Survived another Christmas.

Hope everyone had a good time. Weather was actually perfect for traveling during holiday. Not much for a white Christmas anyway. About a week before heading up to northwest Indiana, I heard an intermittent grind sound somewhere toward front of truck. Figured it was either a wheel bearing or the four wheel drive actuator. It was only once in a while. Out of caution, I reserved a rental car for going up north. On my way to pick up the rental, the noise comes in fairly steady, but still not loud. I get rental and go up north. Upon getting back from trip, noise is steady now. I limp it back home. Now, this is my primary vehicle. The corvette is my backup which works in mild weather, not winter. I am going to fix the bearing or actuator, but, I decided to get another toy/back up vehicle. I researched and narrowed it down to two vehicles. A 2006 mustang GT with 49000 miles on the clock, or a 2013 v6 mustang with about 68000 miles. Newer mustang is loaded. Both have the leather interior. I love the 2006 retro look and wanted one when they came out, but didn't want for my primary vehicle. I did try and do the adultish thing, and buy the newer one, as it gets slightly better mileage and would retain value longer.
So, my day at the dealer. I head out check book in pocket ready to basically make sure it fit and drove to my satisfaction. I get there and tell salesperson exactly what car I want. He goes to retrieve it. Now, it's used and at the dodge dealer part of dealership, so, I go oogle the new Challengers. They are NICE, to say the least. After half an hour, another sales critter asks where my guy went. I told him he was suppose to be getting a car for me. He calls my sales guy. Fifteen minutes later, he arrives in a different car. There is a problem. The guy who cleaned and prepped the car doesn't know where he put the keys. They are still looking for them. We go look at car. It is extremely clean and sweet. Still can't get in. I am getting ready to leave and go to other dealer to look at other mustang. Sales manager says to stick around, it shouldn't be long, they got hold of the last guy who had keys. So, me and my sales critter kill some time. I take out a brand new Challenger. They are freaking roomy and awesome. This thing had every gadget you could imagine. Never drove a vehicle with heated steering wheel before. Had a power sunroof, leather interior. It was extremely hard not to drive it home. We get back, still no keys. At this point, I tell the sales guy I am going to see other car at dealer down the road. I tell him call if they ever find the keys. Still don't understand why they didn't just cut a new key using the VIN. They have a ford dealer in their complex.

On to next dealer. I drive in and parking lot is like most dealerships, hard to find customer parking. I accidentally drive down the row of used cars and find the mustang I wanted. It is mint. It is gorgeous. Being older, it doesn't have the Bluetooth and fancy accessories, but I will simply add an aftermarket touchscreen radio as I did in the truck. No problem. The only flaw on the car was the cheap home done window tint job. That will hopefully be remedied tomorrow. Buddy at work told me where to go for a good job. I will have them strip it and see if it needs tint. If it does, I am not going with the dark tint. Anyhow, sales team was great at this one, and they actually had keys to the cars. I took it out for a long drive. It is awesome. 4.6liter v8 has a good amount of power for a car that size. Went back and did the paper work. Had a sales guy follow me back home driving my new car as I had the Vette to get back home as well. Didn't expect it to be an all day affair. No sooner do I get in the kitchen, the phone rings. Sales manager from first place. Sir, we still don't have the keys, but if we don't have them Monday morning, we will cut a new key if you are still interested... No, that won't be necessary, I bought the other car I told you about that was at the dealer down the road.
I can't believe a dealer of that size is that incompetent. You can't tell me it would have cost the dealer much of anything to cut a new key, since one of their dealerships is a ford dealer. But, it all worked out. I actually bought the body style I like best out of the new mustangs. Spent all day driving all over burning gas and having fun. Did hit a gun show while I was out. Here are some pictures of my new toy.

Couldn't get over the low mileage. Car history verified no rollback. The car is extra clean. I feel bad that it will have to live outside this winter until garage is up. It has to be a garaged toy to have that kind of mileage. It is so immaculate.

Hope to get the tint removed tomorrow, if they have an opening. I plan on being at their door when they open. Nothing else I can get it scheduled.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I enjoyed seeing family, but missed seeing Mark and his family while up there. The timing lined up where the gun stores we usually hit were closed because of Sunday. Still a good time. Hopefully line up with everyone when I go up in the summer for the grandsons birthday. Take the Mustang up on that trip. see how she does on the highway. Should have the new radio with the navigation in it by then. Still have this coming week off, so hopefully I will get the truck back roadworthy again. I also bought gutter guards and will try and get some of them in during the milder weather.