DOES THE SALESMAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

This is an essay about my sweet Thomas buying cars. Tom likes to be sold to, although he knows he can't sell a fridge to an Eskimo. He can, however, convince you which glasses are the best for your face. So I guess it must be passion and belief in what you do.

Maybe it is a man thing yet, when we pulled into the Honda dealership in the fall of 1999 and Tom saw 'his salesman', he said, "I will buy from him again. He sold me the Buick" He sold him another car too, but I can't remember what it was. I just know the salesman was selling Honda's now.

Here is a little history: When I moved to Fargo, I was driving a GEO I had bought new in Lawrence. I was proud of my little car, although it was major ugly. I felt like I was a Cadillac lady driving a three cylinder--but that is what I could afford.

Well, Tom had a concern. How would people see that little car with snowbanks along the streets? He was insistent that I should be driving something else. I was not happy about it and after the first winter and the tall snow banks and all the pick up trucks, I agreed to agree with him.

Like Erna, I had my conditions:
A. IT WAS TO BE A GIFT
1. I didn't have to wash it
2. I didn't have to clean it out
3. I could smoke in it
4. It would be serviced according to the manual.
5. I would wear my seat belt if I felt like it.
6. Pay cash, no payments {underline, underline, underline}

Lame? Yes.

And so it was that after dinner out on Thursday nights, we would go to yet another car lot. Jump into the vehicle, see if it felt good, look out the back window for visual, hop out and go home. I didn't need a salesman to tell me if there were blind spots. Often I was out of the car and on the way back to the Buick and Tom was left to talk to the salesperson about why I didn't like it.

When we went to the Chevy dealer, I had one question: Did that red Corvette come with four wheel drive? Of course, it did not but the salesperson went to ask. Could I get that little pick up so it wasn't so close to the ground? Of course not.

On the last night, because that is where the Honda was, I found the SUV. Automatic, all wheel drive, and I could see without as many blind spots. I got in it and Tom went to talk to 'his salesman'. The salesman said there was another couple ahead of us to test it. We waited. We drove it. It felt right, (isn't that a woman's term).

Tom was doing the male thing with the salesperson. I said, "This is it." Expecting him to take out his checkbook. After all, he said when I found what I wanted, he would buy it. Isn't it logically to think that?

And he said, "I don't have my check book with me". Not to embarrass Tom nor myself, I said okay and we went home. I wasn't angry and the discussion of the Honda did not come up again. Women are literal. If you say --I will buy it for you and then say, I don't have my check book--that means the deal is off, right?

The weekend came and went. Monday morning the GEO and I went to work. It was a beautiful October day and I was happy to be helping residents of the nursing home and visiting with their families and my co-workers.

At 2PM, I said good bye to Sara and others and went to the parking lot to go home. The GEO was not there. Where was it? Sara was standing by the edge of the building, she knew what was going on. The two of us went to the front desk, as Sara said maybe they know what has happened to your car.

At the front desk, I asked if anyone knew what happened to my car. A nurse handed me the keys to the Honda and said that Tom had taken it. I didn't recognize the keys and was so upset that Tom had taken the GEO--why had he taken the GEO?

Now those of you who work/worked in a nursing home know that everyone knows everyone elses business. That is just the way it is.

Sara and I, along with a legion of others following, went back out to the parking lot. There in royal majesty, stood the red Honda SUV I had driven the Thursday before, complete with an enormous red bow. The gift car.

The Friday after we had looked at it, Tom called the salesman and bought it. It could not be ready to deliver until Monday. Not even Tom's salesman could do that sort of magic.

Don't you just love it?

And what happened to the GEO? We sold it in the spring. The credit union that financed it called to make sure those were actual miles. I talked to the owners a few years later; they traded it in with 150,000 miles on it because the arm rest fell off.

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