here she is, my new car. A Lexus IS250C, obsidian, with black leather interior and all the bells and whistles.... and she is a convertible! I've never owned a convertible in my life so I guess this is my mid-life crisis car. It all started with a Lexus promotion.....
I received a card in the mail inviting me to test drive any Lexus and they would pay me $75. How can you pass up an offer like that? I made an appointment with the dealership in Princeton, and since I needed to be up in that neighbourhood, I figured I'd have some fun in a convertible and make $75 doing it. I show up, test drive a cute little convertible and they try and sell it to me.... it's a 2012 "left-over" and it's a real bargain... yah, yah... "sorry, I have to check with my husband first". I have found that excuse to come in handy on occasion. I tell Marshall about my little test drive, more impressed with making $75 than anything else, but he wants to see the car. We go back to the dealer the next day, he drives it and they start in with the sales schpiel... we thow out a very low offer and they dodge it. No deal, bye-bye.
The following week I'm down in Florida & my dad and I see this car everywhere. The Lexus dealership in Naples says the price offered on the Princeton car is excellent, we should buy it... more sales pitch. What ever. I get home and find out the car in Princeton is sold. Oh well. Life goes on.... but now my husband has "the bug". His favorite thing in the whole world is car shopping and he's a man on a mission. He finds another IS250C up in Rhode Island..... but they end up selling that car also to someone else.... now one in Baltimore pops up. The internet makes car shopping a global experience these days. After some back and forth with the Baltimore dealer I come home to find that we have put a deposit on a Lexus.... wow!
Yesterday we flew down to Baltimore, taking our friend Kim with for the flight. The dealer, Jonathan Butler picked us up at the Martin State Airport (a very cool little place if you're into military planes and vintage 20's architecture). We're about to close the deal on the car when Marshall notices that the certified cheque I had made up at our bank the day before is for the wrong amount... by A LOT! No, we do not want to buy a Lexus for $430,042.00.... ooops! Too many zeros in that number. Amazingly the dealer wasn't fazed at all. I think they we a little impressed that our bank seemed to think we had that much money in the account. They let me take the car and drive home with Kim on a promise that I would send another cheque that afternoon. While we were at the dealership the bank started phoning us, begging that we bring the cheque back so they could issue one for the correct amount. Once Marshall's blood pressure returned to normal we had good laugh about it, but that wasn't for at least another hour after noticing the error. I was tempted to hit Atlantic City and put it all on red... oh well. my conscience and better judgement kicked in. Rats!
The new Lexus brought Kim and I home in record time. I had the bank issue a new, corrected amount cheque which is on it's way to Baltimore and today I drove around topless.
Mid-life is looking pretty good from the front seat of a Lexus IS250C.
xox
m
