…for she is a goddess. From today she will be known as Dr. O’C, Goddess of Driving the Hard Bargain. Our Lady of the Haggle.

She’s a woman of many gifts, and in celebration of The Gratitude Project (thanks, Suzer), I thought I would spend today’s post singing the praises of my better half. In particular, her skills as a ruthless negotiator.

I wrote a while back about Dr. O’C’s bargaining skills, getting us a deal on a snazzy digital SLR. But she was not satisfied with small potatoes and when we started car shopping a couple of weeks ago had a chance to shine again.

Neither I nor Dr. O’C have ever had a new car. Dr. O’C had never had a car at all until we moved to Britain and she bought a 600 pound piece of shit Vauxhall (Opel, Holden). I’ve had a series of ridiculously cheap or hand-me-down cars since I was about 17. I typically drive them until they die and then frantically search for a new crap wagon to get me from place to place. As an example. I bought a urine yellow Datsun 210 for $300 while living in Seattle. I drove it for a year or so before the engine failed catastrophically down near my studio in Pioneer Square. I knew that it would cost me more to get rid of it than I had paid for the bloody car, so a friend and I pushed it into a towaway zone and moved on.

I’ve just never cared that much about cars, have treated them pretty much as a necessary evil. But, once Dr. O’C got knocked up, my paternal instincts kicked in and I realized that driving around in potentially dangerous cars was not really what a good father allowed his family to do. We picked up a dreadfully safe, sane and sensible used Toyota Corolla and drove that for the remainder of our time in the UK.

Since we arrived in Oz, we’ve been driving Arizaphale’s parents car – a wonderfully serviceable decade old Mazda and one that we’ve used gratefully. But with their imminent arrival in Oz for the summer, we had to act. Our intent was to buy a five year old Toyota Corolla, basically the same car we had in Britain. As we started to look around however, we realized that used cars Down Under are not cheap. The kind of thing we were looking for retails around $19,000. An equivalent car, brand new, costs about $24,000. (Note: The Australian dollar is worth about 65 U.S. cents or 3 British pence).

So we decided to take the jump and become new car owners for the first time ever. We picked out a lovey Mazda 3 hatchback in a rich “Stormy Blue” and then prepared to be reamed. That’s where Dr. O’C stepped up.

Watching Dr. O’C at work with the car dealers was an elegant lesson in the art of the haggle. She played them like fiddles. She worked with two local Mazda dealers, forcing them to outbid each other for our custom. We went from an ex demo to a brand new car. She whittled away at the price, built up extras, haggling all the way like a Moroccan rug merchant. Ultimately she got them down to about 75% of the sticker price with loads of extras thrown in – tinted windows, floor mats and, my favorite, an iPod adaptor.

We pick the new car up on Thursday and for the first time, I’m really excited about driving. I can’t wait until it comes time to buy a house.

Need a negotiator? The Goddess is now available as a haggler for hire. If you live in a place she would like to visit, pay her air fare (business class or better, of course) and room and board, she’ll come and sort out your big purchase.

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I couldn’t decide which of these goddess related tracks was most appropriate for today’s posts. I’m throwing caution to the wind and posting both. They kind of complement each other. Get music from both Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! and Mercury Rev from eMusic.

 
icon for podpress  Mercury Rev - "Goddess On A Hiway" [1:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
icon for podpress  Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - "Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away" [3:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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