Car shopping...

Well after exhausting most of the possibilities in the Upper Valley, Max searched out cars in NH, focusing on Mustangs and Celicas. He found a handful of dealerships in coastal NH with a decent selection of cars in our price range (most of them at the top end of the range of course...). So we loaded up the van, grabbed some DVDs for the girls and headed down I-89 to make our way over to the coast. Traffic was fine but it was still about 2 hours (or three videos) to make it to the first dealership that had the Celica Max liked the most on the web site. As could be expected the exterior was not as nice as the pictures, the interior smelled like smoke, the brakes were metal on metal, and the clutch slipped. The salsesman said he woudl fix the clutch and brakes, which seemed fair, but we wanted to look some more. So we were off to dealership number two to look at Max's 3rd favorite (a Mustang) just down the road. But being the 3rd of July on Rt 1 in southern NH it took qutie a while because of traffic. The dealership had quite few cars, we checked out the Mustang and took it out for a drive. After finally making it though a lot of traffic, we were able to really drive it. While the outside was clean, the interior was a little rough, there was a rubbing noise coming from the right side, and the radio didn't work. The shop takes in damaged and repo'd vechiles, fixes them, paints them, and sells them. They seemed to do a decent job, but the car didn't feel real "tight". So we were off to dealership #3, it was well into the afternoon, everyone was hungry, and we didn't have time to stop for lunch in case we had to get back to the first dealership which was closing at 3. After 30 miles, we finally pulled into the dealership. The Celica was a lot cleaner than the first one, so we took it out. This time Carrie and the girls wanted to come (especially Ollie but that will be another post) so we spooned them into the small back seat, and took off. It drove really well, didn't smell, had no rust, sounded smooth, and felt "tight". Max really felt it was the one, so we went back, made an offer, they took it, and Max did his happy dance. A little paperwork, a visit to the insurance web site, and we were on our way to EAT!!! After that Carrie rode with Max up 89 as they were passed by old ladies in minivans because there were a lot of troopers on 89 looking for teenagers driving sporty little red cars ;^).