So I went and picked up my car from the Germans yesterday.  As you’ll recall, I put a deposit down on the car a month ago, when these Germans decided to sell it a month before they were to actually leave the country.

Yesterday it turned out that they had not fled the country, after-all.  In fact, my new (used) Ford Escort was sitting, parked, outside the garage, all cleaned up and new-looking.  I went inside and said hi to the Germans, who walked right outside with me, took out the title, and signed it.  I asked, “So has this car had any mechanical problems since I last saw it?”  “Nope,” replied the male German, “it’s running fine.”  Which was a little odd since I hadn’t really asked about how it was running.

Anyhow, I handed over a money order for the amount I still owed them (I’d given them a deposit for part of the cost earlier), hopped in, and drove off.  It all went so quickly!

Driving home, I glanced at the odometer.  The “93,000 mile” Escort advertised last month had become a 97,000 Escort, in the space of a month, the Germans having set out, apparently, on an epic journey to discover America as soon as I put down my deposit.

There’s not much to be done.  We’d written up a little contract dealing with what would happen if the car broke, etc..  And I sorta figured they’d put a lot of mileage on it in the last month.  But still, 3,500+ miles?  Plain sleezy.

Further, I swear that this car had keyless entry on the drivers side when I looked at it (as is common for the model).  It now doesn’t—having instead a suspiciouly loose drivers side interior panel near where one would remove a keyless entry module.  But maybe I’m misremembering this?  I wasn’t exactly obsessing on the keyless entry thing when I test drove the car months ago. 

There’s not much to be done about all this.  The Germans leave the country in a few days, and I’m basically still happy enough with the car, with its snappy engine, ample headroom, and brutally effective air conditioning and sound system.  It should last a couple of years, at least.  (The Escort win praise from Consumer Reports for its reliability, and this history of the Escort praises the ‘97 as the model’s best year.)

And, ok, one other thing:  I used my ‘97 Escort to buzz down to the bookbindery to pick up my latest rebound stuff.  I wasn’t exactly ecstatic with the results this time ’round, so the guy there suddenly tells me that he’ll redo ‘em but doesn’t want rebind any more stuff for me.  I hadn’t even *asked* him to redo anything.  But well then, ok.

Sheesh.

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