It's a lot to read, but to understand my car search you need to know about Tiffany's death. You can read about it here, here, here, here, and here. Want the short version? I left a gallon of milk in the back of Tiffany while she was parked outside in the summer heat. The milk spoiled, split the milk container, spread everywhere, and I didn't find it for a week. The estimate to get the milk and it's associated odor out was over $16,000 and the manager of the body shop said he wouldn't recommend putting that much money into her as he wasn't sure he could get the odor out at all. Tiffany was totaled by cow juice.
Worse than her getting totaled due to my stupidity is the fact that the insurance company claimed they were exempt from paying due to mold being present. So not only did I lose her, I had no money to show for it. And since I'm not working, I can't exactly take on a loan to properly replace her.
Here's where I started my search. I had roughly $21,000 in my savings account from a previous withdraw of my 401k and the sale of Tiffany. I found out that I could sell Tiffany's extended warranty back since I sold her and I'm getting a check for another $895. That's $22,000. I could buy a car with cash, but that brings up its own issues. Will they accept a personal check, will they even accept a cashier's check. If the dealership is over an hour drive away from me, do I have to go test drive the car, dicker and deal, drive back home, get the check, then drive back and hope we can finish off the transaction? I hate extending things out to multiple days when it should be able to be finished in a single go.
To curtail those problems before they got rolling I decided I'd finance the car. And to make that like any other negotiation, I started with getting pre-approved at my credit union. I was going specifically for 60 months and got approved for 7.24% on a 2019 and older or 6.74% on a 2020 or newer. I'd also get a 0.25% rate discount if I signed up for auto pay. With that in hand and after weeks of searching for all kinds of varieties of features and models and prices, I needed to settle down and decide what I wanted to get.
I'd already narrowed it down to the Ford Edge. It's the Ford version of my Lincoln Nautilus so I'll already be prepared for it's rough driving dynamics and be very familiar with its size. And so long as I got a 2019 or newer I could get the same Adaptive Cruise with Lane Centering feature that I love so much.
The first thing I needed to get my head around is that no matter what, I'd be taking a step back from my Lincoln. Certain features wouldn't be available at all and others wouldn't be nearly as good. For instance, I absolutely ADORED Tiffany's audio system. The Revel Ultimate 19 speaker setup was beyond amazing. Ford Edges at the high end can have a 12 speaker B&O system that's kind of 'okay' but come standard with a 6 speaker system. Downgrade. The Ford Edge doesn't come with a digital gauge cluster even as an option. The Ford Edge doesn't have auto brake hold. The Ford Edge only comes with a 2.0L turbo 4 cylinder engine with 250 horse power compared to Tiffany's 2.7L Twin Turbo V6 with 330 horse power. And then just the little things like all the touch points feeling better in a Lincoln, the doors closing heavier in a Lincoln, the sound proofing being better in a Lincoln.
Fine. But I'm not working and I'm not commuting. And I only have so much to spend. And I'll fully acknowledge that these are pure unadulterated first world problems. There are plenty of people less off than me. But I want to acknowledge this both to myself and to you that it upset me. From Lita to Fiona, Fiona to Ginger, Ginger to Isabella, Isabella to Nina, and Nina to Tiffany, every car I've purchased over the past 11 years have been better and better. More features and in general higher quality. Tiffany was the first 2 year old car I'd purchased in 11 years as all the others were new. Unless I found a sweet deal on a 2022 Edge, I'd also be buying my 'oldest' car.
Going back to finding out what I needed, wanted, and would sacrifice to get. I primarily needed a vehicle for a vanity exercise. I already feel like less of a person because I can't work. Not having a car of my own would just be another hit to my pride. But I do have actual wants/needs for a vehicle. I drive to get groceries, I drive in the snow, I go to my doctor's appointments, and I take occasional driving vacations.
First up, Needs:
- 2019 or newer
- All Wheel Drive
- Android Auto
- Adaptive Cruise Control with Lane Centering
- Heated Seats
- Remote Start
- Power Liftgate
- Under 100,000 Miles
- 2021 or newer
- Panoramic Vista Sun Roof
- 20" Wheels
- Leather Steering Wheel
- LED Lights
- Heated Steering Wheel
- Hands Free Power Liftgate
- Rain Sensing Windshield Wipers
- Under 60,000 Miles
- Tow Package
There were two trims to consider. It was a little different per year, but basically I could get the SEL trim so long as I also got the Ford Co-Pilot360 Assist+ and Convenience packages. That would cover all the feature needs. If I got a Titanium Trim all I'd need to do is include the Ford Co-Pilot360 Assist+ package as all the other features were automatically included.
The Titanium trim also automatically included:
- Rain Sensing Windshield Wipers
- Forward Parking Sensors
- Enhance Audio System (12 speaker setup compared to a 6 speaker setup)
- Handsfree Power Liftgate
- Heated Steering Wheel
- Ambient Lighting
- Front 180 degree camera
- Enhanced Park Assist
- Cooled Front seats
- Memory sideview mirrors
- Power Steering Column
- Sideview Mirror with LED Turn Signal Indicators
- LED Headlights
I knew I'd be taking a step back from Tiffany. I could justify it as I'd only be driving this car minimally until I return to work. With my 'needs' met, I'd be able to commute in the car for six months to a year and make sure I could continue to work. Then, assuming I could keep working, I could trade this Edge in on a new Lincoln Nautilus or equivalent vehicle. But if I could get that big screen, I'd be getting something that Tiffany didn't have. I'd be getting something new. And I like my geeky new things, so I made the decision that unless I absolutely couldn't get it, I'd get a 2021 or newer.
With that now in mind, I was right up against it on miles. Most of the ones that hit the price I needed and all of my needs, regardless of being a loaded SEL or minimally optioned Titanium, were nearing 100,000 miles. That added something else that I didn't include in my need/want lists above. Warranty. For lower mileage vehicles, 50,000 or less miles, I'd have been okay going without a warranty. But over 60,000 and especially up at 90,000 miles, I had to think of that as a need.
In general, a 2021 Ford Edge with about 90,000 miles could get a 3 year, 36,000 mile warranty for $2,300. There was some little variation, but that price stood in as what I'd need to add. And that made the pickings quite slim. That being said, there are a LOT of Ford Edges for sale. Staying within a 100 mile radius of my zip code started with almost 1,000 Ford Edges for sale. Taking it down to ones that met my needs and price limitations and I still had a list of eight. Five were 2021 or newer while the other 3 were fully loaded Titaniums 2019s or 2020s with lower miles.
I quickly focused in on one. It seemed perfect. A 2021 Ford Edge Titanium with 91,000 miles. It had all of my needs met but wouldn't include the 180 degree camera, the LED headlights, the cooled seats, or the enhanced park assist. It didn't have the sunroof nor did it have the tow package. But it came in a really nice looking Burgundy color on the outside and a nice cream color on the inside. It was listed at the dealership for $17,000. It had just dropped in price this week and it had been on the lot for over two months. It was the very best priced Ford Edge that I was looking at. I honestly decided that not only would I pay full sticker, I'd be willing to have them tack on some fees. It was that good of a deal.
I was having my younger brother B drive me to the dealership. He okayed getting up early so we'd have enough time to hit one or two dealerships if need be and wouldn't be pressured. But two things took those thoughts down. First, I forgot that I had a doctor's appointment that morning. Thank the Goddess the appointment was at 9 and not like noon. The other thing that put a time limit on us was B needed to be back in town by 6:00 PM. He had plans to celebrate his wife's birthday that night.
The day before we headed up I checked online and confirmed that the car was on the lot. This was at 2:00 PM. They confirmed the car was there and we set up an appointment to view it at 11:00 the next day. That would give enough time for my doctor's appointment and a casual drive up to the dealership (the dealership was one of the furthest away).
B and I started our trip around 10:00. I was on day six of a migraine and it was already ramping up to be quite bad. I let B know that I was in a migraine and set up my limits. I'd offer no more than $19,000 out the door for the car alone. $22,000 if they could include the warranty.
Just before we started I got a text and voice mail from one of the sales people. Karrie. She'd meet us up there and was excited to help us out. There was some traffic so B and I got to the dealer right on time for the appointment. I should say that this is a bigger Ford dealer with both new and used cars. I liked that as it meant they could have the Ford extended warranties and I would insist on a Ford backed warranty. Anyway, we pulled into the used car lot but didn't see a burgundy Edge. Or an Edge of any color. We found Karrie and she started off the negotiating by shooting herself in the foot. And maybe shooting herself in the face.
"We sold the car you're looking for last night, but I have some others I'd like to show you."
Now, I get it. Things happen. They make a sale and they're all happy about it. And if it's the last sale of the day and all the support staff are gone, no one notices that there is an appointment to look at that very car until the next morning. But Karrie STARTED our interaction with that information. So she knew it. Maybe she didn't know it when she called and texted me at 9:30, but surely she knew it before I was done with my hour and a half long drive. She could have called/texted me and said that it was gone and she had other cars to look at. Did she do that? No, because she's exactly what you think of when you think of used car salesman. She needed me to be on the lot so that she could show me other cars. If she called me and told me she didn't have the specific car I was looking for, it would give me time to not come up and find another car elsewhere.
But what's done is done and I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. She did start off by asking what had made me look at that car. It's not like I could list out the dozen or so things I wanted out of a 2021 Ford Edge Titanium with the Ford Co-Pilot360 Assist+ package. But I mentioned the hardest feature to come by; Adaptive Cruise with Lane Centering.
She said that was perfect because she had a fully loaded Lincoln that would meet my needs. Now immediately I have red flags going up. For a fully loaded Lincoln to be within my price range, it would have to be much older or have like 200,000 miles. And if it was older, it wouldn't have the adaptive cruise with lane centering. And then she brought it up on her screen and showed me a Lincoln MKC and said "This is just like the Edge, they're the same size!"
No. The Lincoln MKC is based off the Ford Escape. It's significantly smaller than the Edge/Nautilus/MKX. But I still extended her doubt as maybe it was just labeled wrong on their website. Maybe it was an MKX. I think... THINK... that Lincoln got the adaptive cruise with the lane centering in 2019 when they changed the name from the MKX to the Nautilus, but maybe they got it a few years earlier?
Anyway, I accepted that we'd look at it. She said she'd go get the plate so that we could take it for a test drive and she'd also find a Ford Edge that should meet my needs.
While I might have been able to leave some room for the Lincoln, I knew they didn't have another Edge on their lot that met my needs. But whatever, let's look at the Lincoln at least. I mean... it'd be tough to decide if I want a car without my research, but I know that I'd rather have a Lincoln over a Ford.
It took her almost thirty minutes to get a license plate and two sets of keys. She literally came out just as we were getting ready to just walk off. But she got there in time and walked us out to look at.... a 2016 Lincoln MKC with 90,000 miles. And not only did it NOT have the adaptive cruise with lane centering, it didn't even have adaptive cruise. Checking it out is as easy as looking at the steering wheel as there is a distance button that the adaptive cruise uses. No button, no adaptive cruise. So not only did she show me a car that was too small while insisting that it was the right size, she lied about it being fully loaded. And I'm almost positive that they didn't even have the lane centering feature in 2016.
It was, needless to say, an immediate no. But she had left us to look at it while she found the other Edge. I couldn't even walk off at this point as she left us with the keys. She took long enough that B and I got to talk about it and just riled ourselves up. Not necessarily about showing us a car that didn't match what we wanted, but for not calling us. For not being a stand up person in the first place. Then she hit the double whammy. She pulled up in a Ford Edge ST Line.
Lemme back up and explain the Edge ST Line. Ford Makes the Edge ST which is a Ford Edge with a V6 engine in it instead of the little 4 cylinder. Ironically it's the same engine that's in Tiffany, which means it gets 335 horse power. But they go further and make it 'sporty' by giving it very highly bolstered seats. When I was shopping two cars ago I considered the Edge ST and test drove one. The fact that my ass and shoulders didn't fit into the highly bolstered seat is what made buying Nina a possibility. If it had regular seats, I'd have been the proud owner of a brand new 2019 Ford Edge ST.
Anyway, now they make the Edge ST Line. The 'Line' means it looks just like the Edge ST but it doesn't have the engine. And yes, that includes having the horrible seats. All the looks, none of the go (and really, that engine doesn't provide enough 'go' to really call it sporty). So it was an immediate no when I saw that black grill that said it was an ST Line. The 'double' part of the whammy was the color. It was silver and I absolutely HATE silver on almost EVERY car. I want a nice pretty unusual color. I know most cars don't have unusual colors. but a nice blue or green or burgundy would be ideal. Red would be acceptable. Black or White would be tolerable. Most greys are out (Ford does make one that they call grey but it's more of a sand and it's nice). Silver is the very bottom of the list. It could have been a Titanium with better options and priced lower than the one I'd come up for and I still wouldn't buy it. When I said that there were eight Edges that met my criteria, that's a lie. There eleven. Three of them were silver though and they got tossed out.
Anway, when she came out she started telling me about the Edge but I handed her the keys to the Lincoln. I pointed back at it, interrupted her, and said that it was a "No". I then pointed at the Edge and said it was a "No" as well. I was ready to walk off at that point but didn't want to be rude about it so when she asked why they were both nos, I looked back at her and let her know about the Lincoln. Wrong size. I know that because I had a Nautilus which is the size of an Edge and I have an Escape. That is the size of an Escape. It was too old. It wasn't fully loaded as she had previously said. And finally even if it was fully loaded, they didn't have lane centering in that year. She clearly got that it wasn't a casual 'no' so she moved on and asked why the Edge was a no. I didn't even bother with the color and said that it was an ST Line. I was specifically looking for a Titanium (she didn't need to know that I might find SELs acceptable) and that the seats in the ST Line were just not acceptable.
I thought she would be mollified as I wasn't being nice. I had a migraine, she'd wasted my time by letting me come up to the dealership at all and had now wasted another hour of my time with all this bullshit. But she wasn't getting just how pissed off I was, and said that since she took al the effort to find the car on their lot, the least I could do was sit in it and see if it was the same as the one I'd sat in before.
I walked up to the Edge ST Line, opened the door, waited for her to come around while I looked at the seat, then moved my hands to the heavy bolsters and took a 'measurement' that I transfered to my shoulders. No beueno. As she was now further wasting my time, I then laid in to her saying that I could have told her that over the phone, that an ST Line wouldn't be acceptable, if only she'd had called me and let me know that she didn't have the car that I was driving over an hour to come see. One that I'd set up to see almost a full day previous.
I swear to the Goddess, she got upset at ME, throwing her hands up and saying "Hey, I didn't sell that car. I'm just trying to help you out..."
She was interrupted by me telling her to fuck off and we got back into B's car.
I'll blame the 'Fuck off' on the migraine. It was truly horrible at that point and she entered into the one area that I just can't stand. She wasn't willing to take ANY blame. Even if she didn't feel it was her problem, she could have earned major points by just accepting some of the blame and apologizing. Unless she's a psychopath and can't understand human emotion, she HAD to see that I was upset. But nope, she's going to try and go off as if I'm hurting her.
B and I drove down the street and stopped at a McDonalds. Sadly there wasn't any other good place to sit down and eat and I really wanted to look over my options while I grabbed some food.
When we sat down and got our food, I looked through all the other Edges. None of these were particularly close to home. I eliminated the ones that would involve driving all the way back home and then back another direction. There just wasn't time. That left me with three.
There was another burgundy 2021 Ford Edge Titanium that had the same exact package as this dream one. It had 20,000 less miles and also included the sun roof and the tow package. It had the black interior vs the cream, but it was still a good option. Unfortunately those extra options meant it was worth more. They had it listed at $21,000 and that wasn't a bad price. I could probably get them down, but not all the way down to $19,000 out the door. MAYBE I could get them to $21,000 out the door but that would mean no money left over for the warranty. It was also for sale at a Nissan dealership which meant we couldn't even try to talk about warranties, which I knew helped lube the negotiation process. The nail in the coffin was that it was just north of Detroit. Google maps said it would be just a little over an hour and a half drive back to our home town. BUT, if B needed to be back at 6 that means leaving at 4:30 and that would be in the middle of Rush our traffic for Detroit. I've driven from that very same city (it's the same city where I got Tiffany) and rush hour traffic added a FULL hour to my drive.
I ended up eliminating that one because it would prove to be a longer negotiation and we had barely enough time to do a fast negotiation.
The next one was a 2021 Ford Edge Titanium. It was white with the cream interior. It had the same exact packages as the $17,000 Edge, but had 5,000 more miles. It also was the one Edge I looked at where I didn't have a car fax, so I have no idea if it was in a major accident, was used as a rental or fleet vehicle, or had ever been serviced. And instead of having it listed at $17,000 they had it listed at $20,000. Value wise, this was actually worse than the one I listed above as it didn't have the tow package or the sun roof (the sun roof goes for $1,500 all by itself). It was a color that I didn't particularly like, but the final nail was its direction. It was an hour FURTHER away. We'd have to drive up there, test drive it, and negotiate the perfect price in one go and even then, we still might not get B back in time.
So I eliminated that one.
That left option 3. A 2021 Ford Edge SEL. It had the Ford Co-Pilot360 Assist+ package, the Convenience package, and the sun roof. It met all my needs, and not many of my wants. It was black with a black interior and had 93,000 miles. But they had it listed at $18,000 which was just above a fair price as it was optioned. It was at a Ford dealership which means I could negotiate with the warranty and best of all it was between where we were and home. I'd have time for a test drive a little back and forth, and the regular paperwork and we'd still get B back home in time for his wife's birthday dinner.
So we went to a small town in the middle of nowhere (no major highway in town) and looked at it. I called them on the way and they double confirmed that it was there and said I'd talk with Diane the sales lady. Quick aside, before dealing with Karrie, I've never dealt with a female car sales person. Lita, Fiona, Ginger, Isabella, Nina, and Tiffany were all purchased from men. It's not a bad thing, just unusual. Anyway, Diane met us in the lot and took us into her desk. As she got my drivers license for the test drive I told her quickly about the experience we just had. I told her that we were on a time crunch and that we'd have to walk out at a particular time even if everything was going smoothly.
She told us she'd do everything she could to make us happy, to treat us with respect, to not waste our time, and keep in mind that we needed to be out of here at a particular time. She got us the keys, gave us an idea of where we could take it for a test drive, and let us go.
Driving the Edge was... well, it's the same engine that's in my mom's Escape but in an SUV that weighs almost 1,000 pounds more. It's not fun. But it's not so bad that it can't get out of its own way. It can merge with traffic and I could pass people without issue. Once I had that down and saw that there weren't any problems with the brakes or suspension, I pulled over into a store's lot and listened to the radio. Before I turned the volume up I told myself that unless it was totally awful, like a 1 on a good audio scale where 1 is the worst thing you can imagine and 10 is Tiffany, it wasn't going to matter. I didn't' expect it to be good after all.
It wasn't a 1. Barely. It was a 2. It's not just worse than Tiffany. I couldn't turn the volume up half way on a local radio station without it distorting the speakers. I tried the XM since it was on the trial and it sounded worse. I then went so far as to hook my phone up to it... and yeah, it was just as bad. This was worse than Tiffany, worse than Nina, worse than Isabella, worse than Ginger, and even worse than Fiona, a 2012 Ford Focus. BUT... that wasn't a deal killer. I'm not sure that the Titanium would be that much better. I mean, the Titanium would probably be as good as Ginger and Isabella, but probably not as good as Nina and Tiffany.
So, I drove her back. On the way I told B that I wanted to buy her. I didn't want to pay the same price as I would have at the other dealership ($20,000 instead of $19,000 as it was starting $1000 higher), but I'd go up to $19,500 out the door. I didn't want to think about the warranty, so I'd just show them the price I could get it for and if they could match it, I'd get it from them. When we got back in I told her that I wanted it and that I was interested in a warranty. When she asked how I was going to buy it, I told her I was going to finance it, but that i was pre-approved from my credit union. I told her that I understood I had good rates and didn't expect them to beat it, but they'd have to at least match it. I even took out my email with my quoted rates and showed them the 6.74% and the 0.25% rate deduction and said they only had to match the 6.74%.
To me that was a simple negotiation set up. They get points back from financial institutions. Normally if I was going to be paying on this for 5 years they'd have to beat my credit union as I'd rather do business with them. But I'm probably only going to be paying payments on this for six to twelve months. The extra 0.25% wasn't going to break my bank and they might get some cash that would let them dicker further on my price.
I can't re-iterate this enough. My migraine was POUNDING at this point. I didn't want to be there and every few minutes was considering walking away just to get home sooner. I could try again next week. The only thing that stopped me was just that... going through this pain twice as I'd likely have another migraine next week when B could take me shopping again.
Diane came back with their price. I won't even call it an offer as it was their list price plus tax plus ever single imaginable fee they could tack on. It was about $22,520. She also showed me monthly payment sat 60, 72, and 84 months, all of them at 8.99% interest. I swear, I almost lost my shit. Thankfully B was there as he literally put his hand on my knee. It was just enough of a reminder that this was negotiation. My next offer should be a reminder that we'd be financing this at 6.74% whether that was through them or my credit union, and that I could offer no more than $18,500. That would let them come down some, then I could go up some, then they could.... blah blah blah. But we were on a time table and my head was hurting. So I told her that my absolute best, no further negotiating price was $19,500 out the door.
She said she understood and that she'd talk to her manager. Me and B talked a bit and she came back and almost lost the sale. Her return offer was $22,500. They'd taken a full $20 off. She went over why they couldn't move on the price but my head just about split open. I held my hand up to politely stop her and said, in a polite but strained way, that I wasn't joking and wanted to thank her for her time. That between my migraine, the time crunch, and just pure personal values, that I was honest about not being able to do more than $19,500. She nodded as if she understood, but I went another step. I told her that if she had come back with an offer of $19,501 that my answer would have been the same... to walk away.
She said she understood and asked if she could at least just tell her manager that the deal couldn't go through. I said that was fine and asked where the bathroom was. When I came out of the restroom I had to walk by the managers office and she called me in. The manager was all smiles and said that because it was the end of the month and because Diane only needed one more sale to meet her quota and that the dealership as a whole only needed one more sale to get their numbers, that he'd take the loss and sell me the car for $19,500. Out the door. But that his co-manager needed a plate full of cookies to seal the deal.
I'm sure he was joking. The problem is that with the migraine I honestly couldn't tell. I sat there and wondered if he expected me to go down to the nearest store and buy a box of cookies. Diane evidently caught my confusion and stepped in, saying that she'd be getting him the cookies.
When we got to her desk and she showed me the offer letter I was just moving to take my seat, but stood back up. I turned the deal sheet back to her with a frown and pointed at the price.
$19,500.01.
One extra penny. I'd probably laugh it off on any other day, but again, the migraine was making thinking almost impossible. Again, Diane stepped up and literally pulled a penny out of her desk drawer and said she'd cover it. We had a laugh and proceeded through the slog of getting financed and final paperwork and warranty. The finance guy came by and said he could probably beat my offer, but he might have to hit my credit a few times "but it won't mater because they'll all be at the same time so it won't affect your credit". That's bullshit. Full hard hits on your credit always negatively impacts your credit score. The negative impact falls off fairly quickly, but its still there. I found out later that he hit my credit four times. BUT, he not only matched my credit union, he matched their lowered rate at 6.49%.
He also asked what price I could get the warranty at and I said it was around $2300 (I hadn't actually got a quote on tis vehicle so I wasn't 100% sure) but that if he could get me one at $2500 it would be close enough. He said he knows he could do that and mentioned the company they used. I immediately perked up and told him that I was only interested in the Ford warranty. His attitude changed and he said he'd see what he could do. Obviously he could sell me a 3 year, 36,000 mile warranty from that other company for $2,500 and still make a profit. He probably couldn't with the Ford warranty.
When we were done with Diane, we went back to the finance guy's office and I prepped myself for the hard sales. I'd just watched a video on wheeling and dealing at car dealerships and the numbers fascinate me. The actual sale of cars is about 60% of a dealerships gross sales, but only 20% of their profit. All that other stuff they try to sell you, the financing, the extended warranties, the wheel and tire package, the scotch guard of the carpet, the paint protection.... blah blah blah... accounts for about 50% of the dealerships profit. The rest of the profit comes form their service center. So while he knew I was under a time limit, I expected to say "No" about a dozen more times.
Surprisingly, he barely offered any of the other services. We talked about the warranty and I showed him the website where I got the quote. I even brought it up for that specific vehicle and showed him I could get it for $2,325. I told him that I bought them from there before and that they were legitimate Ford warranties. He ran his numbers again when he saw I was using a $200 deductible and found that $2,325 was literally his cost. I fully expected him to say he could sell it at $2,500 and I was ready to say yes. But he told me he'd sell it to me at cost!
He said he had to offer these other things, but he barely did more than say "Do you want wheel and tire?" and accepted me shaking my head as a no. He didn't offer any of the other services. He went through the paperwork quickly and efficiently. About the only shady thing was when I had to sign a bunch of things digitally. The light had bothered me enough that I'd actually put my sunglasses on so looking at an iPad and signing it a dozen times was going to be a pain, but I slogged through it. I was speed reading much of it, just skimming to get the gist of what I was signing. Most of it was just the standard forms. But the last one caught my eye and made me stop. It literally was asking if it was okay if they took my name, phone number, email address, and mailing address, and sold it to their partners for sales use.
HEY! NO!!!
I called him out on it and he acted all surprised "Oh, I'm glad you caught that, I was going to tell you to not sign it but you were moving to fast." Bullshit. It's literally his job to get me to sign stuff like that. But whatever, it's one sleazy thing where I expected him to be sleazy half a dozen times. That still puts him ahead in my book.
The only bad thing was that we must have got done in record time as we had to sit around for like thirty more minutes while they finished detailing the car and getting her gassed up. When she came out I got to participate in the new thing that I've seen a lot of dealerships do.... a photo of me by my new car that they could use to post to their facebook page. I was fine with it. We took the photo, shook hands, and parted ways. I made sure B was good heading home as I wanted to stop and get something to drink and then might drive slowly home where I knew he needed to get going. He was fine leaving right away and took off. An hour and a half later, I was home with my new Ford Edge.
Now, do I love this Edge? No. She's a distinct step back. Every vehicle I've had since Lita has been the highest trim and has been almost completely loaded with options. This is neither the high trim, nor is she highly optioned. That being said, she has ever feature I need. She'll serve perfectly fine for going to and from the grocery store, the doctor's office, to a friend's house, and even do a good job with cross country trips. She'll do perfectly fine for getting me to and from work when I get a job again and will be a decent trade in when I go for my next 'wanted' car.
I'm sure by the title of this post, you've already guessed at what I've named her. She told me on the way home from the dealership that her name was Layla. I'll be honest, while I like that as a name, it didn't fit this car for me. It's a fun sexy name and let's face it.... this car is basic. I thought a good name would play on where she was built. I mean she was built in the same factory where Tiffany came from and is literally the little sister to the Lincoln Nautilus so.... Tiff? Probably not as that would just be short for Tiffany. But the factory is located in Canada, so how about a kind of French sounding name? Jeanette?
When I got home and calmed down, I just looked up what Layla meant as a name. Most of the time when you look up what names mean you'll get two or three varieties. Layla has one meaning though. Layla means 'Night'. Considering her dark paint, and the dark feelings I have toward her.... Layla is the perfect name.
The last thing to talk about is winter rubber. I'm going to want to put winter tires on her but damn it, I JUST bought 21 inch winter tires for Tiffany. I know I can't use them without extra cost since Layla has 18 inch wheels, but maybe I could buy some cheap 21" wheels and use them like that. It'd be ironic that the winter wheels would be bigger and likely more expensive than the summer tires, but it'd be cheaper than buying four new winter tires. I went ahead and looked at the actual tire sizes:
Layla has 18 inch wheels. 248/60 R18 to be precise. Tiffany had 265/40 R21.
The first number is the width of the tire in mm. So those 265s would be significantly wider than the 248s. The second number is the size of the sidewall (it's some weird percentage), so basically Tiffany's 21s wouldn't have much sidewall and would have a harsher ride. And finally the last one is the tire type (Radial) and size (18 inch or 21 inch).
While I was looking up these sizes, I remembered that I might have another option. I looked through my photos of the pile if tires and wheels I had for Nina's winter boots. I never sold them or got rid of them. Nina, for her winter tires, had 235/50 R18. They'd actually be narrower than Layla's current set, but at least be roughly the same size with just a little less sidewall.
When winter rolls around I'll ask Discount tire if they'll work. If they will, I'll get Tiffany's tires and bring them home, have them put Nina's tires on, and then store Layla's all seasons for the winter. And if they wont, and Tiffany's tires won't work as well, I'll just have to get some regular winter tires that fit Layla's current wheels.
And actually, I have one other final last thing to talk about. Mats. Layla came with the Ford basic winter rubber mats. They're not bad, but I used the better version of these in Tiffany for one year and was so pissed off when the salt on my shoes left big white stains on the black carpet because they didn't cover enough area. The next year I bought Weathertech mats, but I never got those salt stains out. So the first thing I did was to set up an order from Weathertech for a new set of mats. Since I last bought Weathertech mats, they've come out with new ones which is perfect. Their old system were hard plastic. I remember that when my shoes were wet I could actually slip on them. These new ones are more of a rubber, so it should be less slipping around.
As long as I was at Weathertech, I got a pad for the back area as I really really really really don't want to have another gallon of milk ruin my new car. I also got some wind deflectors for the windows. Weathertech is one of the only companies that make wind deflectors that go into the channels instead of gluing onto the doors.
Those three things cost me about $500. Totally worth it but still.... DAMN!! I also bought a new cargo organizer for the trunk. My old one, which I've used since Isabella, got splashed with the milk. It didn't smell horrible, but it had the sight odor of spoiled milk And if there was any mold on it, I didn't want to transfer that into my new car. So I have a new one coming and will organize it for the first time in... five years?
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