Buyer's remorse

[JohnnyRingo]

For those who thought they were opening another disgruntled Obama thread, it isn't. What it is, is an overview of the reasonable way I dealt with dissatisfaction of a car I bought.

Let me preface by pointing out that I'm a die-hard GM man. I've bought GM, except for a brief stint with a Ford in the '80s, since I was 18 years old. The Ford turned out to be a real let down, and I'll never go back. Since then I've become more and more loyal to GM, and feel the working class drive Chevys while Ford owners are the conveyance of the conservative establishment.

The problem is that my most recent GM car, which I purchased in November 2008 was sold on what I feel were false pretenses. The dealer assured me the car would get 33mpg, but I've seen no better than the mid to high 20s. I was told this car would stand out and turn heads for at least the next four years, but it didn't take long before I realized I just had another corporate cloned bubble car in a different color than my previous model. Sure, it was newer, flashier, polluted less, and I admit it ran much better than the clunker I had before, but I expected so much more.

The problem was my wife. I really went out on a limb talking her into buying this car, and she soon got tired of hearing me complain about it and was feeling some resentment as well. I guess she was finally beginning to hear the little squeaks and rattles that I'd been carping about for the last two and a half years. We planned to keep the car for eight years, but I've been working her for approval to let me buy another GM car that I'm sure will perform better. I was thinking about a Buick this time.

First I had to get rid of the old one so I did what anyone would do when stuck with something that doesn't perform as it should. After cancelling the insurance, I took it out on a back road, gutted it and torched it. I made sure that car could never be repaired or resold. Sure it was a total loss, and there's no turning back, but I had my eye on that sweet Buick the dealer says will get 33mpg and turn heads wherever I go. I was sure my wife would love it.

When I got home to ask her for the checkbook for the Buick I wanted, I found a note on the refrigerator saying she went to the local Ford dealer to shop for a new car without me. She told me that she could no longer trust my judgment, and since I did nothing but trash our car for the entire three years, she figured all GM cars must be misrepresented junk. I don't know how she can be so fickle as to leave the brand.

In pure retrospect, maybe I should have had some work done on the old car and at least kept a GM vehicle in my garage instead of another cookie cutter corporate Ford that's guaranteed to bankrupt our family in the next four years.

[Pab Sungenis]

1. What some of us would rather do

is fix up the car we got so that it does what we want. Put in a more efficient engine, customize the interior, new sound system, that sort of thing. A lot cheaper than taking a total loss, and a lot more satisfying than putting up with the original bill of goods.

[Broderick]

2. LOL