The Most Horrible Car Buying Experience Ever — Conclusion

As detailed on yesterday’s blog post, I bought a new car recently and had the most horrible car buying experience ever.

When I brought the new car home, I parked it in the driveway thinking I might want to go somewhere that afternoon.

About 5:00, I drove it into the garage that I’ve parked in for the past 19 years.

The new car, however, was obviously much wider than the old car — and as I pulled it in for the first time,  the rear-view mirror on the driver’s side scraped the wooden garage door frame with a sickening sound. Then, the entire back of the mirror assembly popped off and flew out of sight! (This was less than five hours after I’d brought the brand new car home from the dealership.)

I couldn’t open the car door to see where the piece was because the car was half in and half out — with the mirror wedged against the wood. I was sure that I would run over the part and smash it to pieces, but really had no options.

Slowly backed the car out – amazingly enough – without running over the missing car part, but the wood on the garage door had a gouge in it and when I found the mirror back, it had white paint and scratches on it. Luckily, I popped it on and it seemed to be secure. (Was planning a trip five hours from home that weekend and figured I’d find out for sure if the part blew off on the interstate.)

It was the perfect ending to a horrible experience.

The only thing humorous after that point was the fact that the salesman called and left  several urgent messages asking me to complete the email survey they’d sent and give him — and the dealership — a good rating.   Really? After my experience there? Was he crazy?

There is a happy ending, though, to this tale: I sold Goldie to a nice couple at work the following week and had a check in my hand 50 hours after advertising it. I got $2,800 – enough to pay off the new car and have some left over.

And I applied rubbing compound that took all the paint and scratches off the mirror assembly. Good as new!