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debsI am in the process of buying a new car. Big Red, whom I've had since 2000, is now 13 years old and would require at least $2,000 worth of work to keep from killing me in a fiery ball of death, so I figured that I have about 15 grand in savings, I should probably buy a car. We looked at used cars, but the ones we were inclined towards were about $11,000 and really, if I'm going to be spending that kind of money I might as well get a new car.
We've had our Ford Focus now for about seven years, and it's been a really good little car. At first I was extremely excited about the 2009 Focus sedans. I wanted to get it in black with black upholstery. Yum.
So they brought one in for us and we went down to test drive. I kind of fell in love with the outside of it. It's a very sleek little car. And then. Then I got inside.
No, really. What the shit is that.
I'm talking about the speedometer dials. Let me zoom in closer, because I don't think you can properly appreciate their extreme fugliness from that photo. Mind you, the photo you are about to see is a crappy scan from the preview literature, which makes it look like the back of the dials are black-ish. They're not. They're bright white. What the shit.
Here are my problems with these dials:
A). Seriously? The white? In an all-black car, they're fucking distracting. Larry (I'll get to him in a minute) was trying to justify them by saying "oh, they're to help keep you awake when you're night driving (and never mind that the numbers and hatch marks turn blue at night thereby rendering the white unnoticeable)", and "oh they're the European design."
Ok across-the-pond flisties: Do your cars have gigantic white dials on them? Or do they look more like this (the dial dash on our current Focus):
Just clarifying.
B). The font. Oh my god, the font. The first thing it makes me think of is some 24 year old wealthy white guy in baggy pants with a white baseball cap with the bill turned to the side, blasting his sucky rap metal while talking on his cell phone and using words like "playa" seriously. That font is everything I hate about the male gender. Hence, douchey. :(
C). That dial to the lefT? COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY IN AN AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION VEHICLE. So why is it there? It's THERE so that the young men who buy the car can PRETEND they're COOL enough to be driving a MANUAL TRANSMISSION. Either that, or the design department was just LAZY and couldn't be ARSED to create two separate dashboards. In either case, it is UNACCEPTABLY DOUCHEY.
Basically, they are marketing this car to young, male poseurs, but when I politely expressed my concerns/problems with the dials, Larry the sales guy wouldn't validate my opinion, stating that I was wrong, that these are much better, and that he personally likes them a lot. Well, yeah. That's because you're a GUY and kind of a DICK. He basically dismissed me because I'm female. *sigh* It's been a very frustrating experience.
My father is pretty much set on this car, and we've made the agreement that I will pay him $10,000 (which is still more than I would pay for those damned dials) and he will pick up the rest. I won't go into why my folks are even involved in this decision making process, because it's a really long story involving work, home, the dog, etc. I can justify spending $16,000 on a car that makes me angry every time I get inside. It's such a beautiful package, WHY DID THEY HAVE TO COCK IT UP SO HORRIBLY!?! I will never understand what went through the mind of that industrial designer. I would love to smack them
I'm not entirely satisfied, but I'm also trying to devise a way to create my own "face-plate" to cover that atrocious dash. Ok, I'm done talking about this now.
In somewhat related news, my folks and I went to KMart after dinner tonight to buy a bike for the Vina Moses giving tree. A nice young man helped us pick out a bike and told us to take it to Customer Service because we might be able to get a discount because it was going to charity. so we take the bike up to customer service, where the woman behind the desk pointedly ignores us until we say "excuse me," and explain what the young man had told us.
"Nu-uh, can't give no discounts," she says gruffly before turning back to whatever she was doing.
Now, there are ways to talk to customers. That is not one of them. She said it in a way that implied that we were horrible people even for asking. So I complained about her loudly on our way out of the store. Ma'am, I worked in customer service for nearly two years, you can say those kinds of things without being a complete bitch. I understand your job sucks, but that's not my fault. Calm the fuck down.
People are disappointing me in a big way this week. So, for some happy time, listen to my new favorite song, Conor Oberst's "NYC --- Gone, Gone". Dance around, it'll make you feel better.
We've had our Ford Focus now for about seven years, and it's been a really good little car. At first I was extremely excited about the 2009 Focus sedans. I wanted to get it in black with black upholstery. Yum.
So they brought one in for us and we went down to test drive. I kind of fell in love with the outside of it. It's a very sleek little car. And then. Then I got inside.
No, really. What the shit is that.
I'm talking about the speedometer dials. Let me zoom in closer, because I don't think you can properly appreciate their extreme fugliness from that photo. Mind you, the photo you are about to see is a crappy scan from the preview literature, which makes it look like the back of the dials are black-ish. They're not. They're bright white. What the shit.
Here are my problems with these dials:
A). Seriously? The white? In an all-black car, they're fucking distracting. Larry (I'll get to him in a minute) was trying to justify them by saying "oh, they're to help keep you awake when you're night driving (and never mind that the numbers and hatch marks turn blue at night thereby rendering the white unnoticeable)", and "oh they're the European design."
Ok across-the-pond flisties: Do your cars have gigantic white dials on them? Or do they look more like this (the dial dash on our current Focus):
Just clarifying.
B). The font. Oh my god, the font. The first thing it makes me think of is some 24 year old wealthy white guy in baggy pants with a white baseball cap with the bill turned to the side, blasting his sucky rap metal while talking on his cell phone and using words like "playa" seriously. That font is everything I hate about the male gender. Hence, douchey. :(
C). That dial to the lefT? COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY IN AN AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION VEHICLE. So why is it there? It's THERE so that the young men who buy the car can PRETEND they're COOL enough to be driving a MANUAL TRANSMISSION. Either that, or the design department was just LAZY and couldn't be ARSED to create two separate dashboards. In either case, it is UNACCEPTABLY DOUCHEY.
Basically, they are marketing this car to young, male poseurs, but when I politely expressed my concerns/problems with the dials, Larry the sales guy wouldn't validate my opinion, stating that I was wrong, that these are much better, and that he personally likes them a lot. Well, yeah. That's because you're a GUY and kind of a DICK. He basically dismissed me because I'm female. *sigh* It's been a very frustrating experience.
My father is pretty much set on this car, and we've made the agreement that I will pay him $10,000 (which is still more than I would pay for those damned dials) and he will pick up the rest. I won't go into why my folks are even involved in this decision making process, because it's a really long story involving work, home, the dog, etc. I can justify spending $16,000 on a car that makes me angry every time I get inside. It's such a beautiful package, WHY DID THEY HAVE TO COCK IT UP SO HORRIBLY!?! I will never understand what went through the mind of that industrial designer. I would love to smack them
I'm not entirely satisfied, but I'm also trying to devise a way to create my own "face-plate" to cover that atrocious dash. Ok, I'm done talking about this now.
In somewhat related news, my folks and I went to KMart after dinner tonight to buy a bike for the Vina Moses giving tree. A nice young man helped us pick out a bike and told us to take it to Customer Service because we might be able to get a discount because it was going to charity. so we take the bike up to customer service, where the woman behind the desk pointedly ignores us until we say "excuse me," and explain what the young man had told us.
"Nu-uh, can't give no discounts," she says gruffly before turning back to whatever she was doing.
Now, there are ways to talk to customers. That is not one of them. She said it in a way that implied that we were horrible people even for asking. So I complained about her loudly on our way out of the store. Ma'am, I worked in customer service for nearly two years, you can say those kinds of things without being a complete bitch. I understand your job sucks, but that's not my fault. Calm the fuck down.
People are disappointing me in a big way this week. So, for some happy time, listen to my new favorite song, Conor Oberst's "NYC --- Gone, Gone". Dance around, it'll make you feel better.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-12 01:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-12 02:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-12 05:17 pm (UTC)