All was going well until the CrapNav provided useless instructions on leaving the freeway, as normal MrGrumpy followed the instructions but still managed to end up hearing the annoying "Recalculating" from the CrapNav. "Once more and it will be out the window" thought MrGrumpy. Finally after rejoining the same freeway he was told to leave the CrapNav instructed him to travel another 3 junctions before leaving.. eventually he arrived at the auto dealer.
MrGrumpy parked on the crowded car lot, quite a few cars and trucks, he walked around looking for the 2 Mustangs and the Dodge Ram he has seen on the internet. No sign of the Mustangs, but there was a Black Dodge RAM 1500, priced up at $6999, on the internet it was $4999 so MrGrumpy continued looking but this was the only one.
MrGrumpy confirmed with the sales girl that this was the same vehicle as on the internet (Sale Price) and went to get the keys for the truck. Looking around the truck MrGrumpy was easily able to look underneath, in fact he could have slid from one side to the other without catching he belly on the truck, there was quite a lot of ground clearance.
Popping the Hood on the truck reveled a huge 5.2Ltr V8 Magnum lump, quite clean, no real signs of leaks etc. especially given it had 194,000 miles on the clock.
"Time to fire up the beast" MrGrumpy thought, uhm, slight disappointment, battery was very low, barely enough to rotate more than once. He spotted the concerned look on the sales girls face, she could see the sale evaporating quicker then the 5.2Ltr lump could use gas. MrGrumpy was not going to give up easily, he climbed up into the truck and tried again... A couple of tries later, a bit of gas and it fired up, then died as soon as he let off the pedal. Uhm, sales girls face drops even more... MrGrumpy was not going to give up yet, he fired it up and kept the revs up for a minute or so, then when he let off it started to idle nicely. MrGrumpy suspected the low battery and the fact the air-con was on would not help and decided he had nothing to loose in going for a test drive.
MrGrumpy's expectations were not high, but once running the engine sounded good, a quick check of the electrical functions, seat, windows, mirrors, air-con and heat, were all fine. The low fuel warning light was on, but on this truck that will show it is down to the last 5 gallons (or 50miles) worth.
Off we went, no idea where he was going MrGrumpy guided the huge truck around the streets, the suspension was as to be expected on a lifted truck, more wallow than a hippo bouncing on a pool of jelly. Steering was fair, not exactly direct, it required a bit of tweaking, but again I expect some of that was counteracting the previous turns. The dash had suffered as many Californian cars do, the Sun had cracked the plastic cover, it was in about 3 pieces now and the steering wheel showed it's age with the top surface warn away at 12 o'clock.
MrGrumpy drove for about 10mins and returned to the lot with the truck, no drama, it drove OK really, not quick, not a lot of noise (still had standard muffler, which is about 3ft long and 12" round). MrGrumpy said that the Truck was an option but he was also looking for a Mustang, she went off to find the keys, MrGrumpy had not seen one and when she returned, the Mustang the had was sold yesterday.
So MrGrumpy left the car lot, deciding to look around some more, he has a couple of weeks before finding a car is critical, so time to keep looking (the truck is still an option).
MrGrumpy then headed home, via a coffee shop and wallmart, but after his "issues" with the CrapNav, he decided a quick visit to Fry's Electronics on the way home could be a good idea. MrGrumpy uses his gPhone to lookup the nearest Fry's then taps in the address to the CrapNav, only twice did it try to misdirect him, but he managed to find Fry's, off to choose a new Navigation device...
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