I wanted a manual base model 4-door GTI. Manual for obvious reasons, 4 door because I think the car looks better and is more useful, and a base model because I have my phone for navigation, and nothing else really seemed worth the money.
Throughout the week prior to purchase, my step dad had some old coworkers run dealer locates on cars that matched what I wanted. We checked on Friday, and there were 4 base 4-door M/T GTI's in California. My original color preference was Shadow Blue (google it, gorgeous color - it's BMW's Interlagos Blue), then Carbon Steel Grey (very dark metallic), then Candy White, United Grey (medium), and I didn't want black or red (too easy to scratch, too easy to get a ticket and a little too "Ferrari" for a $25k car).
So, we set up a time of between 9 and 10AM on Saturday to come in, check out the car we picked out (Carbon Steel Grey base 4-door M/T), sign the papers, put in our deposit, and drive off. We get there, after about 20 minutes of finding somebody who knows about what we had worked out (our contact hadn't showed up yet), we go to see the car. It's black. After another half hour of trying to piece together what the fuck happened, our contact finally shows up.
Long story short, they traded the Carbon Steel Grey for the black on Friday night (the day we had called to officially reserve the car) and now that was the only base 4-door M/T GTI in California. The other three (including "my" car) were gone.
I did not want black. It doesn't contrast enough with the car's trim pieces, it's bound to get dinged sooner or later at a university campus in LA county, and I prefer more interesting colors anyway. I then started going through my mind: What do I want to give up? Should I check out a 2-door? Sat in one, had to practically snap my arm off to get the seatbelt on. That's no good, how about the DSG (dual clutch SMG)? Of course, they didn't have a GTI DSG, but I drove a Golf turbodiesel DSG. Hated every bit of it. Went onto a freeway onramp in 2nd running it to about 3k RPM, stepped on it once I straightened out to fly onto the freeway, and it upshifted on me without command while I was in "manual" mode. Hell no. Okay, let's see if they can put me in one package up from base and give me the same deal. Before that, let's see what color options we have on a 4-door Sunroof M/T GTI.
The Sunroof package comes with a sunroof (duh), a touchscreen radio with 6 CD changer (haven't used a CD in over 5 years, and it's resistive touch, blah), heated seats (would be nice, but wasn't going to pay $2,100 for heated seats), and steering wheel mounted controls (meh, not a big deal). They found a Shadow Blue and United Grey matching that description. They got a hold of both dealerships while I sat in a Sunroof package GTI. Santa Monica already had a buyer lined up for the Shadow Blue, so we decided to work on numbers for the United Grey. We walked away after about 3 hours with a promise that they would have the United Grey detailed and ready to go by 6PM that night.
Right after we got home 45 minutes later, we got a call. The United Grey was gone. BUT, they found a Candy White with the same configuration. I asked them if they had 100% confirmed that they could get the car, because "my" first AND second car had been sold within 24 hours. They gave me their word, and said that 6PM was still on.
Got to the dealership at 6PM, and there she was. Protection package thrown in as well (GTI Monster Mats (red GTI logo, 3D honeycomb design rubber mats made for winter), CarGo Trunk System (kinda neat, trunk mat with little angled velcro standoffs made to keep stuff in place under the hatch, I'll post pics later), and mud flaps. Aside from a small scratch on the plastic covering the tach, it was mint. I got a better deal than almost anybody else could, and I worked out that I would put down $1,000, pay half the monthly taxed, and for my gas, and my parents would pick up the other half of the payment, insurance, and put $3,000 down. Off I went in my 3rd car ever, driving a brand spankin' new Candy White Sunroof Package 4-door M/T Volkswagen GTI.
I need to measure fenders to see how low it is. 
CS5. Took this picture out of a moving car.
