Saturday, June 21, 2008

That Darn Tiger Woods

That man just cost me $25000. How, you ask? Yesterday I bought a new 2008 Buick LaCrosse CX. It's "Scarlett Red" with "Titanium" interior. I wouldn't have been looking at the Buicks if it weren't for all of those Buick commercials I have to watch when I watch golf. And why are there so many Buick commercials out there? Because Tiger advertises them. At least I didn't buy a Lucerne. The LaCrosse is expensive enough for me.

As for the car: I wanted a red one but the dealership only had two silver ones on their lot. When the salesman realized I was going to keep my 1998 Lumina, he figured the only way I was going to buy a car that day was if he could find me a red one (I didn't need to buy one that day if I had a car I could drive). So, he had some guy in the office look for red ones on the internet. He claimed this was the only red one in the state of West Virginia, but when I looked online, I found 4 with one having the paint color I would have preferred: "Red Jeweled Tint". But it could be that those other dealerships hadn't updated their website and that car was already sold. At first, the salesman was showing me the used cars but when he asked me how much I was looking to spend and I said "I want to keep it under $30,000", you should have seen those cartoon Dollar Signs pop out of his eyes. That was a bit funny. He showed me the news ones then, but he kept showing me the Pontiac Grand Prix and I don't really like those. I think the body style is ugly. They had a red one of those. I made the salesman do a lot of walking yesterday. The car lot is stretched out length-wise and he had to walk that whole length a couple of times. But as I don't go carshopping ever, I didn't really know what I wanted and what I was looking for. So, I even took a peek at a Dodge Avenger. Finally I test drove one of the silver LaCrosses and it was very nice. The driver's seat adjusts up and down and front to back. The A/C fan is controlled by button instead of knobs (My Lumina's A/C fan barely works and I have to toggle the knob back and forth a hundred times to get it to work). The radio keeps working even after you turn off the car and pull the key out of the ignition. That concerned me for a bit yesterday until I could read the book. I get free Onstar for a year and free XM radio for 3 months. The radio is set on the PGA Tour network and I haven't gotten the Onstar started yet. The trunk is a little smaller than my Lumina's and the car takes the potholes in my driveway a lot better than the Lumina. Both cars have a V6 engine, but the Lumina's is a 3.1L and the Lacrosse has a 3.8L. When I test drove the silver LaCrosse, I accidentally squealed the tires when I pulled out of a parking lot. It has a bit more power than the Lumina. The LaCrosse comes with two power accessory outlets (at least I have only found two) and my car came with 3/4 of a tank of gas, which probably makes the $25000 I'm spending worth it when you look at the current price of gas - LOL Wednesday, the dealership people are going to pick my car up at work and take it to spray this protectorant all over it. With this stuff on the car I won't have to wax it for 5 years. I thought that sounded great since my Lumina is lucky if I wash it once a year, let alone wax it.

I like the LaCrosse even though it seems that the view out of the back window is more narrow than that of my Lumina. I read in the owners manual that I have to wipe off the chrome every time it gets wet or dirty. Heaven knows what I have to do with the aluminum wheels that they have on it. I'm hoping that protectorant stuff will seal that too and I won't have to do much cleaning. I'm still keeping my Lumina. I have studded snow tires for that car so I figure I'll run it in the Winter and park the LaCrosse. It didn't cost me much more to insure a new LaCrosse since, thanks to dad's handling of my insurance, I am insured to the hilt anyway. And insuring the Lumina with the minimum required by the State of WV only cost me about $290 more on the year. That was a very good deal I thought.

I'm happy that I have a brand new car. I figure I should be able to have one brand new car in my lifetime and then get used ones after that. My Lumina was a gently used one when I got it. Plus, my Lumina has a bad head gasket and according to Dad, the engine could go at any time so I didn't fancy driving it to Akron for the Bridgestone Invitational at the end of July. I'm going back to the tournament again this year. Wednesday night the LaCrosse will really feel like my car because I will be able to move my little stuffed dinosaur into the back dash and put my house key on the key ring. I don't want to do that before the dealership guys pick up the car to do that detailing work. You should never leave personal stuff in the car or your house key on the key ring when you're giving the car and key ring to a dealership, mechanic, or detailing workers.

As for Yesterday - it was the most expensive day of my life. Not only did I buy the car, but I also spent $433.00 ordering new glasses to wear. Mine are all scratched up so I went to the eye doctor and ordered new ones. The ones I'm getting come with little magnets on either side of the lenses and sun glass clip ons that will just adhere to the frames with those magnets. That's really handy. The color of the frames are purple. Not red. It was nice to hear the office girl saying that I needed small frames because I have a small face. That wasn't the case 6 years ago when I last went to the eye doctor. I was fat back then.

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