Our Day in Lots of Pictures

If I had known how our day was going to go, I would have remembered the camera, but at least I had the cell phone camera. I thought we were just going to look at a few cars, with the idea in mind of what kind of car we wanted to buy.   Walt is the kind of guy who will shop in 3 different stores to get the best price on a used book, if possible, and then worry that he spent too much.

We had an appointment to meet a guy named Fred at the Honda dealership, where we got our present car 15 years ago, at 10 a.m. and we were a little early, so I settled in with a cup of coffee and Walt wandered around.

Eventually Fred came in and asked a couple of questions about what color car we were looking for and what model.  Walt said we had liked our Accord and he thought we'd like a light color rather than a darker color.  I added "Not champagne" since we've been driving a champagne car for 15 years and I was ready for a change.

He took us outside to show us a 2013 silver Honda Accord.

Walt was definitely intrigued, so we went back into Fred's office where he started taking down information.  This being Davis, when he found out I was a theater critic, he mentioned a friend of his who performs with a local theater group and asked if I knew him.  I knew his name. 

Walt liked the 2013 model because this year Honda has added the reverse camera, so common on the Prius and that was the main attraction of a new vs "previously owned" car.  Eventually, after they offered us a $375 trade-in on our old car (the one with the "tired motor" and nearly 300,000 miles) and we closed the deal and when I posted this picture to Facebook, I heard from two people, both of whom knew Fred and said he was a nice guy -- we hadn't even signed the contract yet.

Next we met with Natalie, who is very cute, mother of 4, and such a good salesperson she sold us the "platinum" package of coverage.  She was unimpressed with our mere 300,000 miles and told us about a customer whose car went over a million miles (he was given a watch and a letter of congratulations by Honda).

We signed lots and lots of papers.

...including one which was very, very long.

Eventually, with handshakes all around and a nice fat debt in our pocket, we met Fred in the car again and he gave us a lesson on all the goodies.

It all looked very exciting.

Then we transferred everything from the old car to the new car..

 
And in a mere 3 hours, we were back on the road, very much less rich for the experience, but a lovely new car that, when I tried all the fun things Fred showed us, I realized I needed a PhD in order to figure out.  My new hobby--learning how to turn on the radio in my new car.

We went out to lunch when it was all over, to celebrate (because we probably won't afford to eat out for about 8 years now!). We chose a window seat so we could keep an eye on our new baby.