If I don't hold this camera between my eyes and the sun I'll squint like an ogre
One fine November day, I decided to drive to the Auto Expo for an event hosted by Phil Long Mitsubishi. If I test-drove a Gallant, they'd give me a $25 American Express Gift Card, as well as a mix CD featuring that song from the Mitsubishi commercials. In addition, if I test-drove a Lancer, they'd give me a DVD of 2 Fast, 2 Furious. I can never resist the free stuff, and right now I can't afford to turn down the free 25 bucks.After my test drive they told me I'd have to drive to their Mitsubishi dealership for the free goodies. On the way down I-25 my battery indicator light came on, then the radio went silent and all of my gauges started misbehaving.
On arrival at Phil Long Valucar/Mitsubishi, it turned out my alternator belt had snapped and fallen off. Since I had just dropped $500 on TBAF (Those Bastards at Firestone), who told me among other things that I needed to replace two belts--not including, apparently, the belt that was actually about to break--on top of too much money I'd blown on that poor battered 1997 Neon, at the end of which it still continued to produce a horrible racket and vibrate like an eggbeater every time I slowed down without manually downshifting to second gear--I said to the dealer on the spot, "Let's talk trade-in!"
So now I'm the proud owner (give or take four or five years) of a 2003 Lancer, with under 18,000 miles, a five-year extended warranty, a CD player, and a working air conditioner and defogger, all of which are improvements on my 1997 Neon at 100,000+ miles. Unfortunately, after offering me an option of no down payment, they determined they would require $1000 down, which taxed my finances to the limit, the subsequent entree of any walking dinosaur-killing-asteroid-sized disasters into my personal life nowithstanding. But I have a car which would not necessarily terrify my already frazzled parents when they arrived for their visit Christmas week.
Happy holidays, everybody.
