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Sometimes
one car isn't enough: The
husband needs it for driving to his work,
the wife needs it for going to the groceries or to Aerobics, for picking up the
kids and for shopping, and the hairdresser and, and, and...You see, a car
before all is important for the wife.
When we moved from Munich, Germany here to Greenville, SC in Nov.
1996, we had the same problem. Dieter,
my husband, had already bought areal
American car (for himself of course), a
black Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz; a 1985
model, very big (in my eyes) , very comfortable, very slow. And I had to drive a
rental car, a Dodge Intrepid, a modern
car. But I was not satisfied with this arrangement, I was dreaming of my own
car.
And so we used to drive around in the
Greenville area on the weekends, looking for the right car for me. Once - It
was Saturday, we passed the yard of an
autodealer near Easley. And there it
was: a white Pontiac Grand Prix with a
blue vinyl roof, obviously an early 80s
model. It seemed to be in a good condition. Dieter was all expert: he opened
the hood, looked at the engine, and
stated: "that's okay". He sat down in the
car, judged upholstery, stated again:
"that's okay". He checked the instru20 SMOKESIGNALSFEBRUARY1999
ments and was repeatedly satisfied with
what he saw. Then there was a last but
decisive test. We drove the car - and
after some checks like braking and accelerating it was settled; this would be
our new car. And so we told Jason, the
car dealer. We settled on that we would
pick up the car the next Monday, after
he would still have repaired some minor
things.
Happily we left the lot, not knowing,
that our deal was not over yet.
The next day was a Sunday morning.
The weather was nice as it is usually
here in Greenville area, and we decided
to drive around again in the region. As
(Continuedon nextpage..,)
we passed some car dealer's lot, Dieter
suddenly shouted: "Look at that car!
That would be my absolute dream car." 1
looked at it and saw a gold Pontiac
Grand Prix, model 1970, streamlined. It
didn't seem extraordinary to me, but I
knew Dieter and his passion for old
cars. So 1told him to return to the car
yard and to have a doser look at the
golden car. And so
he did. He made a
U-turn and drove
back to the lot
which was surrounded by a
fence. But there
was also a door in
the fence, and this
door was half open.
We entered courageously and Dieter
took a doser look
at the car of his
dreams. He was
really excited
about what he saw
- even if the car
looked old and
shabby to me, because it needed a
new paint job.
Suddenly a man,
dressed with a
green shirt and
neat white trou-
sers, stepped out of the
office. I started talking to
him: "Hello, how are you
doing? We are interested
in this Pontiac Grand Prix.
Can you help and tell us
about the car?" The man
smiled friendly and answered: "Perhaps a little
bit". That was the only
thing I understood, and
then 1was completely lost
with my English (which
wasn't too good at that
time). Dieter and this unknown man talked shop
for over an hour. With the
results, that Dieter examined the car again - this
time very carefully, inside
and out. My husband was
very pleased about this
nearly 30-year-old car
with its powerful engine.
(It had 350 horsepower,
enough to pass every
Mercedes or Porsche over
in Germany - and here in
the USA).
After this last examination Dieter had decided to
buy this car at all costs:
"Do you know where the
owner of that car is, so
that 1can talk to him?" Dieter asked the
foreign man shyly, with whom he had
been talking already such a long time
and who seemed to be as enthusiastic
about cars as Dieter. "He is standing in
front of you", the man answered smiling.
And it turned out, that it was Ronald, the
car dealer and owner of the lot - and of
course of the Pontiac GP - himself.
He made a very reasonable price for
the car, but mentioned too, that it was
Sunday and therefore he didn't work
right now. So we had to come again to
buy the car. And he mentioned too, that
he already had some other dients who
were interested in the Pontiac. But you
know that about dever car dealers: they
always do have some other dients who
are interested in the same car as you and so we didn't take this remark too
seriously. Or, of course, Dieter did not.
He told Ronald: "I will come tomorrow
after my office hours to pick up the car!"
So the matter was decided. Instead of
buying the other car he would buy this
golden dream.
But I couldn't get it out of my mind
that Ronald had mentioned these other
dients. So 1urged Dieter not to wait
until the next evening, but to be prepared already for the next morning.
Early the next morning we drove to
Ronald's. Again Dieter checked the car
even though it was not necessary because he had already decided to buy the
Pontiac-Oldtimer: "This car or no car!"
So we went slowly and relaxed to
Ronald's office. Finally there was the
moment of signing the contract. Suddenly the door flinged open, strange
people entered the room. Ronald stood
up behind his desk and talked with
them, "but this car is already sold" It
turned out, that these were in fact the
people which were also interested in
buying the Pontiac. But we had been
faster. And this is the end of the story:
Dieter got his fast golden dreamcar and I? I'm now driving the old, big, comfortable and -of course- slow Cadillac.
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