Man buys car from kidnappers

[AkioOhtori]

Title get you?

To be fair, these events were about 10+ years apart.

You see, in the long long ago my partner was looking to replace his Grand Am with a hatchback. While he was fairly zeroed in on a Golf, I suggested he take a look at the Focus hatch as it was pretty cool at the time...

So we went over to the closest Ford dealer. As we pulled in, there were a flock of salespeople waiting on the stairs outside for new potential victims. Undeterred, we inquired if they had any Focus hatches on the lot...

... and they did! So said the salesperson who was up, anyway. However he contended it was hot (it was) and the car was far away in the back lot, therefore we should take a car there.

Sound reasoning.

After we were in the car, I honestly don't remember what it was, as the doors locked he explained they did not, in fact, have any Focus hatches. Instead, he was going to take us on a forced tour of all the cars we didn't ask to see and explain to us why we wanted to buy them. He also went on to explain how Ford was the only car manufacturer that had bluetooth (lol wut? He actually meant Microsoft Sync but also who gives a fuck?) and so on. Eventually, and I do mean eventually, we stopped in front of the sales office and began a standard high-pressure sales engagement, at which point we bolted for the car and fled quickly.

We never returned.

Well... almost never.

Fast forward 12 years and he now has, somewhat, decided he wanted a Ford Ranger. Against all odds, the Ford dealer that so long ago had kidnapped us happened to have a 2022 Ranger Tremor in the spec he wanted...

So we went and...

GOOD NEWS! The dealer that had once kidnapped us was actually out of business and had been taken over by a different local chain. So... while we did return to the scene of the crime, the offending party was no longer present.

So I say all that to say, after much deliberation, bargaining, maths, and waffling, my partner walked away the proud owner of a 2022 Ford Ranger XLT Tremor, trading his long suffering 2016 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk for it.

Tomorrow (ok technically today) we're going to treat it to its first taste of dirt in a 4-day off-road tour of the Ouachitas. We met up in Paris, TX, today (yesterday) and are heading to Hot Spring, AR, via whatever dirt we fancy.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@AkioOhtori
That's some high quality bad decision making right there. I look forward to more bad decisions in the future from the ARB, Opposite Lock and Dobinsons catalogues.

[beefchips]

@AkioOhtori hell yes

[adamftw]

LOOK AT THOSE SWEET GRAPHICS.

[Shop-Teacher]

@AkioOhtori Nice! Love the spec! Have fun y'all!

[MisterButtercup]

@AkioOhtori That looks awesome, enjoy!

[UpCreekwithShitPaddle]

@AkioOhtori I like how they had a Ford Trucks sign. As if there are dealerships that only sell the 1 car Ford even still makes.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@AkioOhtori That stripes package makes it about 1,000x more interesting to look at. Good show! I think this era of Ranger is going to age quite well.