COVID Car Shopping

The year is 2020. People are obsessed with a documentary about a homosexual zookeeper who uses meth and tigers to seduce straight men, and a deadly virus is sweeping the globe. Governments all around the world have shut down businesses deemed non-essential. Only stores that provide necessities remain open, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, car dealerships… Wait, what? That’s right folks! You can still shop for cars during this worldwide crisis. Of course you should take reasonable precautions to stay safe. More on that later…

You would think the middle of a pandemic is a terrible time to buy a car, but that’s not the case. Your local businesses could really use your patronage right now, and that includes car dealerships. Additionally with the economy in a fiery nose dive, the Fed is creating massive amounts of money and slashing interest rates. All this means there are great deals to be had and financing is cheap.

Of course we still have to be cognizant of the deadly virus going around. A good first step is to do your research online to limit the amount of time you spend in public. Fortunately for me, I knew exactly what car I was looking for. Ever since I reviewed it over three years ago, I’ve wanted the new FIAT 124 Spider. I pulled up the local dealer’s website and filtered for new 124s with a manual transmission. There was only one listed; the rest of the inventory were automatics. I checked other dealers in nearby cities and none of them had a manual 124. How could this be? This is precisely the type of driver focused car where you’d expect more manuals than autos. I called my friend at the dealership to see if the online inventory was accurate. She confirmed there were no other manual 124s lurking about. More were on the way, but their arrival date was very uncertain due to current disruptions in world wide trade. With only one car available with the correct transmission, the decision was made for me.

One way we can help prevent the spread of this virus is by covering our nose and mouth when out in public. Naturally everyone has freaked out, and commercially made masks are unavailable. Fortunately my mother-in-law is crafty, and she sewed a washable facemask for me. It has a bird on it. After donning my mask I was ready to take on the world.

Financing a car isn’t always a good idea, but with interest rates currently below inflation it sounds like a fair deal to me. I made an appointment at a local credit union to setup the financing. I was very impressed with how they were handling the virus issue. The credit union is arranging appointments so that only one customer is in the lobby at any given time. Anyone without an appointment is directed to the drive through. They had hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes readily available. They even wiped down the chair and desk before I sat down. Their level of care made me feel like royalty. I did bring my own pen to sign documents with as I didn’t want to handle anything from the communal pen cup.

After securing the financing, I headed over to the dealership. Having done my research online, I knew exactly what I wanted and what I was willing to pay. This really cut down on the time spent in the dealership. The sales floor was strangely devoid of people, and I’m pretty sure I was their only customer all day. This was all great for me, but I screwed up when requesting a test drive. The salesman had to come along with me, and even with a mask it’s not a good idea to be in a confined space like a car with a stranger right now. I should have asked them to come up with some other way for me to drive the car, but I didn’t. Now, I’m isolating myself for a while to protect my family. If you’re planning on buying a car right now, be a little smarter than I was.

If you want to know more about the 124 Spider and why I chose it, check out my test drive video from three years ago. This was near the beginning of my YouTube adventure, so apologies for the production quality not being as good as my newer stuff. Subscribe for more FIAT 124 content!