New Book Van Decision Made

Thanks to all who gave me suggestions on how to shop for the new van. I think I tried just about every hint - and ended up buying locally but feeling as though I got the best price I could negotiate. This is a Town & Country Touring van, 2006 with 31,000 miles. I got a 5.5% interest rate.

This does tie in with a bigger issue book related issue, however. We complain daily (if not hourly) about books not being available when ordered on any of the databases. We hold ourselves and others to a 100% perfection/satisfaction rate or berate their/our professionalism if not characters. But not one of the on-line cars I called about was available - already sold.

Now in the grand scheme of things, I'd think that more people would be upset about a $14,000 car not being available than a $10.00 book. But each dealership just said that the car was sold but lucky me, they had another (totally different brand even) van available that they were sure I'd like if I'd just come in to see it. It didn't matter whether the dealership I called was across the country or in the next city, the story was the same.

If car dealerships can't keep track of the cars/vans on their websites I think maybe we (and customers) should lighten up just a bit on our expectations of perfection of on-line book dealers. We can say something to the customer that we are sorry but this slipped through our standards of perfection! It happens, life's short, move on. Truly, I'm not suggesting we act in a slipshod way but maybe the next time someone is setting the rules at Amazon and Alibris about this perfection thing, we can ask them to consider giving us just a little more slack. I'm pretty sure I won't misplace any $14,000 books - or forget to take it off the internet when I sell it - like all those car dealers did.

I didn't get a new van - even with the government incentives because, well, jeez folks, I just couldn't afford it. I wonder how many people driving old clunkers can afford to trade them in for a brand new car? I turned in the Ford Taurus - less mileage on the new van than on the old Taurus - boy, I'll miss that car (24 mpg, premium sound, multi cd player). But now I can haul books again - looking towards my upcoming retirement. Madlyn