You May Have Won This Car!

Ever get one of those advertisements in the mail from a car dealer, indicating that the enclosed key may just be the key that starts a brand new car on their lot? The claim, of course, is that you can come in, try the key, and possibly drive off the lot in a shiny new vehicle. Further, just for coming, the ad promises some sort of valuable prize… at minimum an MP3 player (advertised with an iPod picture, of course), the maximum being a large amount of cash.

Well, I got one of those ads… so I went.

I won.

Had you going there for a second, right?

I didn’t really think so.

The point of this post? Just a little rant. I don’t know how car dealers get away with that kind of advertising, nor do I understand why anyone would want to subject themselves to the stuff you have to go through when you respond. You see… I’m now speaking from first-hand experience. We received one such ad recently, and my five-year-old son saw the attached key. Now if you know anything about Jeffrey, you’ll know he’s nuts about cars. Absolutely loves them… talks about them almost non-stop.

Naturally, when he saw the key, he wanted to know what it was for and if he could have it. I explained what the ad said to him, and of course he HAD to go find out if we won (despite every explanation I could give him about how this stuff works). Since we need to go to the dealership to have our vehicle serviced anyway, I reluctantly agreed.

Man were we in for a fun experience (or not).

I won’t go into a whole lot of details, but suffice it to say that you don’t want to respond to one of those ads. To try the key, you’ll get ambushed by several salesmen… you’ll get to supply all sorts of financial details you’re not interested in sharing… you’ll get to explain not only to the salesmen that you’re not interested in trading in your vehicle and buying something off their lot, but to their manager as well (who’ll use every type of pressure technique they know)… and after maybe 15 minutes of nonsense (and that’s if you’re clearly there just for the sake of your kid!), you’ll get to find out the key doesn’t work. Oh, and you’ll get your guaranteed prize… remember that MP3 player? You just won’t get it on the spot… you’ll get a coupon for some cheap toy that you’ll have to pay an exorbitant amount just to have shipped to you.

Of course, I knew better than to go, but I love my son… which brings me to the worst part of this.

Remember that key? That thing was more precious than gold to Jeffrey for the past couple of days… he was so excited that he’d get to try to start a car with it, he could hardly contain himself.

Now? It’s bent… it was so cheaply made that the very act of trying it in the lock damaged it.

Jeffrey left with nothing but disappointment tonight. That bent key won’t even start his Cozy Coupe anymore.