We Go Car Shopping by Proxy

What we wanted: a wagon. Preferably stick shift, but automatic would be OK. Remote door locks, air conditioning, leather seats (kids -- we prefer fabric, but we hear leather's much easier to clean), a CD player. We don't need lots of gadgets, but we'd play with 'em if we got 'em.

Models we liked: Subaru Outback, Mazda 6, Volkswagen Passat, Saab 9-5, Volvo V70. Maybe the Toyota Matrix.

Definite nos: Not white -- an ugly color for a car -- and definitely not silver, because we've owned silver cars for the last 14 years and we're sick of the color.

Janna, at Auto Consultants Northwest, asked a few more questions. She asked our price range. She offered to see if she could get us a better rate on our pre-approved loan. She confirmed that all the cars we were considering offered a "quiet ride." She admired our daughter. And she said, for our budget, we'd probably be able to get a 2001 or 2002 model.

Great, we said. We signed the paperwork, paid our $500 deposit, and let Janna go car shopping for us.

We don't enjoy car shopping in the best circumstances. Given that we were driving a rented Cobalt because our 626 died, these weren't the best circumstances. We were in a crappy position to haggle, and it's not like we're expert hagglers in the first place. We didn't have time to do hours of research with Consumer Reports and Edmunds and the Car Talk guys.

We just wanted a new ride.

We ended up talking to Janna because she got an Outback for our sister-in-law a few years ago. Our SIL hooked up with her because friends from camp had used ACNW and loved Janna. Word of mouth? Excellent.

Janna told us she'd really try to find us something within a couple of weeks, but it could take as long as a month. We shuddered a bit at the thought, but said that was fine.

A week and a half later, we're about to take possession our new car. More on that in our next installment.