"Hundred" isn't short for "thousand."

On Friday, a dear friend was looking into buying a used car. She found an amazing catch that seemed too good to be true: a 2004 Jetta with 17,000 mi, and the asking price was only $1900. My response to this news mirrored my friend's: "What's wrong with the car?" Nothing, for all we could tell. My friend called the owner, a sweet young woman eager to get this car off her hands, and asked a few questions. Nothing seemed to be the problem with the car; it had been serviced only for standard oil changes and was used only for commutes to work and school. My friend asked, verbally, "You want nineteen hundred for this?" The owner replied, "Actually, I just lowered it again to eighteen hundred." Apparently, this young lady continued to lower her price because "nobody's buying!"

That night, my friend and her boyfriend and I took the 45 minute drive to Salem to check out the unbelievable deal. After taking the car for a test drive, everything indicated that this was something not to pass up. The car-savvy boyfriend got out a maglite and climbed around in and under the hood, coming up impressed. Then the negotiations began.

"What are you asking for this?" the boyfriend inquired.
"Nineteen hundred," replied the owner.
"Nineteen hundred? As in one thousand, nine hundred dollars?"

At this point, I felt insulted for the girl. Of course one thousand, nine hundred dollars! Why did he think he had to clarify that? Gosh, what an insult to her intelligence. Oh, wait...

"No! Nineteen thousand dollars! If I only had one thousand nine hundred to pay off, I wouldn't be selling it!"

We promptly got back in our car and drove home. This young lady was selling the car in order to buy a less expensive model and put more money toward her schooling. As we drove the 45 minutes back to Portland, I couldn't help but think that was a good idea.