As I announced yesterday, I am participating in A 'lil HooHaa's 20 Days of Chill and I will be posting about announced random topics every week day in January.
Today's prompt is
Little Red Wagon
In Swiss German we have this term "little yellow wagon" - for some reason it stands for a special kind of vehicle that comes to pick you up and take you to the psychiatric facility.
Well, the time and effort it took to actually get behind the wheel of my new little red wagon almost caused me to check myself into the looney bin.
In spring 2015 they announced that the Ford Mustang anniversary model would (finally) be officially available in Europe - and therefore in Switzerland.
Every Mustang that has been cruising around here was individually imported by some passionate and patient people. It takes a lot of paperwork, and you need to put in hours and hours of mechanical work to make sure the Swiss DMV will approve of every little component and spare part.
Of course I was intrigued to say the least.
From the first time I visited California in the 1990s, Mustang convertibles have always been my dream cars. Talk about freedom, fun and fanciness!
So in spring 2015 I spent my time configuring "my" car online, trying to calculate maintenance and insurance costs and making phone calls about availability. I just remembered I actually blogged about it.
Things were not looking good. Nobody had any information because it was "too new" and "not in the system yet", and car dealers were like "Ford Switzerland is scr**ing us. They have ordered way too little cars, so we're not getting any. We're trying to sneak some off German importers or auctions. There are some on a cargo ship as we speak, let's see... a black fastback, a yellow convertible, no, I'm afraid, no red one, though."
I reconnected with a former (think 20 years ago!!!) coworker who works for the automobile industry. He introduced me to someone who promised to get me a red one somewhen in Q3 of 2015. Q3 could be anything between July 1st and September 30. Of course I was hoping for July, or at the very least, August. Because convertible. No point to start the top down season in late September.
A car-savvy friend and I went to test-drive a black fastback. I brought Colin's car seat, a hockey stick and our large hockey gym bag - if those items didn't fit into the backseat and the trunk, it would be a deal breaker. The Mustang did great though. The drive was cool, although I didn't like the sales person sitting next to me, breathing down my neck and asking me to turn around after just two miles or so. The offer he made for my existing family minivan was ridiculous. Also he couldn't commit to an earlier delivery date than Q3 for a red one. "I have an orange one coming in next month" he said. Haha, no, thanks.
My friend's acquaintance sent me a contract that asked for a considerable amount of pre-payment. "It's common in those situation" my friend assured me. I signed end sent the money on June 8. I remember specifically because a) it was Eric's birthday. Eric's my son's best friend, and he spent the day at our house because their teacher was sick, and b) as it would turn out a couple of days later, our neighbor passed away.
I knew I was taking a rather unreasonable decision.
It's a fun car, it's a sports car, it's a summer car, it only has two doors, there is not much space on the back seat, there is not much space in the trunk, it will be hard to park in most Swiss parking lots and garages, it uses tons of gas and is therefore unecological and uneconomical. After paying for it, I will be nearly broke. The little money I got for my mystery shopping assignments didn't help much.
On the "plus" side it's my dream car, and life is short.
A bunch of people had unexpectedly passed away, and it made me think.
What were the things I wanted to do badly?
- I have been lucky enough to do some traveling (Australia, Canada, the U.S. and South Africa just to name a few recent trips.
- I had a rewarding career, I found a husband, I had a baby, I made a home - hey, I'm even running a blog!
If I had to name one thing that would really top it all off it would be driving a little red wagon.
I will spare you the details about complications and delays. Let's just say I didn't get my dream car till Q1 / 2016.
While it's certainly a cool and fun ride, it's hugely impractical. For example... Even though super red and super loud, for some people it still is invisible, I don't seem to drive it for lengthy enough periods, and finally, how on earth am I supposed to take home a new kitchen machine, let alone a Christmas tree...?
In the meantime check out my chilling blogger's posts.
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