Our New Car

When someone you love dies, there is a lot of awkward time--stretches of hours where you are waiting to meet with a funeral home director, waiting for the day of the service, waiting for guests to come or go, just waiting. It is difficult to fill that time because you are sad, hurting, angry and drained. It is especially difficult if you have young kids who need to get out of the house, along with a mom who needs some quiet time in her home without said young kids.

Jason and I did a lot of driving around in the couple of days just after Steve died. It was the easiest way to let the kids nap, while also allowing my mom to have some private time to grieve and regroup.

On one such day, we ended up at a car dealership. Do you see where this is going?

Two years ago, we bought a Mazda CX-9. I really thought it would be our "10 Year Car." It had plenty of room, got decent gas mileage, wasn't outrageously expensive, and would have been paid off this year. However, it had some flaws that did it in:

1. HUGE, massively long doors. Really, that doesn't sound like a big deal until you spend lots of time getting small kids in and out of car seats in tight parking spaces.

2. It could not tow anything. Not good when you have an active family that would like to camp. Or at least have the option to.

3. Access to the third row was terrible. Again, maybe not a big deal with older kids, but car seats made access to the rear nearly impossible. Who really wants to ask their guests to crawl into the third row from the rear of the vehicle?

When we were at Disney World in January, we looked at a display for the Chevy Traverse. Among other things, the interior had the set up of a minivan with captain's rows in the middle row--an idea I've been talking about for a while. I love the layout of a minivan, but I don't want to actually drive one. So, this vehicle seemed great!

Anyway, we ended up buying a GMC Acadia (same as the Traverse) while we were in Houston. The transaction was smooth, we got a great deal and we solved all of the issues our Mazda presented that kept it from being the "Perfect 10 Year Car." All is well, right?

Sure it was. Until two days after we bought the car and we were unable to unlock it.

What? We couldn't unlock the car? How is that even possible?

Apparently, we won the unlucky lottery with our new car purchase. We managed to pick the one in a million car that had some unidentifiable issue with the locking system. About 50% of the time, we were only able to unlock the driver's side door, making it necessary to climb over the seats (and car seats) to manually unlock the rear doors. Makes extra-long rear doors seem like an insignificant inconvenience, right?

But, it gets better. During the 50% of the time we could not unlock the doors, we were also unable to LOCK the doors, including the driver's door.

Do you see the problem? Try to put the kids in the car- CAN'T. Try to get the kids out of the car, once you've driven and the doors have automatically locked- CAN'T. Try to lock the car once you've completed the acrobatics necessary to get the kids out- CAN'T.

Kind of a big deal. Especially when you consider some sort of emergency situation, like some deranged rapist stalking you in a parking lot or a stalled vehicle on a railroad track or an accident which precluded entrance from the driver's door.

Now, I know, all cars can have their issues. But, pretty much when I buy a brand new vehicle, I kind of expect to be able to actually get my family in and out of it. Call me a high maintenance, but I consider doors that open and close to be a necessity.

Anyway. Very long, very involved story ensues, and I come to the "happy" conclusion that not only can the dealership NOT fix my car, neither can they figure out what is wrong with it. Nice, huh?

Unfortunately for the dealership, who apparently thought they could send the little woman on her way with a "That's that and hope it doesn't happen again," they didn't realize who they were dealing with.

I'm not easily intimidated or blown off. I'm not ignorant, and I'm just the tiniest bit outspoken. I refuse to be taken advantage of, and I expect things to be reasonable and fair. Asking me to drive a car that I may or may not be able to unlock is neither reasonable nor fair. Not to mention, that during this particular week, my emotions were already running high and I was just the littlest bit on edge.

After a few days of going back and forth with the dealership and several attempts to replicate and fix the problem (and many, many heated conversations with everyone from the service manager to the owner), I ended up with a brand new, new car. Identical to the original new car, with the exception of doors that actually work. Plus a few extras.

In the end, we have a great new car that I hope meets all the needs of our family for quite some time.

But, the lesson learned is that you probably should not shop for a car during an already stressful time. Because if things do not go smoothly and the unexpected crops up, you could easily find yourself imagining dozens of ways to blow up a dealership. I'm glad it didn't come to that!