The Keys to La Buena Vida

"It's a good, good price," Vidal says. "Take advantage of this deal.

And here it comes -- "Se lo voy a preguntar."

He goes to see the manager.

It's the fifth car the family has bought from him, because "he always treats us the way we want to be treated," Mendez says, and she intends to be back next year for a Civic, when Monica turns 16. The couple has also sent her sister and their Colombian real estate agent to him -- two more cars sold.

In this way, Vidal has created a rolling community of Hispanic households -- his customers, and his wannabe-customers. They catch his ads on Spanish television and radio. They buy him beers at D.C. United games. Word spreads. One sale becomes five, then 10. Onward and upward, for a people and their salesman.

Mendez calls her husband on her cellphone. She tells him about her purchase, listens to something he says, then insists "No quiero Pilot!" -- which is Honda's SUV.

Vidal overhears and chuckles. "In our culture, usually the men rule the house," he says. "When I hear Mrs. Mendez talking to her husband, it reminds me of my mom. That's the way she talked to my father. ' No me molestes, this I like.' When you have a professional Spanish lady, she wants what she wants, it's 'Honey, I'm going to pay my bills.' That's basically the message behind all that."

While Mendez is in the finance department, Vidal writes down the radio station presets from the '99 and programs them into the '06. On the FM band, the first two selections are Latino music channels for Mendez, then American rock and rap stations for Diego and Monica. On the AM dial, there's a Spanish news station and an English one.

Vidal hands Mendez the keys. She smiles, but she's in too much of a rush to enjoy the Golden Moment. She's racing back to work.

Dream Ride

But Lucy's son experiences his Golden Moment every Friday night.

That's when he takes his 2004 Accord coupe to a Rockville parking lot, where his Honda car club gathers weekly around midnight -- throaty Civics and muscle Accords, projecting young American male cool.

Diego Mendez, 20, and his friends lovingly transformed his sapphire-blue machine into a low-rider with side-skirts, wide wheels, fat tailpipes and an air intake. He tinted the windows, added a thunderous sound system and installed a DVD screen and PlayStation behind the gearshift. (His friends watch "Girls Gone Wild" while they cruise around; "I don't watch while I'm driving," Diego says.)