« 9 Westy goes to the drive-in! | Main | on air tonight »
August 16, 2004
the new ride
as you may recall, a friend of mine was seeking a new car recently. well, he got one. i helped him pick it up friday, and today i got to ride in it.
it's a mazda6 with a 220hp v6 engine and dual exhaust, in a stunning color called "burning copper". (my crappy phonecam photo doesn't do it justice-- as you'd probably imagine, it's a metallic orange color.) it's turned my friend into a person who actually enjoys driving, after being a person who hated driving, for a long time. it feels nice and tight, and of course has loads of power (we won't discuss the fuel consumption... i have to admit, i did encourage him to get the bigger engine. given that he likes to keep his cars for a long time i figure in that case it's best to get the nicest car possible, and i guess he agrees!)
it's got a decently high gadget level, including little buttons on the rearview mirror that will remote-control electronic devices in your house, if you hook them up to certain other little devices. lots of geek appeal.
he wound up going through a broker to get the car. local dealers were telling him that the color/engine combo he wanted was not available; the broker was able to locate the car in a couple of days, and although she had to go out of state to get it, she had it in raleigh within a day of locating it.
i used a broker for two of the three new cars i've bought, and i definitely recommend it if you're buying a new car and don't like dealing with sales people. they have fleet accounts with all the major auto makers, which means their pricing is better than what normal humans can get. their fee comes from the dealer so you never have to pay them-- sort of like a real estate buyers agent. and obviously, they can get their hands on cars that are difficult for normal humans to extract from the dealers, too!
Posted by lisa at August 16, 2004 08:02 PM | TrackBack
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.