Took delivery! One word: Wow.

The car is gorgeous, solid, powerful, and slick. But until I get more time behind the wheel, for today I'll just discuss the delivery process. Mostly a good experience, but Dealer "S" gets three black marks on their report card.

My friend Erik met me at the rental car place where I dropped off that awesome Chevy Malibu (kidding), and gave me a ride across the bridge to San Rafael. We had to wait at least 15 minutes for "J" to finish whatever he was doing. While waiting, we looked for my Boxster. Not in the showroom. Not in the service area. Then "J" showed up and led us down several staircases and hallways, into their underground garage. The Vault where they keep their cars. A guy was finishing detailing mine. The parts-ordered windscreen was in place. Wow, Arena Red is great! Since I had never seen it in person, except maybe on a 911 at a different dealer, I was relieved to see that is was so nice. Having gotten a glimpse of the glorious machine, Erik headed back to work.

There were three phases to the delivery process: invoice acceptance; payment and paper signing; instruction and drive-off.

Invoice Acceptance

"J" went over the stuff on the invoice on paper and on the computer screen, making sure everything was OK. He said that the windstop (which as I've noted earlier was left off my order, by them, and thus ordered from parts) was "at cost" plus labor for installation. I assumed this meant I was getting it for about what it would have been if ordered with the car. I said it all looked right and "J" went to get the guy in finance to start the paperwork. Everything was priced exactly at MSRP as I had written down on my Newton. Then I realized that "at cost" for the windstop was MORE than the option price. When "J" got back I pointed this out and he said that, yeah, as an aftermarket part it is more. Well, I think this sucks since it was THEIR mistake, but I didn't feel like I was going to argue over $100 on a $50,000 purchase. OK, for the first time, Dealer "S" gets a black mark. At some point "J" asked me if I wanted to get the Perma-Plate Paint Guard protection. Yeah, right. I know better than that. I politely declined this pure-profit $500 item. What's ridiculous about this product is that even though "you never again have to wax your car" (hmmm, that's nice not having to do all that work), you must reapply some sort of "renewal application" every six months. What?! So much for eliminating maintenance. Black mark number two for Dealer "S", for offering this product of highly questionable value and highly ridiculous profit.

Paperwork and Payment

Next the paperwork guy took me to his office to sign everything and write a check. Now this is where it gets bad. I guess this paperwork jerk is not a salesman, but a paper pusher who has the miserable job of typing the same 20 paper forms for every customer and making them sign in 30 places and explaining what each signature is for. No wonder he hates life. Never a smile from this guy. Well, he asked me again about whether I want Perma-Plate. I say again, no thank you. But, after really pushing me about it, he starts to make little comments, as he works, and as I continue signing papers, things like "it's too bad you're not taking care of this car", "waxing does no good", "you're sure you don't want to treat your car right?", "it's really too bad you're spending all this money on the car and then treating it so poorly". I just kept saying politely saying, "uh-huh", "mmm", to this asshole as I signed papers and wrote him a gigantic check. He probably gets a commission on every Perma-Plate sucker he goads into accepting it.

You know, this same thing happened when I bought my Accord eight years ago. When signing the paperwork, the woman doing all the typing and paper shuffling pressed me to get a paint protector, and when I said firmly but politely that if I decided on applying a paint protector I would just do it myself later, she actually said, "well, you're very naive to think you can do it." In retrospect I wish I had said, "Bee-otch, you just lost a sale and someone's commission" and walked to another dealer. (Do I sound like George Costanza, thinking of something to say long after the incident? "Yeah, well, the jerk store called, and they're out of YOU!") Oh well, in this case I sure wasn't walking away from my Boxster!

Huge black mark number three for Dealer "S".

[ I have since read that the paperwork section of buying a car is a prime profit center for car dealers. I believe it. ]

Instruction and Drive-Off

Next I was handed off to a nice guy who walked me through the manuals and maintenance log books in detail, and then led me down to the garage for a full tutorial on the basic operation of all the features of the car. This was a really great experience, probably about 45 minutes in duration. To me this was the royal treatment, and by the time I finally started her up and drove out of the garage, I felt comfortable with the controls and that I was the proud owner of a wonderfully crafted performance machine.

Kudos to tall skinny guy in spectacles. Almost erased the memory of the shameful treatment from paperwork jerk.

First Drive Home

It was drizzling lightly as I headed out onto the freeway. It was kind of nerve-wracking! Mainly, I wasn't used to the limited rear field-of-vision. Compared to a four-seater with rear side windows and large rear window, a two-seater convertible with the top up has severe blind spots that take time getting used to for lane changes and backing up. Having driven an automatic transmission rental car for five solid weeks since my Accord was stolen, it took a while to get my feet back in the manual transmission habit. I also caught myself reaching for the parking brake with my left foot instead of my right hand! The clutch is fine, although it needs more revs than my Accord did to get away from a full stop without stalling. With that nice big tachometer right in the middle, even if the stereo is on loud enough to mask the detailed noise of an idling engine, you can just watch the tach and keep it over 1K towards 2K as you take off in first gear.

I stopped by my house, then, already late, went to my haircut appointment. Hey, it's a convertible; I don't want to have Kramer hair when the top is down! After finding a convenient parking spot, I have to admit that I was a bit nervous, unsure whether my first parking job was a mistake and leaving me subject to theft or vandalism. I guess it's a combination of being a recent (and second-time) car theft victim and owning a shiny new car that is quite a bit more expensive than I'm used to.

[ 5/12: Fortunately, my level of paranoia has steadily tapered off in the last ten days to a low level, and I'm OK with parking, even top down if the location is right and the stop is brief. However, I have not yet parked overnight again in the neighborhood where my ungaraged Accord was stolen! ]

Still waiting for Dealer "C" to send me back my deposit!