We went to the dealer closest to us first, which was an exercise in annoyance. We looked at what they had, which was only 3 LS's with 3.4Ls. No dice. None were black, and all had things we don't want (XM, OnStar, etc.). I wouldn't mind a moonroof, but I ain't paying $700-900 for it. After we went inside to talk numbers, the young guy told us he'd only been there 3 days. He got the info on my '99 and disappeared with our keys for almost an hour. Well, it seemed like it. We were growing more and more pissed. He came back and Jeff asked what they would offer as trade-in. He said he thought $4500. Ha! No dice. We started to walk out. He said to let him make sure, and came back with $8300. That's better, since we still owe $2000 on it. It's in excellent shape, will still get up and go (just ask missleigh), has had the best maintenance of any used car ever sold, and they could kiss my ass for any less than that.

He had found 2 other cars with black-on-black in the area, but they had all these expensive extras we didn't want (or want to pay for). We left there pretty annoyed. He said he'd call me back Monday after he looked more thoroughly for cars like we wanted. I'm tempted not to answer.

We then went to the dealer we'd bought my car at, and where my dad has bought cars for decades. The guy who sold us the car was there, but he is in finance now. He's a really nice guy. Anyway, we looked at the 2 cars they have, and neither were what we wanted. One was silver, and the other was the Jeff Gordon signature car, which I would not wipe my feet on. Ick. It is metallic blue, which is not bad, but it has ghost flames, Gordon's sig in several places, and 24s on the headrests of the seats. No no no no no.

We went in to talk numbers, and ended up having a much less annoying time. We said hello to our old salesman, looked through the booklet and options, and they looked at and drove my car in less than 5 minutes. Much less hassle. He showed us the current promotions, and said he'd look on Monday for cars like we want, but doubted he'd find any without all the stuff we don't want. He said ordering would be best, wouldn't cost extra, but would take 4 weeks. No biggie. (They didn't even mention this at the first place.) We drove the silver one before we left, and I was impressed. We even debated the moonroof after playing with the one in that car, but decided to leave it off. Oh, and they have a tachometer, voltmeter, and oil-pressure gauge! Only the wife of a mechanic would be excited by that. AND the doors locked when I cranked the car! I was more excited about that than I care to admit.

One thing I did notice is that at both places we got salesmen who were young and attractive. Coincidence? I asked Jeff if he thought they sent the younger salesmen to the younger customers, and older to older. I did see two older gents in ugly shirts sitting outside on a bench at the second place, but the young guy came from inside to greet us. I don't know. weetabix has an old gent trying to sell her and Esteban Caddies. Go figure.