Way Outback

My mom’s car was on its last leg and of course my dad, who passed away recently, always did all of the car shopping. She consistently reminded me of this when literally every time I talked to her about what car she was interested in or what features she wanted she would always say, “I’ve never had to do this before and I don’t want to do this now.” Like there was some other option with her living in Michigan and me living in Nebraska, a meager 12 hour drive. Venturing into a car dealership by herself was the equivalent of most people’s view of getting a root canal. Many nights proceeding the day where she was to go out and test drive a few cars she would tell to me how she woke up in the middle of the night and could not go back to sleep because she was too consumed with thinking about buying a car. Thank God for friends. One of my Dad’s best friends volunteered to be her first mate on the test driving whirlwind. Those two covered more dealerships in two nights than I will ever visit in my life. They narrowed it down between the Subaru Outback and the Nissan Rogue. But after listening to my Mom analyze and overanalyze the pros and cons of each car I already knew she was sold on the Outback. She requested that I go and test drive each of these vehicles so she could have my opinion on which one I liked.

After calling around to a couple dealers within driving distance of my house I found that the only dealer who even had an Outback on their lot was a good 40 minute drive away. As a side note the Company I work for gets a supplier discount for employees from certain car companies. In anticipation of my arrival I filled out all the forms online so I could be equipped with my piece of paper that verified that I did indeed qualify for the discounted price. I arrived at the dealership in the early afternoon and was greeted by a nice young salesman who sat me down and grilled me about exactly what I was looking for in a car. He had me fill out cards to check what I couldn’t live without the whole rigmarole. All I wanted was to test drive this thing and get my discounted supplier price quote so my Mom could have a baseline for negotiating! Before I know it a ½ hour had passed me by and I felt like this guy could have told me how many cavities I had based on his intense line of questioning. Finally the guy gets keys to the Outback on the lot and we make our way to what I thought would be the test drive. But oh no, it was not. It was the “let me walk you around this entire car multiple times so I can show you EVERY feature this car has to offer. He went as far as to educate about all of the engine cap colors and what each of color code meant. The whole time I was trying to play the part that I was really interested in this car so I didn’t want to come across rushed and rude. After another ½ hour the salesman announced we were ready to start the test drive.

I breathed a sigh of relief and started to make my way around to the driver’s side door. The salesman stopped me and said he likes to do his test drives a little differently and asked if I would first ride so he could show me some of the features of the car. I agreed and hopped into the passenger seat. He drove around the lot and showed me a nice parking brake feature and a roll back prevention feature. No sooner had we exited the lot to make our way to the main road did I realize that salesman was hopping the curve and driving into a grassy field that bordered the dealership’s lot. I gave him a look like, “what the fuck dude?” and grabbed a hold of the door to brace myself. He laughed my reaction off and said he started to do this during test drives so everyone could see how the car’s all wheel drive really performed. So there we went bouncing around this unkempt field. Salesman then proclaimed he wanted to show me how this car’s tires so rarely spin. He inched up a hill on the right side of the field and practically came to a stop. Now mind you this is a narrow hill. There was not much on either side of us so again I was in the full brace position gripping my door. Through gritted teeth I tensely agreed with him how impressive it was that the tires did not spin all the while questioning what was really happening here. We careen down the other side of the hill and instead of exiting the field, Salesman decided to drive up the side of an embankment that went around the perimeter of the field. We were now driving parallel to the hill to where you feel the car was going to roll side over side down the hill. I started to get out my very high pitch nervous voice and was sitting more up in my seat bracing one hand on my door and the other hand on the console. The communication between Salesman and I went something like this.

Me shouting (not sure why I am shouting, just felt it needed to be louder since I was in a panic): Oohhhhhhh!! I don’t feel very comfortable with this.

Salesman (shouting back as to match my intensity): Don’t worry! No one feels comfortable with this part of the test drive. I just want to demonstrate that this car will not roll even when parallel with the ground on a steep incline.

Me (with a sound of desperation): I believe you!! (Ironically with no trust in my voice.) Now can we drive down???

Salesman turned the wheel slightly to the left and we again careened down the side of the hill and proceeded to drive towards a huge hole. Salesman informed me in the same loud voice that he was now going demonstrate how the car reacted when it only had three wheels on the ground at once. I screamed.. OH SHIT!! but to my surprise when we passed over this hole I felt not one ripple of a bump. I looked over at Salesman in shock and said, “Wow! I felt nothing at all!” He looked pretty pleased with himself and kept on pointing out all the features of this fabulous car as he jumped the curb again and pulled out onto a paved road.

We chit chatted for awhile as Salesman drove on, and on, and on until I questioned just where we were going. He assured me not to worry that he wasn’t taking me out into the country to kidnap me but we were headed to a gravel road so he could try to simulate how the car handled on snow and ice. Mind you it hadn’t crossed my mind that he was taking me somewhere to kidnap me although we had been driving for about 20 minutes and since he brought it up my mind began to wonder. During this 20 minute trip I found out that this kid was only 21 years old and had come into work drunk. I think he was trying to sound cool, but that just made me a little wearier that we were driving a brand new vehicle through open fields and now were destined to a gravel road.

When we arrived at the gravel road Salesman immediately floored it. I shrieked. He slammed on the brakes and said this time he wanted me to notice how the tires did not spin, even on gravel. He went on to tell me the all wheel drive would make it feel like we were driving on a paved road. Before I had time to comment we were off, pedal to the metal. Even though I was horror struck and in fear of my safety I have to admit I was pretty impressed that this car had virtually no skid. Just as I was about to tell Salesman that I was impressed with the car’s ability he started to quickly steer the car from side to side across the gravel road. I again shouted out, HOLY SHIT! and reestablished my grip on my door and the console in an effort to brace myself for our impending trip into the ditch. But again, I was taken aback that the car was not slipping at all. It was still behaving like we were on a paved road despite the sounds of little pebbles hitting the under carriage of the car and the fact that we were darting from one side of the road to the other in a very rapid pattern.

We made it to the end of the road alive and Salesman made a U-turn. He told me it was my time to drive. We ran around the car and got in our new respective seats. While I was buckling up Salesman told me that he knew I would probably not be comfortable but he would really like me to floor it down this gravel road so I could see for myself that he was not a professionally trained driver and the car did not behave so well just for him. I didn’t want to crush the poor kid but the thought of him being a professional driver never crossed my mind. Instead of telling him this I brushed off the comment and figured what the hell as I pressed my foot to the floor. I should mention that while we were trading seats two runners came off of a trail and were now making their way down our gravel road. When I floored the car these guys turned around with a horrified look in their eye. I decided not to give it two thoughts as I whizzed passed them leaving them in a cloud of dust. In retrospect I feel pretty bad about that, just wanted to say that. No sooner than I was mentally patting myself on the back for driving at an elevated speed on gravel did Salesman tell me to steer the car back and forth across the road like he did so I could feel for myself that the car how great this car handled. I complied since at this point I figured I was all in. Of course just as I expected at this point the car behaved like a dream. I was really getting ready to buy this car for myself I was so impressed.

I pulled out onto a main road and then onto the highway. We made our way back to the dealer where I anticipated the pressure sale of, “What would it take for you to buy this car today line.” Instead when I turned onto the street the dealer was located on Salesman asked if I would like to drive the car through the field. I of course jumped at the chance. How often do you get to drive a brand new car that isn’t yours through a muddy field? Before I knew it I was flooring it up hills, driving over the huge hole that apparently left me with only three tires on the ground, and making sharp turns. I can only imagine the manager looking at the window wondering just what in the heck we were doing on this extended test drive. But on the flip side it was a great sales technique to let a test driver barrel through an open field to really display what the car can do.

I got out of there with quoted prices in hand with relatively small sales pitch. It did help however that my husband called pretty ticked off that I was still at the car dealership two hours later and I wasn’t even interested in buying a car! I can’t blame him though; I only went there for a quick test drive and to get my discounted price quote. Next thing you know I was tearing through a field and opening her up on a gravel road. After the whole ordeal I am very, very impressed with the Subaru Outback and if I were actually in the market for a car I might strongly consider buying one. As a sidenote, my Mom successfully negotiated her way lower than the set discounted price I was quoted and is now the proud owner of her very own Outback. Way to go Mom!