Car Dealers

My Bank Of America Credit Card appears to have swapped my balance with the national debt of the United States of America. I’m not entirely sure how this happened but I’m blaming the 19th Century German Engineer Karl Benz. The Car Trouble I was anticipating a few months back is translating into bank balance trouble. In fact it’s not just my ailing Yaris – the big car has been eating money as well but it has tended to be predictable and fixable things. Anyway, as I was having to travel into Edinburgh for a meeting last week I thought I’d go straight from work and call into a couple of dealerships to have a look at what’s available.

There were actually two cars I was interested in. The first was a Toyota Auris Hybrid. One of my colleagues has one as a company car and it’s a lovely place to be – quietly floating around the car park and driving around quite pleasantly on the open road. The only problem I could see is that the boot isn’t flat but has a “hole” behind where the batteries go – this probably maximises the number of litres reported on the boot size but would make it awkward to transport dogs around. The other was a VW Golf which I had on hire for a day. They have finally fitted them with half decent engines. The one I had was a TSI which is a small petrol engine with a ruddy great turbo-charger attached. As I was just driving to Dumfries and back I didn’t look in the boot but I did notice that it averaged over 50mpg even with my laissez-faire attitude to the prevailing speed limit. I thought I would investigate both cars further.

The first dealer wasn’t actually a Toyota dealership (in spite of the impression given on Auto-Trader). Nevertheless, I described my automotive canine transportation requirements in some detail and asked whether there was some after-market accessory to flatten out the boot. He may not have known the answer immediately and if he had said so and offered to find out this would have been perfectly acceptable but his opening line was “That isn’t what you want”. Yes it was. I’d just explained this too him in great detail. Apparently, what he thought I should have is an Audi A4 saloon. Now, apart from the fact that driving an Audi is likely to make me look like a bit of a knobhead, was he seriously suggesting that I shove my whippets in the boot? I’m pretty sure I’d be in trouble with the SSPCA if I did.

I thought things might get a bit better at the VW dealers. They didn’t. In this case it was because I became invisible. I had a poke around the models inside but all the salesmen ignored me. Maybe I look a bit common? Maybe I was a bit scruffy? To be honest, I am a bit scruffy but I was still in my shirt and tie from work so I couldn’t have looked that bad. I approached one of the salesmen to ask them if I could have a look at the inside of a Golf VI parked outside. They told me that I would have to book in advance to have a test drive. Even when I explained that I just wanted t look inside they were “too busy” (even though I was the only punter in the place). I left.

I’ve had this kind of thing before; it’s what I would call the Comet factor. When idly browsing around Comet the sales staff would circle in like midges attracted to a sweaty hiker, but when actually trying to buy something they all go AWOL or only want to sell the thing that they want to and not the thing I want. I used to end up going home and buying the stuff off Amazon. Comet went bust and I’m sure this was a major factor but I’ve had a look on Amazon and they don’t do cars (yet). In fact, after driving around the bloody awfulness that is Edinburgh in the early evening I’m really sold on the benefits of a peddle bike. I wonder if I could fit the dogs on the back?