We believe we are the proud owners of a new Volvo XC90 - Diesel. We have a car in our possession; however, we haven't actually given Volvo any money nor did we do anything more than hand over a copy of John's passport, our registration paperwork, and a very short leasing application (name, address, company, income, monthly rent). The car we have is a "loaner" car, but John has an appointment to pick up our car on Wednesday morning! Wow! It sure is different from BMW where we would have realistically waited another month to have a car in our possession.
So, I gave John a ride back to work from the dealership and then drove home. In the process, I managed to drive down a one-way street the wrong way, drive on the tram tracks instead of the street, and get more beeps than I've had in the history of my driving career. Okay, that last part might be an exaggeration, but clearly I have a bit of work to do on my Swiss driving skills. Oh, I did drive through a construction zone at the end of our street that is closed by day, so it was probably questionable as to whether I was supposed to be weaving past the construction vehicles.
We were debating between the BMW X5 and the Volvo XC90. I convinced John to do a "parking lot" analysis at the school's Welcome (Back) Picnic yesterday. Sure enough, the majority of cars were these two models. It gave us a great opportunity to view the cars side by side. Our walking around with glasses in hand, surveying the cars, did prompt one family to ask if everything was okay. When we explained that we were "car shopping", they laughed, gave us a tour of their XC90, and explained why they preferred it. The BMW clearly has a sleeker profile and would probably be more fun to drive, but the Volvo was substantially cheaper and has a bit more room. An adult could actually sit in the third row seats and not need chiropractic help at the end of the trip. We ended up with a "decked" out car that had been on the lot for quite awhile so they gave it to us at a big discount. It ended up being $30 a month more than the car we were leaning towards, but we got a sunroof, nicer leather, parking assist, a rear camera, a blind spot alarm, and don't tell the kids... a DVD system. We have always sworn that we would never have a car with a DVD system, but it was too hard to refuse. Maybe the kids won't notice. We'll hide the headphones!
As we were hopping into our loaner car, we did ask the question, "So, how do we pay you?" The cheerful sales assistant told us not to worry about it -- she'd give us an invoice when we picked up the car and we could just pay it when we had a chance.
Interesting that I'm still not allowed to get an iPhone and a mobile phone contract, but we can drive away with a car without having paid a cent or signed a contract. Maybe that's the key -- we didn't have to sign a contract yet!
3 comments:
I love it! You have the same car as I do out here - and everyone out here has them. But yours sounds a bit nicer than mine - I went for the much older one - especially since I'm on the other side of the road! Can't wait to see more pix of your new pad and glad you're getting your shipment - it's like Christmas!
Forgot today was not a holiday for you guys.
Nice car buying experience. Great idea researching in the parking lot.
Well, the phone can cause you all sorts of trouble, but a car...no trouble there, so may as well give that away.
Regarding the DVD system: We have one and it's not an issue. It's only used for LONG drives defined as drives longer than 4 hours. The girls don't even ask around town. And the headsets are the best. When we go to LA, we don't even hear from the kids until we hit the grapevine.
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