Well a long time ago, it was decided that Amy's Toyota pick up truck would not work as a "family car." So research began in the middle of 2010 along with our search for a new vehicle. All SUV's were considered and it was narrowed down via Al Gore's internet to a select few models. Then things got pushed off because we were told the best time to buy a car was the last week of the year. So, we'd decided on what to buy and were getting the best deal around, but the catch was there were no models available... anywhere in the state... So, we elected to order our car direct from the factory, which was nice because that way we could get exactly what we wanted. The only drawback...? We had to wait 3 months for the car to arrive. 3 months came and went and one Sunday evening we got a voicemail from Volvo. "Hi Anthony, we need to talk about your car, please call me back." Now that is a sentence than when you hear it, you know something bad happened. Upon calling the sales lady back, we were told that there was a bit of damage that took place during shipping.
How bad is the damage? Are we talking about a scratch you are gonna buff out, or something more serious here? Well...
The pictures aren't quite as descriptive as they could be... the damage was bad, such a shame really. Apparently the Swedes loaded an S70 and our XC60 onto a container ship butt to butt, as we assume they normally do... except this time "items may have shifted in route" and our beautiful cars rubbed against each other the whole trip to the states. The damage was supposed to be "minimal" (the entire back window was destroyed, back fender mangled, glass all over the place, scratches and more...) and "easily repaired" (the entire back hatch/door would have to be swapped out). But who wants a "new" car that has had damage repaired? Not us, screw that.
We were told we had two options, a) accept this vehicle as soon as it's repaired or b) order another new vehicle from the factory... again... and wait 3 months... again... Three more months would have taken us past our baby due date and we weren't entirely comfortable with that, so we told them we'd take option c) (even tho they didn't offer this option)... "How about you call every Volvo dealership in the Nation, or perhaps your regional representative, tell them to run a search for the exact model and specs of our car and find a new one that has yet to be purchased, ship that car here for free, and we'll take that one..." They agreed to give that a try and get us a car "as close as possible" to which we replied, "let us be clear, this car will be EXACTLY as we originally ordered, the only difference? The VIN number..." And within a much more reasonable amount of time than originally quoted, they were able to deliver on our request.
By the way, in case you want to buy a Volvo XC60, here is the VIN # so you can avoid the busted one that you just saw. As it turns out, the Volvo we ended up with was made on the same production line and shipped out with our car... it just happened to be destined for the Baltimore Port to go to Minneapolis Volvo... so once the car hit land, they sent it here to Bellevue.
Finally she arrived and we were able to take her home where she joined Iggy the Infinity M35 in the garage. Sadly we did also have to part with Blu, Amy's 1996 Paradise Blue Toyota Tacoma... but this is Amy's first NEW car and she has enjoyed it for the 6 weeks or so that she has been able to drive her. She has that new car smell, but unlike most new cars, Amy actually likes the smell of this one. Amy named her Vivian and calls her Viv for short, unless Viv gets angry... that's when Vixen comes out to play... hehehe...
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