Car shoppin' with Ma....
So Ma and I go shopping for a new car for her this morning. We first go to an old line respected dealer where my family has purchased autos since the 60's. A young salesman approaches and the conversation goes like this:
I don't know if she needed a new car, she just wanted one and that's OK with me. Her old car was twenty years old and, I'm not making this up, had only 25,540 miles on it! Only driven to church on Sundays. It also was in immaculate condition save for the mirror she had just knocked asunder on the garage last week; a small garage entry, I'm surprised it hasn't happened before. And, we had talked about getting a new car for her, so she just didn't wake up this morning determined to buy a car, but today was the day in her mind.
Really, I'm quite proud of her, making a decision and getting on with it. She'd never been involved in a new car purchase so this was a learning experience for her and she did very well, although she was surprised that buying "cash" would not earn her a discount. With all the variables to be considered one of her most important worries was whether we'd get two sets of keys...."Your Father always had two sets of keys". "Yes Ma, we'll get two sets of keys".
One of my biggest worries was how much time I'm going to be spending explaining OnStar to her. I could see her eyes rolling as we talked to the operator while getting the system set up. But for an 84 year old woman who used to think that A.M. radio was high tech she really seemed to take it all in stride. I think it took a moment to grasp the concept of talking to your rearview mirror to someone in India who's progamming your car, but she caught on quickly.
All in all not a bad day and frankly one I'm glad I didn't spoil with some sensible comment like, "don't you think we ought to shop around". Sometimes the best gift we can give is letting others have their moments without comment. It was good to see her excited about something again and my Dad would have been proud of us both. Nice "Ride" Ma.
Salesman: "Mrs. Craig I think you'll like this car, it has many good safety features, has a great ride, gets good gas mileage, is quiet and......"Not exactly like that, but pretty close. I've never bought a new car in 10 minutes. We did today. She liked the color. So now Ma has a spiffy new car with a sunroof, genuine chrome wheels [wheels, not covers] and OnStar. It took only from 10:30 this morning until 3:00 this afternoon from first look until the car was in Ma's garage. It took this long because Ma needed to go home for a restroom break and to clean out her belongings from the old car.
Ma: "I'll take it!!"
I don't know if she needed a new car, she just wanted one and that's OK with me. Her old car was twenty years old and, I'm not making this up, had only 25,540 miles on it! Only driven to church on Sundays. It also was in immaculate condition save for the mirror she had just knocked asunder on the garage last week; a small garage entry, I'm surprised it hasn't happened before. And, we had talked about getting a new car for her, so she just didn't wake up this morning determined to buy a car, but today was the day in her mind.
Really, I'm quite proud of her, making a decision and getting on with it. She'd never been involved in a new car purchase so this was a learning experience for her and she did very well, although she was surprised that buying "cash" would not earn her a discount. With all the variables to be considered one of her most important worries was whether we'd get two sets of keys...."Your Father always had two sets of keys". "Yes Ma, we'll get two sets of keys".
One of my biggest worries was how much time I'm going to be spending explaining OnStar to her. I could see her eyes rolling as we talked to the operator while getting the system set up. But for an 84 year old woman who used to think that A.M. radio was high tech she really seemed to take it all in stride. I think it took a moment to grasp the concept of talking to your rearview mirror to someone in India who's progamming your car, but she caught on quickly.
All in all not a bad day and frankly one I'm glad I didn't spoil with some sensible comment like, "don't you think we ought to shop around". Sometimes the best gift we can give is letting others have their moments without comment. It was good to see her excited about something again and my Dad would have been proud of us both. Nice "Ride" Ma.
