So the car purchase project rolls and, and SWMBO has gone back to stage one and decided a convertible would after all be nice. But not a rag top - it has to be metal above her head.
We headed off to a few dealers. The Pug dealer had a late 307CC the forecourt, and a very enthusiastic lad with a fine line in cheesy humour got the keys and did his stuff pretty well, except that a bit of trim had fallen off the hood mechanism, and was in the boot. Nil points to M Peugeot.
Next stop the VW showroom. An EOS inside. She got in it. She got out of it. I did the same. We stood by it for a bit, and then took the hint and left. They don't want to sell their cars, clearly.
Next stop the Ford car lot. Fiestas seemed to have been delivered in such huge quantities that perhaps they got all of Ford UK's March Fiesta shipment. All un-reg'd, and all in colours that made it pretty clear why they had not been snapped up. In amongst the myriad of Fiestas was a used Focus CC. Nice car. Matey plipped the key-fob from inside the showroom, so we got in and out. Finally he took the hint that it'd be nice to see the roof down, so he did the honours. No missing trim, no cheesy jokes. Just a solid, well-made car.
Soon after the interaction went down hill. SWMBO will only have an auto, so we asked about the possibility. "Only available on the Billy basic 1.6 with steel wheels - no call for them".
I resisted the urge to suggest that his was vocalising through his rectal passage, and just grunted. SWMBO said "OK, thanks". We left.
Imagine my surprise when I read the old place's review of the Focus, and found that there is no auto on the 1.6, but it's available on the 2.0 - very available in fact.
So out of three showrooms in Oxford, one puts a car on display with broken bits in the boot, another really dislikes talking to customers, and the third knows nothing about his models.
We'll buy a Focus CC I think, but if possible not from the dealer we saw.
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