Meet Christine

November 2015 (Part one)

When we got the truck in October we had already picked out the trailer. Larry did quite a bit of research and knew, despite what Giant RV said, that our old 2006 Chevy Silverado 1500 would not do the job. We’d had good luck with our old Chevy so he crunched the numbers and thought a new Silverado 2500 HD would work. Together we drove to the Chevy Dealer in Ventura, CA. The first thing we told them was we just bought a new 5^th wheel and needed something to pull it. We were very clear about the size and weight of the trailer. They agreed that a 2500 should do the job. We looked at a few trucks and decided on one we liked. Now for the fun part: negotiating a price. For Larry it’s a game, a game he’s pretty good at. Me, not so much. They seem to smell fear and they’re always trying to corner me, get me alone.

It took most of the day, with a lot of back and forth but he wore them down and got them to agree to a really great price at really great terms. We were just about to sign the deal when Larry realized we had nothing in writing that guaranteed the truck would actually pull the trailer we had already purchased.

The salesman was sure he’d be able to find a spec sheet and went off in search of one. After quite a long wait he came back with his manager who proceeded to give us his personal guarantee that the truck would pull what we had. He hadn’t asked about our trailer or anything; even I was suspicious of that! Larry asked if they had a brochure we could have. The sales manager assured us we would not need one, that we had his word on it.

Yeah…

No offense to Car salespeople but a piece of paper with the guarantee written on it would have made us feel a lot more comfortable.

I said, “You don’t have brochures? Something with specs listed on it?”

“Here, I’ll show you what we have.” He says.

He took us to an enormous laminated book held together like a giant notebook on a pedestal in the lobby. He flipped through the oversized pages until he found the spec sheet of our model truck. It showed how much weight it would pull, more than the weight of our trailer. I was satisfied.

Larry was not. He wanted to know what the tongue weight or something was. He kept on insisting they provide us with a signed piece of paper guaranteeing the truck would pull our trailer.

I was getting embarrassed at his insistence and a little irritated. It was late and I was tired. I just wanted to take the guys word for it, sign the reams of papers I knew was next and go home with our new truck. Larry wouldn’t budge. He said, “Look if you don’t have anything, then you don’t have anything, but I’m not buying a truck without some kind of guarantee that it will pull the trailer I already bought.”

The salesman, a young guy who had just spent the entire day working on a deal for a vehicle that I’m sure would land him a sizeable commission, could see that commission evaporating before his eyes. He asked if he could talk with the manager privately for a few minutes. They left, we sat there again, joking about how they probably had a camera and were spying on us to watch for our reaction. They came back about 20 minutes later with a sales pamphlet (minus any specs) on the truck. In front of us the sales manager wrote on the pamphlet “I guarantee that this truck will be able to pull a…” he asked what the trailer was and it’s weight and added that to his note. He signed it and handed it to us. I looked at Larry, he looked at me and said, “Works for me!”

We spent a little more time with the finance guy, signed the reams of papers, emptied our stuff out of the old truck and drove home happy in our beautiful new Chevy 2500HD Turbo Silverado. I even liked the smoky blue color!

The truck came with an OnStar trial period so the next day Larry was out setting it up. I went out to see how he was doing. With a big goofy grin he said, “Meet Christine! OnStar wants you to name it so…”

“Of course, Christine.” I laughed.

Anyone unfamiliar with Stephen King’s Christine, I recommend it! So does Larry!

Now to find the right hitch!

That took a bunch more research!

Larry had a lot going on at his job but came home Monday after work and got started.

He worked most of the evening looking up different hitches and weights and everything involved with pulling a trailer that size.

I had kids coming over the next day (I ran a child care out of our home) and was tired. I kissed him goodnight and went to bed around midnight with him still Googeling stuff.

I think it was around 2 in the morning when he came to bed and said, “We bought the wrong truck!”

(to be continued)