The New Car
With my commute more than doubled, Darwin and I decided it was time to replace my car. The Escape is a nice car, and I like it. It's the perfect size, gets decent mileage, and is comfortable to drive. But "decent' mileage isn't good enough for a commute this long.
An electric car would have been ideal, but they're currently out of our price range, and the infrastructure for recharging up where I work is sketchy at best. A hybrid was the best choice.
Of course, this meant we were car shopping during the worst new car shortage in history, and at a time when EVERYONE wants a hybrid because gas prices have gone so high. (Side note: it continually amazes me that a drop in gas prices always leads to an increase in sales of full size trucks and SUVs. Do people really think that the low prices will last forever? Enjoy that $200 tank of gas!)
Really, I still wanted an Escape, and we learned there's a hybrid version. I contacted a number of Ford dealerships in the area and got the same answer: nothing in stock, but I could get put on the waiting list for the 2023 model, and might get one in January or February. Yeesh.
Then I got hold of one dealer who said that just an hour ago, he'd gotten an email from a woman who had ordered a 2022 Escape Titanium hybrid (the exact model I wanted) in January and now in July, she had gotten tired of waiting for it. Was I interested?
Yes. Yes, I was.
We didn't mess around. Darwin and I rushed down to the dealership and put down a deposit that same day. (Another side note: the dealership had NO cars on the lot. Zero. Nada. Zilch.) The dealer said the car would likely arrive in mid-August. Then it was late August. Then it was early September. Then it was, "The car is on a train and heading our way." Then it was, "The car is at a dealer one town over, and we're trying to get it here."
At last I got the call: the Escape has landed.
We got insanely lucky. If I hadn't called the dealer just when I had, someone else would have. A few minutes probably made the difference!
Darwin and I drove my nice little Escape to the dealer for the last time and I said good-bye. We found the new hybrid waiting for us.
The written description we had called it "metallic blue," so I thought it would be similar to my old Escape's bright blue. But, no. The new car is a kind of blue-black. In some lights, it takes on a green hue. I liked it.
We took the car for a test drive. Many upgrades to the onboard gadgetry. Good handling. SUN ROOF!
Darwin said he didn't like the old Escape because you could feel it shift gears. Darwin already has a hybrid, you see, and hybrids don't shift the same way as gas-only engines. You can't feel it. I thought my old Escape's shifting was perfectly smooth, but Darwin was used to no shift at all, and it's why he almost never drove the Escape. The new Escape also has seamless shifting, so Darwin is happy.
We returned to the dealership and said we wanted the car. Many signatures later, we had the keys. Or key fobs, anyway.
We took the long way home, stopped for supper at a restaurant, and drove a little more. I like this car very much, and I'm sure I'll like the gas savings even more!
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An electric car would have been ideal, but they're currently out of our price range, and the infrastructure for recharging up where I work is sketchy at best. A hybrid was the best choice.
Of course, this meant we were car shopping during the worst new car shortage in history, and at a time when EVERYONE wants a hybrid because gas prices have gone so high. (Side note: it continually amazes me that a drop in gas prices always leads to an increase in sales of full size trucks and SUVs. Do people really think that the low prices will last forever? Enjoy that $200 tank of gas!)
Really, I still wanted an Escape, and we learned there's a hybrid version. I contacted a number of Ford dealerships in the area and got the same answer: nothing in stock, but I could get put on the waiting list for the 2023 model, and might get one in January or February. Yeesh.
Then I got hold of one dealer who said that just an hour ago, he'd gotten an email from a woman who had ordered a 2022 Escape Titanium hybrid (the exact model I wanted) in January and now in July, she had gotten tired of waiting for it. Was I interested?
Yes. Yes, I was.
We didn't mess around. Darwin and I rushed down to the dealership and put down a deposit that same day. (Another side note: the dealership had NO cars on the lot. Zero. Nada. Zilch.) The dealer said the car would likely arrive in mid-August. Then it was late August. Then it was early September. Then it was, "The car is on a train and heading our way." Then it was, "The car is at a dealer one town over, and we're trying to get it here."
At last I got the call: the Escape has landed.
We got insanely lucky. If I hadn't called the dealer just when I had, someone else would have. A few minutes probably made the difference!
Darwin and I drove my nice little Escape to the dealer for the last time and I said good-bye. We found the new hybrid waiting for us.
The written description we had called it "metallic blue," so I thought it would be similar to my old Escape's bright blue. But, no. The new car is a kind of blue-black. In some lights, it takes on a green hue. I liked it.
We took the car for a test drive. Many upgrades to the onboard gadgetry. Good handling. SUN ROOF!
Darwin said he didn't like the old Escape because you could feel it shift gears. Darwin already has a hybrid, you see, and hybrids don't shift the same way as gas-only engines. You can't feel it. I thought my old Escape's shifting was perfectly smooth, but Darwin was used to no shift at all, and it's why he almost never drove the Escape. The new Escape also has seamless shifting, so Darwin is happy.
We returned to the dealership and said we wanted the car. Many signatures later, we had the keys. Or key fobs, anyway.
We took the long way home, stopped for supper at a restaurant, and drove a little more. I like this car very much, and I'm sure I'll like the gas savings even more!
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