Farewell Ol' Henry

As you probably don't recall (because only about 4.5 people read that post), the air conditioning in our sweet ride (an '02 Ford Focus with plastic rimz) has been on the fritz for about a year now.  The fix was estimated at around a grand, and we weren't sure the entire car was worth that much, so we elected not to fix it.  Nature Boy and I suffered through the ridiculous heat last summer (115 degrees!), tolerable only because Shrinky Dink took pity on us and let us borrow her van. 

A few weeks ago, Tree Guy vowed, "We shall never travel sweaty again!"  Not one to fiddle-fart around when it comes to spending moolah, I ran to the computer to start my car research.  We flirted with buying a brand new sub-compact because of the awesome price and awesomer gas mileage. 

Then we actually looked at some sub-compacts and remembered that we are not small people.  And we have freakishly large heads.

The wee Ford Fiesta

I got some leads on three 2010 Ford Foci (the plural form), and Nature Boy and I set out around 1pm to visit the dealerships.  We struck out at the first lot.  The car we came to see had already been sold.  We had better luck at the second place, so I arranged for Tree Guy to meet us there for a test drive after work.

While we waited for Tree Guy to finish his work day, Nature Boy and I went to the third dealership.  There we met car salesman Ricky Ricardo Jesus Velasco.  And he was a hoot.  Not only was his I Love Lucy-esque accent entertaining, but the man invited us to his house this weekend for some of his mom's homemade tortillas. (Heck-to-the-yes, Jesus!)

Of course, the invite came only after I joked during the test drive that we were planning to kidnap him and force him to cook us the authentic food of his culture.  So maybe it wasn't a real invitation.  It's quite possible that Jesus was just playing along until he could safely exit the vehicle I was driving.

Note:  Some of you may be thinking that I was being culturally insensitive.  But I assure you, that is not the case.  Jesus is married to a gringa, so he was already well aware that white women are crazy.  How do I know Jesus's marital status, you ask?  Because I asked, "So, are you married to a white woman, because I see a bunch of gringitos in those photos on your wall."

What?  He laughed!  (I guess you had to have been there.) 

(You know, I get away with crap like this all the time.  All I can say is, craziness has its rewards.)

Anyhoo, we really liked this guy!  But fickle gringos that we are, we didn't buy a car from Jesus.   

I know!  We really wanted to buy a car from him.  He was the best salesman we worked with all day!  But the right car for us just wasn't at his particular dealership.  The one we came to see had already been sold (again), and the one he showed us had a dent in the bumper and a shimmy in the steering wheel.  (Lo siento, Jesus!)

So Nature Boy and I met Tree Guy at dealership #2 to test drive the car we'd seen earlier.  And guess what.

People were test driving it when we got there, and they bought it!  It was sold right out from under us! 

Apparently, 2010 Ford Foci are seriously in demand.

So we were back to square one.  We worked with like, three different salesmen at dealership #2 and the three of them together did not equal one Jesus Velasco, I tell you. 

However, one of the Triplets from Chevyville showed us a sporty blue 2011 Focus with under 17,000 miles--for pretty much the same price as the denty-bumpered, shimmy-wheeled one at Jesus's place of business.  And voila!

Tank, modeling the 2011 Ford Focus SE

Seriously, this dog loves the new car.  He was giddy with joy! 

Raven got tired of his frolicking and tried to herd him out of the car.

It didn't work.