A Planned Day for Indecisiveness

    Hello, this is Ryan.  Mike threatened my life if I didn't write a post.  The weekend started off great when I decided that I wanted to buy a set of headers for the GTO.  I set up to meet the seller in Maryland, and asked Mike if he wanted to go with me to pick them up.  What actually happened, you ask?  Ha.

    I pulled up to Mike’s house a little later than 2:30 to pick him up.  Before we headed out on our journey, I wanted to stop in and checkout Mike’s T/A.  He’s in the process of tearing the engine apart before sending it off to a machine shop to get it rebuilt.  I was in awe as I stepped in the garage to see parts all over the floor.  It looked like a car crime-scene, with all the parts scattered, yet very organized.  Seeing the car without a front end was so strange to me, as the last time I saw it, Mike had only begun the tear-down process.  We hung out out in the garage for a while before deciding to finally hit the road.
    Leaving the neighborhood, we spent a bit more effort than necessary trying to decide where to eat.  This was only the beginning to the indecisiveness.  After some debate, Mike and I finally decided to stop by the Buffalo Wing Factory to get some lunch.  McDonald’s just wasn’t going to cut it...especially after the last McDonald’s run we had.  While we devoured our boneless wings (which Mike wasn't too happy with his), I started to get the “I’m not sure I should spend this sort of money” feeling on the headers.  After quite a bit of back-and-fourth, I finally decided to can the whole trip up to Maryland.  The fact that the GPS told us it would take 1hr 45 minutes each way, instead of the estimated 1 hour I thought it would be, was enough to put my decision over the edge.  Did I feel like a total idiot?  You betchya.
    So after finishing lunch and waiting for the waitress, who kept bringing us refills even though we were ready to leave, we hopped in the GTO and started to drive.  We had no idea where or what we were going to do.  We decided to swing by the parts store to browse and look for some oil, however they didn’t’ have the oil that I wanted.  So, after some thinking, I decided to try AutoZone later on.  The trip to the parts store wasn’t a total waste though; we had fun laughing at some of the “Guido” parts, such as stick on air vents, cheap shifters, and funny license plate frames.  But our fun ran out once we made our way down all the isles.

    Mike, being the old man that he is, had to make a bathroom run and so we pulled over at Wendy’s.  We walked out with some awesome Frosty’s…just couldn’t resist!  Back on the road we go, still trying to figure out what to do…until we pass a car dealership.  Mike and I had talked about test driving cars just for fun, with absolutely no intention of buying.  Today was the day this became a reality!  We did one lap around Chantilly Auto Park.  First stop was a Dodge dealership, where we looked at some Challengers.  I wanted to test drive one of these real bad, however the workers there simply weren’t interested in us.  So after some lingering, we crossed the street to check out the Ford dealership.  Same thing with Ford, absolutely nobody walked up to us to offer us help.  I guess Dodge and Ford’s customer service is just the same as their cars: total crap. 

    Disappointed, we vowed to travel to a distant land to test drive some cars.  Our destination?  Manassas (or as Mike calls it, Manasshole).  We made our way to perhaps the most ghetto car dealership where I did a lot of test driving when searching for a GTO.  This place was the most “run-by-night” place you can imagine.  Unfortunately, there were no real interesting cars there..but that didn’t stop us from sitting in almost every car in the lot, including the ones in the garage.  Who knows if we were even allowed in there, but we went in anyways.
    Before we made it to our final destination we tried out Eastern Motors.  Their selection was very poor.  The sales guy comes out and asks us what we are looking for.  Mike says "sports cars."  The guy replies with "sporty as in Eclipse sporty or sporty like these Jettas."   LOL

Mitsubishi Eclipse:  Sporty?  Yes.  Sports car?  Not really

Volkswagen Jetta:  Sporty?  No.  Sports car?  HELL NO!!!  DUMB EASTERN'S GUY!!!

 

    After much searching, we finally came to a Nissan dealership, where out front there was a shiny new 2010 Camaro SS.  “I’m not going home till I test drive that Camaro” is what I told Mike.  

   This dealership was very nice; the people who worked there just threw us the keys and told us to have fun.  I piloted the car first, and once I was on the parkway I gave it the beans.  This Camaro SS had the 6-speed and 426hp LS3 engine.  The car, however, has one downfall.  It is heavy…very heavy.  The car was very sluggish and didn’t pull anywhere near as hard as I thought it would.  I was very disappointed with the new Camaro.  Performance just wasn’t there.  Next up, the interior:  For GM interior, it’s definitely a step up, however I feel that it should have been in an SUV, not a Camaro.  The windows were narrow and up high (plus the passenger one was covered in dealer stickers), you couldn’t see the hood, and the rear window was pointless.  It felt like I was commanding a tank, and since the Camaro has no turret, it was nowhere near as fun.  Mike thought the Camaro felt fast from the passenger seat, so of course I had to let him actually drive the car.  I knew that there was no way the CTS-V was slower than this heavy pig of a Camaro.  Once he hopped in the car, he romped on it a bit and immediately agreed.  Our fun with the Camaro was cut short due to the “low gas” light flashing at us like an annoying gnat in our eyes, so we took the SS back.
    We had to drive with the passenger window down and put the driver's one down to try to hear the exhaust (which isn't too impressive either).  It wasn't such a bad idea since it was in the 50s, but once moving it got cold.  This is part of our conversation as I was driving:
Ryan:  "Can you turn the heat on?"
Mike:  "Let me see what I can figure out."  He starts working buttons and knobs.
Ryan:  "Turn them off!!  TURN THEM OFF!!!  TURN THEM OFF!!!"
Mike:  "WHAT?!  WHAT?!?!  WHAT?!?!?"
Ryan:  "The hazards!  You turned on the hazards!"
Mike:  "SHIT!!!"  He starts pressing all the buttons again.
So, Chevy thought it would be a good idea to hide the hazard flasher button with the heat-a/c controls, same color and all.  It didn't even flash when it was turned on.

    Back at the dealer, this is where it got funny.  Of course, the sales person asked what we thought.  I said I liked the car.  I had made the worst mistake you could EVER make when test driving cars for fun, with no intention of buying.  I said these words: “What’s the lowest you can go on it?”  Into the office I go, to somehow break it to the guy that I wasn’t going to be buying this car.  At this point, I pretty much wanted to just run out of the place, but the possibility of me being put up on the “don’t do business with this man” bulletin board, I refrained and I stuck it out.  During this time Mike is in the showroom laughing at me.  I simply told him that the price was too high, and I would have to think about it.  Being engaged, I got to pull the “I have to check with my fiancée” card.  He even offered me to take the car home for the weekend to show her.  That is great customer service, too bad I didn’t to buy the car though.

    So…if we go back and remember how this all started, it was that I was going to be driving with Mike to Maryland to pick up some headers.   Definitely not what we both expected, but it was an awesome day full of laughter, fun, and tire-kicking!
    Oh, and the next day, I decided I’d take the headers.  The seller drove them down from Maryland for me, and cut me a better price on them as well.  Indecisive?  You know it.
     Stay tuned for our next adventure.