***Possible new vehicle***

Hmmm. Is it okay for a thirty something year old man to drive...or better yet...be seen in one of these things?

Image found on the Internet and all rights belong to its owner.

***It's a most, wonderful time, of the year...NOT!***

Image found on the Internet and all rights belong to its owner.

December's a busy time for us. First there's The Spouse's b-day which we celebrated yesterday. Then there's Chanukkah followed by our anniversary. Eleven years. Wow.

The biggie, of course, is Xmas. This year the parental figures will be coming to the Sunshine state where their prodigal children will converge on them down in Temecula. The Spouse is on-call and will join us (hopefully) soon afterwards.

I don't even want to think about New Year's Eve yet.

***The latest and greatest***

Cars--specifically, researching cars--dominated last week and continue into the present. Last Saturday I visited the local Enterprise dealership to look at a couple of used cars.

What a difference.

The salesman...sorry...consultant...joined me after I asked to see someone. Positive point in Enterprise's favor: no hovering salesfolks. He took me into an office, introduced himself and explained the program. VERY interesting. Apparently the consultants earn their income by each car sold regardless of the price. Thus, there's no inducement for them to push a high-end car towards you. I've heard of such a program from a friend of mine: when such a tactic is combined with a limited time return policy and refund, the consultant is motivated to sell you a car that you absolutely want.

Nice.

I wish I could say the same about the cars on the lot. I checked out a brevity of cars: a Stratus, Taurus, a Santa Fe, and some Mitusbishi SUV. While they were all good looking cars, I found the interiors to be more...plain...than the higher end new cars. But those were the cars on the lot. Subsequent communication with the consultant assured me there were high end cars somewhere out there.

After looking at the cars, we discussed the various financing options. Again, no pressure; just information and lots of options.

That evening The Spouse (who was on-call the entire weekend) joined me in the evening and we checked out a local Honda dealership. Surprise! A nice salesman. He showed us the Accord and CR-V, providing a constant stream of info. Positive point in his favor: he didn't balk when he asked for my phone number and I gave him my e-mail address instead.

I'll definitely be seeing him again for the test drive (which we didn't try due to the rain.)

The bulk of the weekend was spent over at Gen Con So Cal. Actually, I didn't spend a lot of time there: I hadn't signed up for any of the games and the product floor was on the thin side. Saturday I just looked around and made my purchases Sunday afternoon.

Evening was spent with The Spouse over dinner and discussing cars.

Sigh. I so got to stop the car thingie.


NOTE: All images displayed are found on the Internet and all rights belong to their owners.