Va-voom and Varoom

So, as many of you know, I bought a new car.

It's a 2012 Mustang V6. I got the leather and premium interior package. I had been thinking along these lines since I rented one at the end of last year.

It's my first non-used car and it's a damn joy to ride.

The process also represents the last tangible connection to my Portland days. I finally got a new driver's license. I had held onto my Maine one the whole time I was in Mass. Partially that was due to sentiment, but realistically, I was a traveling devil most of that time. It was dang hard to get a day clear to go run errands to the DMV. Or maybe that's just a convenient excuse.

But now I'm all legal and Texas-y and have road trip fever. I want to haul ass all over this state.

But first several notes on the car-buying experience.

It was very Texas. I heard stories about illegals trying to buy cars and being arrested by the FBI right out of the dealership (the poor woman had bought a social security number connected to the wife of a drug kingpin). I heard stories about the "big celebrities" that came in all the time. Mostly it was football players like Too Tall Jones, who I would have liked to see, but the rest were all like some guy who was in the original Longest Yard. "He's just like he was in the movie!" Oh really? Ho Hum.

Here's a typical moment. The service guy is explaining how the customer survey I'm going to get works. He's trying to explain that there is a big difference between a 5 and 4 and basically I shouldn't hold onto my 5's too tightly. A 5 counts as 100, a 4 is 50. In the course of this he says "Now, we ain't trying to say we're perfect or anything. There was only one man that was perfect and they went and crucified him!" Yes, we aren't Jesus, but please give us a 5 on our survey.

My salesperson was 62. He looked like Sam Elliot's uncle. He was a good guy and I liked that he also did what I think of as Texas things. For example, we were walking across the dealership. He was in mid-sentence and stopped abruptly, putting out a hand to stop me as well. What brought the non-stop sales patter to a dead stop? The sight of a marginally-attractive woman walking across the grounds. We both took a minute to watch her pass and then got back to business. He whistled tunelessly. Oh, Texas.

Anyhoo. So what color is my car?

Black, right? Ah, not quite. It is a fancy new color called Lava Red. It looks black until the light hits it. Then you see there are li'l sparklies. Like these:

The result is that in the sun, the car is actually a dark dark maroon-red.

Like lava or something. Well, maybe not, but I do think it's kind of fancy.

I have more dumb car things to tell you, but I need to go buy one of those windshield cover doobies because it's murder hot out here. Va voom!