The Car Dealership and Farewell to Jeep

It started as a beautiful July 4th... We had decided to purchase a new car which would be a bit more roomy, safer and reliable for when Baby Amisano arrives and we had been researching new cars for several weeks. We had narrowed it down to the Hyundai Santa Fe and the Honda CRV. Our goal for the day was to visit each dealership (different than the ones where we had already test driven these cars) and determine what price we could get so that we could make our final decision and come back for the purchase. We came prepared with Consumer Reports print outs, calculations of what we were willing to pay and a breakdown of all options we wanted. We anticipated spending about 1 and a half to two hours at each dealership and then meeting friends for a bbq.

Six (6) hours later we drove away from the first dealership with a new Santa Fe. The process was a nightmare and they were unwilling to even search for the availability of the car we wanted or discuss pricing unless we initialed a handwritten note attesting that if we came to a reasonable agreement on the car and the price, that we would buy it that day. Well, the attorney in Angie and businessman in Paul wanted to run out of there, but after confirming that our agreement regarding "reasonable" price did not have to be in good faith and in fact we could consider a $5000 price "reasonable" and walk away when they could not meet that, we decided to stay.

We could go on and on about what a miserable experience this was ... from the bureaucracy and run around between the salesman and his boss, the misscommunication about the trade-in and the pregnant woman sitting with NO FOOD for six hours to Paul actually 'yelling' (he calls it raising his voice) at the salesman ... let's just say it was not pleasant.

Then came the saddness of having to prematurely leave the Jeep behind. We had not planned to purchase a new car that day or leave the Jeep. At one point Paul turned to look out at the Jeep and commented that it looked sad, and it did. Like a puppy dog coming to the realization that you are no longer in the mood to play fetch, the Jeep was defeated and looked as if it actually had those same droopy eyes. The Jeep has brought a lot of fun times from Buffett tailgates to Redskins tailgates, trips to the beach and much more, it will be missed. The turn radius of the Jeep can not be outdone and we will no longer be able to 'Jeep it' over curbs, ditches and through mud, but we have moved on to a grown up car that it much more practical for the growing family. Here are some pictures of Jeep... :( (you can see some of the new car as well)