Sold...... Almost

We had a rental this morning in Mount Pleasant and instead of going home we headed out to Haldimand Motors in Cayuga to take a look at some mini vans. We had a nice drive along the Grand River. Parts of it neither one of us had seen before. We did see some interesting things along the way. Lots of fishermen, some on the banks, some on bridges, some with hip-waders actually in the river. Then there was one seriously hardcore guy who had his fishing rod in one hand and his rather large dog on a leash in his other. Now I'm thinking you'd really want to concentrate your efforts on one or the other. I mean what's he going to do if he actually catches a fish, how would he reel it in? What if the dog decides to take off. If we had time it would have been fun to see how that was going to play itself out.

It took us about 30 minutes to arrive in Cayuga. Neither one of us remember actually ever being in Cayuga before. I was surprised to see they have their own court house. Just seemed like kind of a small town for that. Cops were crawling all over the place, so who knows maybe they do have a need for it. Haldimand Motors is one huge used car lot. They had over 500 cars on the lot this afternoon. I think all used car lots should be operated like this one. They have all the vehicles grouped in categories; mini vans, trucks, SUV's, cars and then broken down by manufacturer. So all the Chevy mini vans are together, all the Ford etc. Every vehicle has a big sticker in the window giving you the price (there's no haggling, the price you see is the price you pay), the year, make, model, kilometres and a checklist of features. So Mike and I walked down this endless line of mini vans only stopping when we found one within our budget to check it over. All the sales people are located in the main office. If you have any questions just go to the main office and ask for one. It was great to be able to look over a vehicle and talk openly with Mike without a salesperson hanging around. If you want to test drive anything just take the stock number from the vehicle and head to the main office. The photo copy your license and hand yout he keys and a dealer plate. You can hold on to the keys as long as you're there. It keeps somebody else from taking "your" vehicle out for a test drive. That actually happened to us. A van we really liked was missing it's keys. I wouldn't be surprised if it sold today.

We tested a 2003 Windstar which we really didn't like at all. The price was great for a 2003 but we found the ride to be rough and the doors didn't open smoothly at all. Not to mention it had been driven by a smoker so there was the lingering smell and several burn holes in the seats. Next we tested a Montana which rode much nicer than the Windstar. It was a tiny bit more than what we had talked about spending, but not enough to turn us off the vehicle. There was a couple of minor repairs that need to be taken care of, but the dealership assures us that they would all be fixed. So we decided to leave it at that for the day. We plan on going back with a
"responsible adult" to look it over again. Mike would like to test drive a Chevy Venture too when we go back. There was several options there that fit into our budget so it will just be narrowing our choices down to one. He promises me this should all be over in a couple of weeks. I hope he's right!