I jumped into my old black VW Jetta, and drove down a small sloped street. The car began fish-tailing pretty wildly, making exaggerated switch-backs as I struggled to keep it under control with nearly no grip. I almost swung into some bystanders/pedestrians on the left side, so that was a close call. Then after that, I went a bit further down and was unable to avoid some rows of potted blue flowers that had been setup like an array or grid. It was a bit curious to see these in the street; I don’t think they were being sold on the spot, as I didn’t see any kiosks or booths; my sense was that they were being prepared for loading into a van for delivery. The car had effectively swung its backend through a portion of them and that ruined or destroyed them. I jumped out of the car, apologized for the mishap, and attributed the accident to the car’s tires which apparently were completely bald. I took responsibility and apologized to the guy who I assumed was preparing the flowers, and he was surprisingly unemotional about it.
Suddenly then another guy popped up and seemed to be like a liaison between myself and a tire shop– I guess it was obvious I was in the market for some new tires. I essentially told him what I was willing to spend– doing some mental math ($500, divided by 4 tires = $125 per tire.) So as soon as I mentioned that to him, he relayed that message to the tire shop guy, who then gave a nod and pointed to some particular tires that met that description. They had some on display. Before finalizing the deal I mentioned I wanted something in the premium quality of the range, noting a desire for at least ‘A’ and ‘B’ ratings in every performance category. I did a mental consideration of the performance compromises and its effect on pricing. Maybe they were quiet, did great in the wet, but lacked in durability, etc.
As I pondered that, I saw a couple cars in the background that were on display. One of them, which was at ground level, was a red VW Jetta with the same body style as mine, and it appeared to be in great shape, clean and shiny. I thought it was interesting that such nice examples, new or like-new, of my car were still out there. So that one caught my eye as I had the affinity for that make and model already, but then I noticed the gray SUV up on an elevated rack above the VW. It wasn’t flashy; it had more of a matte finish, but I recognized it as a neat car. I think it was something like a 4Runner or Pathfinder, but it was ambiguous to me at that point. Then a black guy who was standing next to me made a comment that indicated to me that he was really coveting that SUV up on the rack, like it’d be the one he’d get if he could have any car of his choosing.
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