So yeah, as the last post kinda enunciated, I spent a good six to seven hours at the car dealership, which was why the rant didn't materialize, because after Java I was completely spent. Either way, since I'm not quite so dead, here's the story:

As one might be aware, ever since the van's engine was pronounced doomed, I knew that I'd be needing to buy a car. My mother and I had gone looking, as well as David, and my specs are damned annoying, especially since my top priority was ABS, followed by air bags, since as a 1989 vehicle, the Van didn't possess either of these.

So, after some Toyota and Honda searching of used cars, we'd come to the realization that. Rav4's are costly, the Matrix doesn't come ABS standard and finding a used ABS'd one at a price that wasn't mortifying hadn't happened. Then there's the CRV, the paragon of antithetical existence. Because you see, Honda, in their infinate wisdom, has 2 variants on the CRV, the LX and the EX (the luxury). The differences being, the EX has a 6 disc CD changer, rather than the LX's 1, Alloy Wheels, Tinted Windows, a sunroom, and ABS. The cost for these 5 trinkets is approximately a mere six thousand different, roughly speaking. So, I want ABS, but nothing seems to have it. And no, the EX wasn't an option even if I did win the lottery. Go back and underline the word Sunroom and I think you'll see why, but in case you're still clueless, when you add a sunroom to a vehicle, you do so by making the entire room of the car lower to make room for the sunroom panel. How much lower you ask? Well, my semi-spacious headroom in the LX becomes a cramped, head touching the roof while slouching, nightmare. Anyways, a few days ago, we got a call from our friendly Honda dealship lackey saying that we could get a new Honda CRV with anti-lock brakes. So we went to check it out, and thus begins the 6-7 hours of mind numbing boredom. We arrive, wait around for our lackey, and go take the vehile that was suggested out for a test drive. The entire time an orange, engine-shaped light, is glowing at me from the dash. So, while it was a nice ride, there is the warning light. I ask about it, he says it's probably that the gas tank wasn't sealed well enough. So we close it tighter, but the light doesn't go away. I later consulted the manual on the issue: Apparently the orange engine picture means that you are running a sub-optimal performance and causing more exhaust, very bad over the long term. It continues to say that, yes indeed, it can be caused by a lose gas cap, however you should wait 3 days after tightening the cap to see the light disappear (Collective WTF for me folks? I mean, what kind of crap is that. It can sense the problem, but not sense the resolution for approximately 3 days? Yay, I just know that wonderful piece of hardware will have to be replaced some day. It was so nice having a van with no onboard electronics to go Fubar on me). Either way, lackey goes to find us another car. Mother asks if we could get one with side-airbags as well, he says sure. We wait a good hour until lackey comes back to tell us they have one, but apparently it's not in the back. So he tells us he's going to look out front. After about another hour (okay, a bit more time out back, a bit less out front) he brings us another CRV, Silver with Black interior (note, CRV's only come in either Black interior or Beige (the horrible horrible Honda beige I talked about previously)) and side airbags. So, we decide that this seems good, but say that we need to go collect our check, and the Title and have some lunch. I mention that I don't recall seeing an ABS light when I test drove the car, and that the Vehicle safety features only mention 4 wheel disc brakes, but lackey assures us he could open the hood and show it to us, so we go our merry way. We withdraw my money (I'm so totally broke, less that $100 in checkings + savings right now), get the title, grab some lunch, and come back. Lackey's got another person he's helping, so we wait some more, and some more. Then lackey shows us around service department, talks about all the info he's supposed to (owners manual, lemon law, etc). Then we wait while the guy who'll take the money and make us sign forms to free up. Then we finally pay, walk out to the car. Turn it on, see no ABS, open the hood see no ABS, and lackey realizes that he was thinking of LX Accords, which do have front ABS, but of course, Honda doesn't keep anything standardized across its vehicles. So, we're at a moment of crisis. Lackey is visibly shaken, offers to undo everything if we want. But at this point mother and I decide that it's not worth having to go through all this again when we find another car. Ask for aftermarket keyless entry system, lackey agrees that seems fair (not totally in my opinion, but hopefully I won't die for lack of ABS *knocks on wood*, or any injury for said reason). Now, for those who think that I'm perhaps exaggerating times because of anger, spite, and whatnot, I'd like to point out that I not only read every pamphlet that they had in the display area of the building (including both the large cardboard and small little tri-folded bills (many duplicates), especially the ones listing every possible accessory), but my mother and I played no less than 12 games of Gin, 3 rounds of King's Corners, and a full, long, game of Crazy Eights. Either way, I now have a brand new, 2004 Silver Honda CRV, black interior, 5DR 2WD SSRS. SSRS being the Honda code for side airbags. I'm told it stands for Supplimental Side Retraint System. $19,500 , but it'll be lasting me a good long time.

Meh, that much waiting sucks, poor deluded lackeys suck, great guy, just got confused. Oh well, that's life, live it and move on.