Let's Make a Deal
A few years back there was a TV game show called, “Let’s Make a Deal”. On this show I ridiculously dressed contestants would try to win various prizes from host Monty Hall, by trading dumb things for (hopefully) the good prizes behind doors number one, two or three. Some got good deals and some got not so good deals. Seems most of us like to make a deal. It also seems like men are better at making deal’s than women, men enjoy the challenge. And what better place to make a deal than…the local car dealer. It is only natural for people to want to make a deal with a car dealer, their name implies it and their advertisements most often say, “come on down, let’s deal” or “we have the best deal in town.”
Mr M and I decided to play “let’s make a deal” a couple of weeks ago. We decided it was time for a new car. Well maybe it was the I that decided that she wanted a new car. After weeks of seeing all the advertisements on TV that promise us that we will never buy a new car at any lower price or at such a good deal, I was convinced, it was now or never. Truly, advertising at work. Since I do not have the ability or the expertise to wheel and deal, Mr M and I set out as a pair, to get the deal of the century on a new car. I had already decided on the kind of new car that I wanted to be driving down the hiways and biways. I just hadn’t decided on a color yet. If you ask me, Mr M should have known he was in trouble when he walked in the door of the Weld County Garage I had already made up my mind that I wanted a Buick Park Avenue. And when a woman makes up her mind…she makes up her mind. After a couple of hours of driving the demos and trying to pick out a color we finally decided on just the right set of wheels…a silver Park Avenue with gray leather interior and all the doodads that Detroit had ever thought up to get our money. As a matter of fact, after I saw this big silver bullet, my mind was made up completely, I couldn’t see any other car in the show room.
With the decision made about the car, all that was left was for Mr M to try his hand with wheeling and dealing. Time for Mr M to show his stuff. They told us how much they would give us for the old car as a trade in, to which Mr M replied…“not enough.” He then told them what he wanted for the old car to which they said… “too much.” After about an hour of “not enough” and “too much,” with one coming down and the other going up, the negotiations were at a standstill. They had come up as high as they would go but Mr Mr was still holding his ace in the hole in the form of a…threat. He -told the salesman that since we could not obviously agree on a deal, we would go to another local car dealer and see what they had to offer. Well, when I heard this. I announced very loudly. “I don’t want that kind of car. I want that silver Park Avenue.” That was it, the salesman knew that we would be driving home in his car on his terms. Let me tell you, when the salesman left to make out the purchase agreement, Mr M wasn’t too happy with me or the announcement I had made. In fact the last thing I remember him mumbling as we were putting our John Henry’s on the paperwork was…“I bet these car salesman love to see a woman walk in the door.”
