Hurry up and wait

Are you ready for more car drama? 'Cuz I got some for ya. Friday morning the Cerritos dealer called to confirm that the exact car I want is coming in... on Thursday. Boooo! Apparently there are 27 of the models coming in, eight with the navigation system that I want, with only ONE in the color combo I want. So he suggested that in order to guarantee that that ONE car would be MINE and that no one else could sell it, we should come in and fill out all the paperwork for it. "I'll bring the car out to you on Thursday to save you another trip out here!" he offered. Hmmm...ok. That's intriguing. Rightfully Brent didn't want to go into the dealership and leave our down payment without seeing the exact car we're getting, so they told him that we could give the down payment to the sales guy when he dropped the car off to us. Brent also talked to the sales guy's boss to make sure that if for some reason the car that arrived was NOT the one we wanted, that we wouldn't be contractually bound to that car. They assured him that we wouldn't. We made the trip out there that afternoon, thankfully with no traffic on the freeway, an LA rarity. We arrived, met the sales guy we'd been dealing with and then took one more test drive in the make and model I want. We went back to his desk, filled out the preliminary paper work and then made our way to the finance guy. We discussed our financing options, then he asked about our down payment. We were planning to put a pretty good chunk down -- when they delivered the car to us. He had no idea what we were talking about. He called one of our sales guy's bosses, not the one Brent had talked to previously. The boss had no idea what we were talking about. So Brent told the finance guy to get the other boss on the phone. He did, and the other boss acted dumb, saying she had no idea what Brent was referring to. "I didn't know there was talk of delivering the car to you." Ugh. The finance guy explained that the dealer's policy does not allow them to deliver cars to owners because they wouldn't be held liable if something happened between the dealership and us. We called our sales guy back in, who was apologetic and didn't realize that that was the policy. I don't think he was trying to dupe us - I honestly think he didn't know. He's only been with that dealer for a month, and I get the feeling that his previous dealer didn't have that sort of policy. Regardless, we were annoyed. We went back and forth with the finance guy about our options because Brent still didn't want to put any money down on a car we hadn't seen. We figured out and confirmed that we could sign up for financing through the dealer at the same rate offered by our credit union with no money down on that day, ensure that the exact car I wanted was mine, then when we come back on Thursday we'd redo the contract with our down payment included. Are ya still with me? So that's what we're doing. While sitting in the finance office, Brent said to me, exhausted, "Ok, maybe this wasn't worth the $500 we're saving by coming out here." But he later took that back. And he keeps joking that he'll figure out a way to spend the $500 on me that we're saving on the car. I joked that I'm going to make him buy me a REALLY nice handbag. In all honesty, I've waited nearly 31 years for a brand new car. One more week won't kill me. My poor co-workers (and my dear readers) have had to endure my car saga. I'm sure they'll be happy when it's all done with and I can FINALLY stop using the "I can't drive us to lunch because my car only fits two people" excuse. I don't know if we'll pick up my car on Thursday evening or the weekend, assuming that it arrives on schedule. Thursday is my actual birthday, so I'm not sure if I want to spend that evening sitting in traffic to get my new car. And Friday I'd like to celebrate with a delicious dinner, so the car pick-up may not happen until Saturday. We'll see how it all unravels. At this point I wouldn't be surprised to endure more drama. "Nanette, the good news is that your car is here! The bad news is that it had an accident with a truck full of manure so we'll knock off $50 'cuz it no longer has the new car smell...." "After school, walking home, fresh dirt under my fingernails. And I can smell hot asphalt. Cars screech to a halt to let me pass. And I cannot remember what life was like through photographs. Trying to recreate images life gives us from our past." - The Sun, Maroon 5