Angelo and Catseye - Car Shopping!

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Angelo helps Catseye pick out a new (used) car.



"The last time I did this for anyone, Forge was there", Angelo said with a grin. "Pity the salesman trying to put one over on the machine whisperer and a reformed car thief... maybe we should've got Sarah to come along too, since we couldn't bring him."

"Sarah can talk to cars?" Catseye asked curiously, eyes wide. "I didn't know that! That's awesome! We should have gotten her to come along!" In typical Catseye fashion, however, she shrugged this off and grinned at him. "Oh well. I'm sure the reformed car thief will be more than enough for any salesman to handle," she chirped happily. "Ooo, what about this pretty blue one?" she asked, bounding over to an ancient Ford hatchback.

"Not sure", he said with a shrug in answer to the first part. "I know she had that ongoing war with the toaster, there's no computer in a toaster, so I figure probably." He walked over and studied the hatchback. "It's pretty old, Cats. Older cars are harder to get replacement parts when they wear out, and more expensive if you can find them."

"Nuts," the catgirl replied, but put the car out of her mind immediately and continued to scan the lot. "Can we go look at that one over there?" She pointed to an olive-coloured Toyota Echo across the lot. "So how're things at Elpis?" she asked conversationally as they walked.
"The good thing is you can have the car we pick painted any colour you like", he pointed out cheerfully. "Elpis is good, busy, chugging along like it usually does."

Catseye nodded in response to his comment about Elpis before her eyes widened as what he'd said about the paint sunk in. "Really? Any colour? Even... lavender?!"

"Even lavender", was the laughing response. "I'll even buy you the respray for your birthday, and you'd sure get attention."

Barely hiding a squeal, Catseye danced over to the Echo and read the sticker on the front windshield. "It was made in two thousand five, and it has two hundred sixty two thousand miles on the odometer... that's not very good, is it?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.

Not having got a good look at the car before, Angelo was now eyeing it with open disdain. "2005 wouldn't be terrible in other makes, but this one's gone out of production. And with that much mileage, I'd be surprised if it made it off the lot."

Before Catseye could comment, a very large salesman with slicked-back hair and a wrinkled suit called out to them as he waddled across the lot. "Hello there! Ahh, that one's a beauty isn't it? What can I help you folks with today? Are you a couple of newlyweds looking for your first vehicle together?"

Angelo's mouth twitched and he looked up at Catseye. "We did come looking for a first car, didn't we, Sharon?" The fact that it was hers, not theirs could go unmentioned in the interests of amusement. "You don't have anything in lavender, do you?"

Catseye smirked at Angelo but said nothing, turning instead to the car salesman who didn't bat an eye at the odd request. "I'm afraid there's nothing on the lot that's lavender, but we could most certainly have something painted for you at a very modest extra fee! Now, why don't we look at this beauty right here?" the salesman inquired, steering them towards a monstrous-looking SUV. "This Escalade gives a newlywed couple a lot of peace of mind- she's built like a fortress!"

"She certainly is", Angelo agreed, eyeing the man's choice dubiously.
"How's its controllability?"

A blink and momentary pause was the only indication the salesman gave that he was disappointed by Angelo's lack of gullability. "Well, of course you'd get more controllability out of something smaller, but this baby's solid, she won't be blown around by wind on the highway so the need for controllability is actually less than you might find with something smaller!"

"Hm." He considered this. "Might be a possibility, but I'd want a closer look at its steering and wheel control, and I don't know if Sharon even likes it. Honey?"

Though she wouldn't normally respond to the term 'honey' from Angelo, Catseye understood that they were Acting to play a trick on the car salesman so she looked up in acknowledgement. She had been thinking about the car and now wrinkled her nose at Angelo. "I don't really like it, no. It's too big. I don't want to have to try and park that in the city. Not to mention paying for gas for this thing would kill me. I want a car," she told the salesman. "A hatchback or something compact."

"Kids won't be a consideration in the foreseeable future", Angelo informed the salesman with - so he assumed - total honesty. "So yeah, let's look at something smaller."

The salesman took them around the lot trying to extoll the virtues of various pieces of crap, becoming more and more visibly agitated when Angelo asked all the right questions to thwart his efforts at getting them to pay for something that was either overpriced or breaking down. Catseye followed along, mostly silent, absorbing everything that was being said and trying to see the cars the way Angelo did.

As the two men were embroiled in a tense verbal tennis match regarding an alternator and a battery, Catseye spotted something in the back corner of the lot. Leaving the two to catch up, she trotted over to the lime green Volkswagen Beetle, making sure to check the sticker before getting her hopes up. She did a calculation in her head of miles versus year of make and was pleasantly surprised. It was an old model, the kind with the engine in the back, but it looked to be in very good shape. "What about this one?" she called over.

The salesman huffed and puffed his way into range. "Oh, that?" he asked, almost guiltily. "That just came in yesterday. 'Couple just had a baby and wanted to trade-in for something larger."

Angelo eyed him. "And you weren't showing it to us because...?"
Without waiting for an answer, he walked over to examine the car.
"You're a better judge than you thought, Cats", was the verdict. "The
make's usually pretty reliable, and enough people still have them it's
not too hard to get parts if one does break."

The salesman held up his hands defensively as Angelo blew past him. "It hasn't been properly cleaned yet; we've been having trouble getting the boy who washes and cleans the cars in this week."

While he struggled to catch up, Catseye beamed at Angelo. "I like it! I like it even though it isn't lavender, too," she chuckled. "It doesn't have holes in the seats and stains like some of the other ones. And the tires aren't all worn out!" That was basically the extent of her knowledge about how to tell a good car, aside from the mileage, so she was happy Angelo had said she was a better judge than she thought.

"Don't worry about the cleaning, we'll take care of that", Angelo
informed the salesman cheerfully, with an affectionate smile back at
Catseye. "How much?"

"It says right here Angelo, see?" Catseye asked, at the same time as the salesman quoted the sticker price on the dash, which was exorbitant even with the car in such good condition.

Angelo gave him a flat look, completely dropping the pretence of a
naive young husband now. "That's way overpriced and you know it. Try
again."


Catseye stared at the the two men, trying not to show her confusion. She understood overcharging from her time in the Middle East- everyone expected you to haggle, and knew you were a naive tourist if you didn't- but she hadn't expected to encounter this sort of thing in New York! The salesman was blustering on about fair market value and feeding his children, but his tone was getting weaker and more strained the longer Angelo stood his ground. He finally relented and dropped a thousand dollars off the price. The catgirl's eyes widened as she looked at Angelo with a grateful, admiring smile.

He grinned at her, then turned to the salesman. "Nice try, by the
way. I don't blame you - charge what the market'll stand, isn't that
what they say? I just know better."

The salesman gave a capitulating smile and led them towards the office building to sign the paperwork. Catseye did a little dance and spun Angelo around in a circle with her. "Thank you Angelo! I have a new car!" She let out a squeal of excitement. "Can we take it home today? And go through the drive through and get burgers?!"

"When you've signed everything, it'll be yours", he assured her,
slipping an arm through hers. "An' if you want burgers, you get
burgers."