Sick Transit

בקטגוריות: Uncategorized

7 Sep 2006

Suit and tie, properly Italian, Joe was the very model of the used car salesman. He shook our hands and made smalltalk. He was very earnest and sincere. He took us for a ride to see a different dealer when it turned out he didn’t have anything for us. It was a shame it didn’t work out. We wanted to buy it off him just out of appreciation and respect to his stereotype.

***

Hossain was the floor manager at the next dealer. He had a tiny little beard and moustache, only a few milimeters wide, like they were drawn on with an eyebrow pencil. You can’t really trust someone with a beard THAT thin. He had a car for us – a great car. A car he would drive off himself. A car he brought on to put out front to draw customers – it was simply that good a car. It was tagged at $8,995, but he was willing to let us have it for $5,995 – it hurt him, but he was willing. Still too rich for our blood.

***

Jack Moderno was not a stereotypical used car salesman. He was the Aziraphale of used car lots – only open because he enjoys fiddling with cars, fixing them up, seemingly reluctant to let one go. A silver crucifix and a golden חי on his chest. We had our eye on a ’98 Jeep Cherokee (not black, unfortunately, but still cool). He was more than agreeable, but the beaurocratic barrier was simply too big. Two hours on the phone to insurance companies from Queens to San Francisco to get a quote for car insurance for two foreigners, planning to get a temporary registration so we can drive it out west and register it in California before we sell it, which naturally complicates matters, then problems with the DMV which needed 6 points’ worth of ID, which is utterly impossible for tourists to have.

We allowed for 4 hours for car shopping, followed by 2 hours picking up our bags in Manattan and 4 more hours to get to Atlantic City for the Flaming Lips concert at 20:00. It’s now 18:16. I’m on the bus to Atlantic City. Ours bags were left in Manhattan, the car was left in Queens, and we still don’t know where we’ll sleep tonight. I hope we make it to the show in time.

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