I was surprised last Friday night by a call from my dealer saying my car had arrived. A surprise because I haven't had any e-mail from Mazda since the one telling me the car had been built.

Needless to say, I waited anxiously for the call on Saturday to tell me my baby had been prepped. Took a short drive in the car and knew the deal was done, so we went in to complete the paperwork. My next surprise was the $995 worth of packs that the dealer wanted to charge me on top of MSRP. I explained that the car had been pre-ordered and I didn't want any of the paint protectant/security etching etc. The sales lady says all the cars have that and they can't take it off.

To make a long story short, after about 20 minutes of firmly refusing to pay for this stuff they gave in and sold the car for MSRP. What could have been a pretty enjoyable experience was tainted by having to fool around with this sort of greed.

Bottom line is to make sure your dealer knows you don't want any worthless add-ons. Just no excuse for doing this on a pre-ordered car.

The car itself is awesome fun and I'm going to have to restrain myself to avoid getting the wrong kind of attention from the local gendarmes.