Red Echo

         Well it was Super Bowl Sunday yesterday. Mike and I had no plans to watch the game or go to a Super Bowl party. In fact, Mike had volunteered to make a barbecue run for the emergency room of the hospital where he works during the game so he would not be tempted by any party invitations. The afternoon was chilly and overcast, and as I was doing chores around the house, a remembrance of a past Super Bowl Sunday came to mind.

         In January of 2003, on a day that just happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, Amanda and I went to a Toyota dealership to look at Echoes. Bodie was a sophomore in high school at the time, and it had recently come to our attention that she would be redistricted to the new school for her last two years starting in the fall. If she wanted to stay at her current school, Amanda would have to have her own transportation to and from.  There were very good reasons for Bodie to stay at Collins Hill rather than move to Peachtree Ridge – mostly they involved the advances she had made in the music department and the fear that Amanda would not be as loved or her talents as recognized or as appreciated starting from scratch at a new school. So, what to do for transportation?

         My work hours did not at all coincide with Amanda’s school schedule, and Sarah was off at college, so neither of us would be able to give her a ride. It became apparent that Amanda would have to get her license and drive herself to and from class every day. Not an easy conclusion to come to for a mom who had been very reluctant for either of her children to learn to drive at all and a mom who abhors the whole car-buying scene, and a mom who wondered what we would do without in order to fund an automobile?

         And after much thinking about it, my conclusions were that I would be most comfortable with Amanda driving a new car rather than going through the headache of searching for a used car that was both mind-calmingly dependable and not a rip off; we should get the car soon – in my mind, dealers were probably anxious to get rid of their 2003s in January of 2003; combining a few accounts together, I could actually pay cash for something that was not more than $10K; and a Toyota Echo seemed like our best bet at the time.

         We plotted our course. There were two Toyota dealership locations we were familiar with. We would definitely go to both – we would not be talked into something at the very first place. We wouldn’t. But we didn’t get to the second dealership. Once we arrived at the first one, and a salesman started talking to us, we did not know what he knew; he was not going to let us go without a sale.

         Amanda and I casually checked out the Echoes. I don’t think there was a big selection. The salesman approached and quickly heard what we were looking for. For the next couple of hours, he was doing a hard sell on a red four-door Echo with a spoiler bar. The price was too high. He kept up the gotta talk to my manager routine for a while – coming back each time with a slightly lower offer. I kept saying no. Amanda and I were trying to leave, even though it was so tempting to just buy it and be done with it – why go through all of this at another dealership, and maybe another and another? Jeepers.

         Just as we turned to leave, the salesman pleaded with us to stay, and with a pitch tailor-made for that afternoon, he said that no one else was out buying cars that day – the Super Bowl was on TV – he was not going to have a single sale unless we bought a car! So that’s how I remember when we got Amanda’s Echo – it was a Super Bowl Sunday and the salesman said no one else would be buying a car that day!

         He finally got the car down to the price I had in mind – but – I had to agree to give the dealership the rebate offered on the car. We signed all the papers, and I was wondering how to get it home since we were in my Saturn, and Amanda did not have her license. No problem! That Echo was getting off the lot come hell or high water! The salesman followed me home in the Echo, and a saleswoman followed him so he had a ride back to the dealership and the Super Bowl on a TV there, most likely.

         It wasn’t ‘till we got home that Amanda realized that what was sitting in the driveway was the two-door red 2003 Echo and not the four-door red 2003 Echo that we had been negotiating for. I explained to her that the two-door is the one that was offered for the price I could afford. She was a little ticked about that. I realized I should have had her do all the talking with the salesman and his invisible manager – she would have ended up with the four-door Echo and the rebate and probably even a thousand dollars left over!

         But since it was me doing the talking, Amanda got the two-door Echo, and we both got the feeling of having been ripped off.

      

Amanda and the Echo on way to high school graduation - 2005

   Amanda drove the Echo for thirteen years. It got her through high school, college and her masters. She and the Echo had adventures from Missouri to New England, Buffalo to New Jersey, and Florida to all parts of Georgia. It served her well for many miles and many milestones and with a minimum of complaints. Except, you know, four doors would have been nice.

         Super Bowl Sundays will always be reminding me of the good times Amanda had in her Echo, and the uncomfortable time we had buying it on a chilly overcast day in January of 2003.

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