loaner), and I think it got into my blood. Besides, we're in Texas--you gotta go big to keep up with these folks.
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