Tuesday, August 24, 2010

How's the new car?

I’m answering Pink Paws question today. I don’t remember what I’ve written already about our “new” car, but as far as used car go it is running well. Both of us never bought a used car before. We liked the idea of knowing the little noises, scratches, the history of our cars, so we always bought new. Until last month. It wasn’t in our plans to change car when the insurance company declared our Civic a total loss, so we went the “pre owned” route. The Honda dealer we’ve been going to has been treating us well. We had a courtesy car until they found us our ‘new used’ car. They came through for us, they respected our specifications, our price range and when we picked up our ‘new used’ car, it had a full tank of gas. I must say, despite the fact that every time I enter a garage I feel like running around screaming “pinch my nipples, pinch my nipples” (because that is what I like when I’m being screwed!), they provided good service.

The car runs well. It’s a Civic (again), three years younger than our previous one, thus less mileage, and because it was an ‘end of lease’ return, it is in fairly good condition. The exterior is actually in better shape than ours was (prior to the accident, that is!). The interior, well, that’s another story. Call us “anal retentive” if you wish, but we don’t understand how people can drive around in dirty, filthy interiors. There’s crud everywhere, incrusted in the console, as if they spilled some liquid. They night we got it, Hubby Clorox wiped everything we touched regularly: stirring wheel, shifter, etc. It was bad, it’s a bit better but not to our standards. When we agreed to purchase this car we were promised a complete shampoo inside and out. Since we were in a hurry to get it (we were living for vacation and parking it at the airport while we’d be away) we got the minimum done and said we would come back after our trip.

We are bringing it in tomorrow night to fix a few things (like a rear window which won’t go down, check the breaks, buff a few scratches) and to get it cleaned. We want our crud in it; we want it to have our smell or at least a freshly clean smell. Since it will be a big clean up, they are giving us a courtesy car again for the day. They care about their clients, their reputation and it shows. It’s nice to see some business owners still care about their paying customers.

I hope this answers Pink Paws question!

4 comments:

flurrious said...

Sometimes when you get your car detailed, they "deodorize" it with this awful cherry or coconut scented waxy stuff applied to the dash and console. So if you're sensitive to smells, be sure to tell them not to do that. I haven't had that happen to my car, but, weirdly enough, when I had my vacuum cleaner repaired, the guy rubbed that stuff all over the thing, even on the wheels. It took me forever to clean it off. Bleah.

Robert the Skeptic said...

You really can't go wrong with a new "used" car. A new one depreciates thousands in the hour it takes you to drive it off the dealer's lot.

I know about putrid car interiors, though. I used to repossess new cars when the owners failed to keep up on the payments - it was amazing to me how quickly they could crap up a nice car in such short time. Awful.

Anonymous said...

It's nice to see you being treated well by the dealer. That doesn't happen to often.

What color is the car? And what color was your old Civic? Just curious. :)

stinkypaw said...

flurrious: I know about the waxy crap they put on, we always ask NOT to have it. Bleah is right.

Robert: Hubby said the same thing about depreciation, but still... I like my cars new!

ppp: The new one is charcoal and the previous one was silver.