Buying a car isn't like buying a couch.

It's my 4th day of vacation (5th if I count that snow day last Friday) and I am exhausted.
I have a kitten laying on my legs who is really disabling me to move... so I figure,
why not talk about what I've been doing for the past three days,
and why it is, that I am so tired.

It all started a few days ago, when I got this "hunch" to get a new car.
Having never owned a car, other than co-signing with Sean's last one,
and the three my parents have bought and I seemed to just "take over" without any financial responsibility, :)
I've never had my very own car.
But hey, here I am... growing up every day and I thought "hmm, it's probably time."

My criteria, you ask?
I wanted an SUV (type vehicle), with good gas mileage, a low monthly payment, and for it to be white.
That's it. (ha!)
And on Saturday, I went to the dealership (before the concert I was telling you about before).

I had it in my head, that I wanted to look at a Mazda CX5, in white.
I had seen a few in person, and definitely "built" a few online.
And I was ready to see the car that I wanted, and that I had in my head.

Of course, they didn't have the car that I wanted, that I had in my head, and that I built online.
Duh... but they had something similar and told me they could always swap cars with another dealer to get the one I wanted.
Ohhhh, "perfect" I thought.

I didn't test drive the car. I sat in the backseat and told Sean to update me on the driving capabilities.
I was not prepared to drive someone else's car in a busy area... it was nearly dark outside!

We chatted for a little bit and then left and I had a great feeling about the SUV,
which turns out to be a "crossover".
Whatevs.

Let's fast forward to Sunday.
We woke up, had some lunch (I told you I couldn't get out of bed that day),
and Sean says to me "let's go to the Ford dealer... you should keep your options open".
Insert "dun-dunnnnn" music.

Here's where it all went south.

I was looking at the Ford Escape, in white.
I test drove it since it was sunny outside and I had a good feeling about that.
And when it came time for us to leave to go get the trade-in vehicle the guy said,
"hey, why don't you take the Escape... drive it around and bring it back with the trade-in"
Um, excuse me?
"Oh yeah... you'll really get a feel for the vehicle".

Seems like a sweet deal, right?
No, no, no.
I realized after that this is their ploy to get you back to the dealership.
You see, unless I wanted to be a felon... I had to go back.
To return their car.

So I was debating my two choices:

And when I went back... they didn't let me leave!
Until after hours & hours of back & forth, and room after room of "negotiating".
They even went as far as ringing the "sold" bell in anticipation of me signing...
but the paperwork didn't even reflect our conversations.
Excuse me?
Needless to say, it didn't work out for me & Ford.

Let's fast forward to Monday... back at Mazda.
I could tell you all about the features, or the money part or the whatever.
But the most important thing here... is this:

I wanted to look at a white Mazda CX5.
You would have thought that by asking for a white vehicle,
I had asked the Earth to move closer to the sun.

They needed to ship it from upstate NY.
They had to add money on for it.
They had to do all sorts of things,
even though 48 hours earlier it was "oh, we just swap with another dealer!"
No biggie. Easy-peasy!

Apparently it's a huge biggie.

So did I get a car? I don't know.
Did I sign something? I did.
Assuming things go "right" will the vehicle be white? Nope.
Did I learn anything from the last three days? Yes...

Here's what I learned:

- Buying a car takes a long time and is exhausting. It's not like buying a piece of furniture. You can't always get everything on your wishlist. And nobody cares if you frown and look unhappy.
- Car salesmen tell you anything they think you want to hear. They do a lot of "selling by telling"... and most of it you could read online or in the car manual.
- Money is a sensitive topic. Everyone watches their own wallet and everyone wants a deal.
- When they ask for your social security number it's because they're running your credit... so don't be so free about giving it out. Who knew? Oops...