Closing In On A Car

On Friday, I drove my lady friend Nuria (who was recently de-auto'ed by a vehicle crash) to an auto dealer in northwest Richmond, Virginia. We took the Interstate, first I-95 north, then I-64 west, to get to West Broad Street (US route 250) where the auto dealership was located. 

While we were on I-95 we viewed a miles-long backup of stationary cars in the opposing lanes of I-95. It's not uncommon to see that on the interstate highways in and around Richmond. Traffic flows fast and heavy on those highways and accidents happen every day.

We went to the auto dealership to see a particular car they had advertised online, but the car was a disappointment. It had spots of rust on the hood, which the salesman said was sun damage. "After all, this is a 2009 vehicle, so you can expect sun damage." 

I replied, "My Jeep is a 1995 model and there is nothing like this on it." There were also scratches on the trunk and roof, which he said were "cat scratches," which they clearly were not. They didn't appear to have been done by any kind of animal claws, but perhaps by a sponge or brush—possibly the overhead roller brush in an automatic car wash. There were dents and paint transfers also, and we decided that the car wasn't a good deal considering the asking price. So they brought out another vehicle to show us. This one was a 2010 Toyota Camry LE with 38,000 miles, very similar to the vehicle that was demolished in the accident (see The Toyota) except this one was a 2010 model whereas the destroyed car was a 2009 model.

We found a few small dents and scratches, and the salesman said their body shop could remove them. Ok, fair enough. We put a deposit on the car and we left. We'll probably go back on Wednesday to retrieve our purchase.

Our trip to the dealership took 45 minutes. Driving home, Nuria didn't want to drive on the Interstate. So I tried driving through the heart of Richmond. It took us two and a half hours to get home. That included a side trip to I-95 that the GPS put us on, but we quickly ran into a blocked highway, likely due to an accident, and we were fortunately close enough to an exit to leave the interstate and get on Richmond's Broad Street and then onto South Belvidere Street, also known as Routes 1 and 301, and we took that road back to my hometown, 25 miles away. But at least we were moving, not sitting in traffic.

We returned the rental car to Enterprise today. When we rented the vehicle, they put a $50 hold on Nuria's credit card. This was to ensure that if it needed gas when we returned it, they would be reimbursed by taking the money out of her credit card. But Nuria filled the gas tank before returning it, so there was no reason for Enterprise to continue the $50 hold. But they refused to remove the hold. I told them I didn't understand; we returned the car in the same condition, the gas tank was full, our part of the deal was over. Why can't they remove the credit hold? They said they couldn't remove it until they saw a copy of her insurance policy declarations page.

We both explained that I had emailed them a copy of the declarations page three days ago, at their request. They said they couldn't find it. So we drove home and I emailed the declarations page to them again. And I asked for them to reply and let me know that they removed the credit hold. 

At the end of the day, we had heard nothing from Enterprise.