Things you learn the hard way

Today was supposed to be the day that I received my brand new 2010 Toyota Prius, thanks to my parents’ generosity.

I had always been and still am against the idea of becoming a car owner, not because of the obvious environmental impacts owning one would cause, but more so because they were expensive, their upkeep and ancillary costs were enormous ($1200 in insurance, $250 in licensing fees, etc., etc.), and if I lived in a decent-sized city, I could get around on public transit.

Life in the suburbs though isn’t possible with just public transit. Even in Richmond Hill, traveling to the mall is a mere 5 minute drive, but would otherwise require a carefully scripted 40 minute walk / bus / walk excursion; if I were 5 minutes late in that script, another 30 minutes would pass before the next bus would come. There’s a grocery store less than 10 minutes from my house in Richmond Hill and it’s on a main bus line, but carrying 3-4 bags of groceries gets heavy and no one likes making dedicated trips to the grocery store.

This whole time before coming to Long Island, I was determined to live in a big city with a public transportation system. This was before moving to Long Island. My neighbourhood is 45 minutes walking from work; it’s unrealistic to make it to the hospital where the data centres are on foot. There’s a grocery store nearby and even a movie theatre, but they’re both over a 45 minute walk away. Biking was and has been an option for the past few weeks (more on that at a later date), but the short 15 minute bike ride to work doesn’t justify the condition (i.e., sweaty) that I arrive in at work. And balancing groceries on one handle bar while fighting dearly to maintain a straight line is more effort than I am willing to put in.

Needless to say, I was actually quite thrilled with receiving my car today. But naturally, blog posts here aren’t usually in an upbeat mood; I’ve always got to find a black lining in that fluffy, white cloud.

I showed up to the dealership today, $47 lighter because of the cab ride from Stony Brook to Oakdale. Why I decided to purchase a car from a dealership on the south end of the island when there’s one within a few miles of my residence, I do not know. Anyways, I get introduced to my car – a brand new, dark blue (I’ll have to confirm tomorrow because it was all a blur), 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid. As one of the sales associates is showing me the bells and whistles (there are none since it’s the basic package), I’m getting really excited to push the pedal down for the very first time.

I’m brought up to the finance offices, sat down, signed a dozen pieces of paper, and had two dozen documents photocopied. I’m all set to go; all I need to do is pay. I hand over my Bank of America chequing card and reality hits me.

"I’m sorry, sir. We only accept cash or certified cheque."

Mother fucker.

You know, I should’ve been smarter. What kills me was that I was smarter earlier – I knew such a large charge was suspicious so I called Bank of America to inform them that a $20,000+ charge was coming down the chute and for them not to deny it, but their customer service lines were 30 minutes long and I didn’t have the time nor the patience to inform them that I’m using my money. If I had waited on the line, I would’ve gone to get a certified cheque, only to be thwarted by Bank of America’s pathetic business hours – maybe I went into the wrong industry; I could be getting to work at 9am and leaving at 4pm, probably with an hour lunch to total a 6 hour work day! But that would not have made a difference because after I did some reading, apparently dealerships frown on plastic usage because of the interchange and processing fees associated with them.

But to that I say, fuck you, dealerships, why should I pay for a certified cheque just so you don’t have to pay processing fees? In this day and age, I should just be able to wire money to you for free, especially since a computer is doing the heavy load of concurrently subtracting 5 digits from one location and adding 5 digits to another. I would love to take out $20,000+ in cash if the bank let me so I don’t need to pay for the certified cheque, but I don’t have someone with me for safety reasons (I don’t like walking out of banks with several thousands dollars on me… I don’t know about you) and I don’t have a ride to the dealership (another $40+ taxi ride…), so I can’t do that. I should take Alex’s advice and take out 2.5 million pennies and deposit it using a forklift in front of the dealership.

So the summation of my day? Leave work early to get to the dealership on-time, only to realize I don’t get a car. Stranded, so I have to pay for yet another taxi to get back home. Then tomorrow I will have to pay for a third taxi so that I can go pick up my car. $130 in taxi fare just to pick up my car. In the grand scheme of things it’s peanuts for the car, but it’s still $90 unnecessarily spent!

And to top things all off, tomorrow I’m going to camp at Bank of America to be first in line to get my certified cheque so that I can go to the dealership bright and early in the morning, and I predict that they’re going to give me a hassle for "not being able to access my Washington Bank of America account."

Hopefully by this time I’m a slightly happier, slightly less bitter car owner, because right now it seems like it’s more trouble than it’s worth.