Farewell Dirt Claude

Yes. Dirt Claude is how I would best describe our Volvo (not the precious cargo inside). It was an ebay purchase and although driving it home from California was really fun (included my first visit to an Ikea and an Apple store) it also required close to two grand to get it street legal back home in Utah. I’d say it’s best day was the drive from Las Vegas to Ogden. Yes we had a lot of memories and listened to loads of audio books in that car but it seemed every year required a hugh sum of cash to get it to pass safety and emissions. What a dirt claude.

I would post a pic of our new car, but if you drive down the street and look to your right or left you’ll probably see one just like it (it’s a white honda civic). I have to admit it was extremely unpleasant buying this car. One, Susan and I disagree on cars (she buys with her head and I buy with my heart), and two, it was our first car dealer purchase. The car salesman was fine. Once I learned to play their game of demanding a lot and not giving in it went easy, but no one told me I’d have to continue the fight all the way out the door. The finance dude had us driving out the door with $2,500 of extra this and thats that I told him we didn’t want, but he made them all sound like they were necessary and not optional. I came home feeling just sick and after looking over the final invoice (and call to our salesman) I really felt cheated. So this morning first thing I went to the dealership and told the finance dude he was dishonest and the way he did things was down right stupid and to remove all the crap I didn’t want or need.

So now I’m a happy car owner. I’ll probably write another post related to our experience. How we survived and the biggest part how the dealership used graphic design to manipulate people into over buying. Lastly, though I want to wish our Dirt Claude a happy farewell. You will be missed, and I’m sure years from now we’ll laugh at the days of driving around the ticking time bomb that never did go off.