An Anniversary of Sorts...

Today marks 3 years of me having owned my car, aptly named Tony. Yes I name my cars because I feel like it gives them personality. God knows my previous car, Reggie had a lot of personality and spunk and anyone who was a passenger in that car can verify it. Alright let me get off my car-naming soap box now and get a little sentimental now to tell the story of Tony...

It was three years ago today, a President's Day Weekend when it had snowed a little bit. At the time, I was a rambuctious tyke, a junior in college and interning at a popular classic rock station in Philadelphia. The sky was the limit for my potential. And I had a car with a lot of personality, an old Hyundai Sonata, who had seen better days, but still had a lot to him. But, lurking in the shadows, was a teenaged sister who had recently gotten her license and was becoming a strain on the family car situation. So it was decided by the parents, that it was time for me to get a new car, and for Reggie to passed on to someone who would never full appreciate everything he had to offer. Eventually she ran Reggie's transmission into the ground, to the point that he wouldn't shift into drive, and we were forced to give Reggie to Purple Heart... a sad day.

But enough about Reggie, this is supposed to be about Tony, the '05 Nissan Sentra. I accompanied the parents out to the dealerships along the Auto Mall with our main priorities being to check out Chevy, Honda, and Nissan as a wild card. Now keep in mind, that my Dad has made a sport out of haggling prices at car dealerships so this was going to be an interesting ideal. He gave me the speech before we started about how you've always gotta be prepared to walk at any time and you can't make it look like that you have to have a specific car. Apparently in past dealings, he may have had my Mom and Aunt on the verge of tears with his approach.

So we started off at the Chevy dealership and I ended up test driving a Chevy Cobalt, which was in its first year of production so it already had a knock against it. It felt like driving a box so we exited the dealership shortly after the test drive. Next came the Honda dealership. My mom has a Honda Accord that I had driven periodically so I was already a fan of Hondas and they were on the top of my list. Unfortunately, they were a bit out of my projected price range and they were not in the mood to haggle with my Dad so it didn't work out too well. At one point, the Sales Manager actually came out to shake my Dad's hand and congratulate his persistence, but there would be no budging with the price. So we were walking once again.

Finally, we ended up at the Nissan dealership and as we were walking up to the door, Randy, a smooth-talking Salesman was getting out of what would eventually be my car. He took one look at me, looked at the car, and then proclaimed, "You definitely want this car." And so the process began. I took the car for a test drive, it was a smooth drive, and an added bonus was that this model had an extravagent sound system - six CD changer, amp, and subwoofer already in the back. I was in love already. So now we had to begin the price haggling courtship. Randy the Salesman was a smooth talker who wanted to iron out all the details with the novice who didn't know any better (me), but he had my Dad standing in the way of that. So for about two hours, there were threats of walking out, Randy having to go back to his Sales Manager to see if he could lower the price, and a lot of my Mom complaining about how my Dad was acting. I was enjoying the whole scene, but at the same time, I was set on buying the car so I was somewhat reluctant to walk if we had to. The highlight of the night had to be when Randy came out of his Manager's office and came over to me to shake my hand, saying "I think we've got ourselves a deal" and my Dad stepping right in front of me and blocking the handshake. CLASSIC.

In the end, we were finally able to iron out all the details, we got the price we were looking for, and I got the car that I wanted. 3 years later, Tony is still running strong and the sound system is still fully intact. Everything I could ask for from a car...