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I’ve never before had such a good salesman as the gentleman who sold me my Subaru (a real gentleman’s gentleman, too). I had a 1994 Corolla that I loved and I had always intended to drive it to over 200,000 miles. One day, back in 2004, when I had just over 100,000 miles on it and while waiting for my daughter’s referral, the dog and I were driving around town with an end destination of the park. I glanced in the rear view mirror and the dog filled it. I had the realization that I could not put my daughter in a car seat and my 60 pound dog both in the back seat of my Corolla and thus my search for the best car for my new life proceeded. I drove some station wagons and some minivans (a note about differences between the two, you may want to think about what it will be like putting your child into his or her car seat in the minivan versus in the station wagon in the rain — in the minivan you could both be inside … this did not occur to me until the first time it was pouring out and I was trying to strap my recalcitrant and strong-willed daughter into her car seat). I actually like the way the Volkswagen wagon drove, better, but much preferred the sales staff at the Subaru dealer (and the Subaru was getting much better marks in customer satisfaction that year than the Volkswagen was). So, I went ahead and bought it.

A couple of weeks after coming home with it, I called up my salesman and said I’d decided to buy the grate to put between the hatch and the back seat — I had visions of stopping short and the English Setter landing in Noelle’s lap after flying out of the hatch area and over the back of the seat. He said no problem. He would place the order and give me a call when it was available. A bit later in the month he called to say it was in and asked when I could come in. Well, I’m a working mom, so I said some evening. He told me which night he’d work late and told me to come on in. Well, it didn’t occur to me until I came in and wrote a personal check to him that I realized that the parts department is closed in the evening. My salesman had purchased the grate on his tab for me, so I could come in at a time convenient to me.

It’s over 2 years later and between the soda/juice/snacks/diaper bag, dog, and 2 carseats & 2 kids, the station wagon is full to the brim most of the time. I brought it in to the dealer to have the oil and fluids changed. As usual, my salesman came over to the repair waiting area to shake my hand and say hello to me. He also offered me his car, if I had errands to run while I waited.

It could convince a girl that her next car should also be a Subaru.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 10:27 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.