Melissa and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Van

I started to title this post "This is the way I roll", but that would have put that old MC Hammer song into my head.

Oops, too late.

I had to do something I HATE doing today. I had to drive to a car dealership to do my opinion poll. (One of the ladies in the dealership's rental office told our ad manager that she wanted to be in my poll.)

Let me tell you why I hate to drive onto dealerships with my van. Because this is what I drive:



This is why it's "technicolor": the hinges on my 11-year-old van's doors were in such bad shape (Chrysler didn't design them very well) that the front door wouldn't close. For like, four months. The van sat in my back yard for four months, with a barely-shut door. Then my dad lucked upon a blue parts van for $100. We used the front bumper (mine was ripped in half because of a piece of rebar sticking up out of one of the parking bumpers at work) and the front door. Although, the part in front of the door was damaged too, from the hinge damage, so we used it too. I was supposed to wait for my dad to paint the van, but we ran out of time and I needed the van back. Hence, the bi-color van.

Notice also the rolled-down windows, because the air is currently not working and this is how hot it is:



Now back to the part where I hate to drive onto car lots. See, dealers love to see someone like me coming. They think, "She's driving a piece of junk. She's a girl. She'll be DESPERATE to rid herself of said piece of junk. Hot dog!"

See, that might be good, except I grew up around car dealers (my dad is a mechanic) and I know how they operate. Word of advice: no dealer is going to pay off your trade and not add it on to your payment. By and large, they aren't out to save you money, but to make some for themselves.

One day, I'll be able to afford a better car. Until then, I'm focusing on being thankful that even though I have an 11-year-old technicolor no-air-conditioning minivan, I do have transportation. It runs great. It gets me from Point A to Point B, although I'm usually pretty hot and sweaty by the time I get to Point B.

And the dealers can save their predatory ways for some other shmuck, because when I get blessed to buy another car, they aren't going to take advantage of me.