Little Black Car (or Car Shopping, Part 3)

If you've been waiting all week for this, you can now all breath a sigh of relief! If you have no clue then you can read Part 1 and Part 2 of my car shopping venture. My intention was to type this up earlier in the week, but I guess I wanted to let it all sink in a bit before sharing with the world...OK, that was a bit melodramatic and not the reason at all - ha!

So we left of with me having a good deal in my hand for a 2011 Ford Focus and me wanting to sleep on it (or so I said to the Ford dealer - who was really a nice guy and I feel like I know too much about...). I drove away from the dealer with not a true plan in hand except that I wanted to check out more of the 6 options I had emailed myself during my previous evening online search.

Since I really had such a good feeling while driving the Focus and it reminded me of my sister's Mazda3, I decided to check out a Mazda2 that I saw online the night before. I got to the Mazda dealership and had to wait a couple of minutes for a salesman to be available. When he came he greeted me in a hurried fashion and told me that he was finishing working with another customer who was finalizing their sale and then he would be with me soon.

As I sat and waited I realized all the texting and calling I had done earlier in the day had worn down my phone's battery. Ugh...I had really liked all the encouragement that my family had been to me and I was not looking forward to feeling disconnected...

The salesman whizzed by me a couple of times to let me know he would be with me shortly and finally he was. He got on his computer and we discussed what I was looking for. I immediately told him about what I wanted my payments to be and we set to find a Mazda3 that I could test drive along with the Mazda2.

Also, after my experience with the Focus and manual transmission, I was eager to find something automatic. That proved to be a bit of a challenge with the M3s. There were plenty of options in manual, but the only automatic was actually at a different dealer.

I ended up deciding to test drive the M2 as I really wanted to see how different it would be from an M3 and if it would work for me.  As we went out to the car I assumed the salesman would be going with me as the Ford guy had, but instead he asked if I was familiar with the area and when I said I was, he said he needed to finish up with the customers he had been working with.

So off I went on my solo test drive and I immediately liked the car. There was really only one negative and I already knew that for about $400 I could have it added - cruise control. What's a road trip with no cruise control, right?!

I took the car to Jen's and everyone there took a good, long look. The kids were all over it like it was the coolest car ever - in fact they said it was a cool car. I think they knew more about the workings of the car than I did by the time they were done climbing all over it :) Eric helped with some research and gave his approval as well.

I was pretty comfortable with the M2 as an option so I headed back to the dealer to see what kind of deal I could wheel.

From the moment I returned they assumed I wanted to the car and acted like I had already told them I would purchase it. It was a bit crazy in the dealership and my salesman still didn't really have time for me and had the business manager take me into her office. He told her I had questions about financing. I'm not sure what questions he thought I had but she took that as if I was buying the car. She started filling out paperwork and starting a file for me.

When I was finally able to let her know that I wasn't sure if I was actually buying the car, she screeched to a halt and her attitude changed. She no longer seemed to have time for me and whisked me back to the salesman to continue with him as he was now free.

At some point someone else took my Sebring keys to take a look at the car and see what they could get me for a trade in. Once they had the trade in value it was time to talk turkey. And by turkey, I mean monthly payments. And by monthly payments, I mean under $200. The salesman knew this, the business manager knew this, and now the numbers guy who did the trade-in value knew this.

There was a catch though. Someone else was in the dealership and wanted to look at the car. At this point I had a slight moment of panic because I was so determined not to buy a car on my first day out. Oh, and sure enough, it was while I was waiting again that my phone completely shut down. I felt very disconnected from my lifeline. Anna's last text was "if they say $189, say you'll take it!"

The numbers guy came back a couple of times with a number above $200 and each time I asked them to try again (again, picture me pushing the little piece of paper back toward them and saying, "try again, please"). Sound familiar? By now I felt very comfortable with this process and knowing my credit was excellent, I was looking for a really low APR and made sure they knew it.

As the guy left to run the numbers yet again, I mentioned to the salesman about the $189. I also was praying during the wait. Since I had no way to text, God was the only one I could turn to. I knew He was there all a long, and I knew many were also praying for me during the day. These things were a great comfort to me, and I had peace while I waited.

Wouldn't you know it, but the guy came back with $194!

What?! Maybe I am going to buy a car on my first day looking!

And, yes, in fact, I told the guy that I would take it. I was excited. I felt like I had won! I really was beaming - a grin from ear to ear.

By this time it was almost 6. The dealership was closing and there was a line up of deals that the finance folks were trying to finish before they could head home. While I was waiting for them to finalize their offer, I went to my Sebring to charge my phone and let people know the latest. I was supposed to take Jess out for a birthday dinner, but we were going to be seriously delayed if I was actually going through with this.

Oh, and I wouldn't be able to take the car with me because I wasn't fully insured. My '96 Sebring didn't have full coverage so I would have to establish that before I could take car home.

While I was making phone calls the salesman came out and said the finance folks would be at least another 1/2 and hour and would I be open to leaving a deposit and finishing the deal on Monday after I established full coverage on my insurance. Ah, yes. This was a great plan!

So there. I didn't in fact buy a car on my first day out shopping. I did pick up this yummy, black 2011 Mazda2 with 22,422 miles on Monday evening at about 6pm.

Car Shopping, Part 2

Continuing the story of my quest for a new car...

As I mentioned in Part 1, I had intended to go shopping, but got sick. The cough that had kept me in lasted through the first part of the week and while I did go to work, I didn't really feel like doing anything else. By Friday I had mentioned to a couple people at work that I was going car shopping on the weekend so I was pretty much committing myself to the quest.

Throughout the past year or so my dad has been telling me he'd like to see me drive a Ford Fusion. While I wasn't opposed to the idea, I really never did any searches for a Fusion until Friday night. I crashed at my sister's house to use some Internet and began a hunt for cars and to try to make some kind of plan of attack for Saturday.

Now normally I like to sleep in until I wake up on days that I don't have to be anywhere at any appointed time, but late in my search I had emailed one of the dealers in regards to a 2010 Fusion I found online. Since I didn't know when they would call me, I planned to be up and ready by 9 when the dealerships opened. I had also emailed myself 6 different cars that I wanted to look at. They were at several different dealerships so that was another reason I would need to start early.

Sure enough on Saturday morning I got a call from a salesman at 9:03. Since I wasn't quite ready for the day I made an appointment with him at 10 am. A bit later I saw an email on my phone from the same dealership but a different salesman.

When I arrived at the Ford dealer I wasn't able to speak with the person who had called, but I did get the person who had emailed me. We began our conversation and he seemed nice enough. We discussed that I was looking for a used Fusion with low mileage and I told him the specific car I had found online.

He then took me out on a walk through the lot and eventually a test drive. At some point he asked me what amount of monthly payment I was looking for, but instead of answering his question directly I told him the dollar amount of the car ($10-12k) and he indicated he understood. I really don't know if this is where I went wrong or not, but from what happened later, I think it is.

After test driving a used Fusion and more discussion, he had me drive a brand new Focus. It was a dream - with all the bells and whistles - technology is great, huh?! He must have thought he had me - I was gushing and excited about it  :-) When we returned from the test drive, the salesman had the finance guy figure out what they would give me for my trade-in and then run the numbers.

At this point he had been back and forth from his desk to the finance guys enough that I had been able to text my family and that started the support from afar. Which totally helped me get through what happened next.

When he told me my trade-in value was $100, I just laughed! I knew my car was in rough shape, but I really thought $500 would be the lowest. Oh, and then the best monthly payment on the page was $310, the worst $330. Um, not even close to my $200 so I told him that if he could get to $200 we would be somewhere. I kind of shocked myself at how direct and specific I was.

At this point he said he was sorry that he hadn't asked me for the goal of my monthly payment previously (even though he had) and he said he was not wanting me to get excited about a car that was not going to work for my budget. He then went back to work on his computer to find me a used vehicle that he thought I would be more comfortable with.

We went and test drove a red Cobalt Chevy and a black 2011 Ford Focus. Ewwhhh...on the Cobalt! It was like driving a cardboard box (or a Plymouth Reliant - good comparison, huh, Jen?!). No offense to anyone who has a Cobalt, but this ride was not for me. On to the Focus. It had a closer feel to the Fusion I had already driven, but the size was more like Jess's Mazda3, and I felt comfortable in it; however, it had two major flaws in my book: manual transmission, no cruise control. The best thing was that the mileage was under 10k.

As I was thinking about the test drive and still sitting in the Focus, the salesman went to park the Cobalt. When he got back in I proposed that he throw in cruise control and I would consider overlooking the manual transmission. He said why don't we pull the car back up to the front and we can go in and run some numbers.

While I waited I was able to get in more texting and some phone calls to family members.

The numbers came back at $234 as best and $276 as worst (different lengths of loan, estimated APR, cash down amount...). By this time I felt a little more experienced in looking at the numbers and we discussed how the interest rate was a just a estimate and we wouldn't know the real rate until I decided that I wanted to buy the car and they would send my info to banks. I felt pretty confident that the rate would be lower, I just didn't know how much lower. Oh, and to get the better numbers they had upped my trade-in value to $500.

The salesman said I should take the car on my own and let my family take a look and see what they said. I agreed that this was a good idea so I headed out. By this time it was almost 1pm. 3 hours at one dealer was a long time, I was getting weary.

Everyone who saw the car seemed to like it. We discussed some pros and cons, but no one seemed to have anything negative to say about the car. I went back to the dealership with one thought: I don't like driving stick all the time. It's fun for a minute, but not all around town and in winter...

Determined not to buy a car on my first day out, I went back to the dealership to return the Focus and see what their best offer would be. After 2 more tries (picture me pushing the paper back toward them and saying, "try again"), they came back with their "final and best" offer of $205/mo at 1.99% APR including cruise control as I requested. I thanked them and said I would let them know on Monday as I wanted to sleep on it.

It was now about 3pm. I wasn't sure what my next move would be, but I had learned dealerships closed at 6 on Saturday so I was running out of daylight if I was going to check out any of the other cars that I had picked out Friday night.

As this is getting quite lengthy, I think I'll save the rest for another post. Sorry, but there will be Part 3 to this car quest!

Shopping for a New Car, Part 1

Two years ago at the end of this month, my 1996 Chrysler Sebring (aka Sylvia Sebring) took her last extended road trip. Well, attempted road trip - a shredded tire changed those plans for me. Last December my parents moved to Spooner, WI, a mere 2 hour drive away. I did make a couple of trips to see them, but even those trips came to a halt as it became apparent my car would not be around much longer. The most obvious issue was the hole in the muffler - obvious by the sound of the car, not that you can see the hole... :)

Anyone who reads my blog or talks to me for any length of time knows that I have two concerns: getting out of debt and buying a new car. Thankfully last year I was able to get out of the dumb-debt (aka credit card) and this year I'm working on eliminating the smart-debt (aka school loan); however, the need for a new car has been weighing on me even more than the last of my smart-debt. (I'm not saying that I'm comfortable with my smart-debt. I plan to continue to eliminate that as quickly as I can.)

So since this need of a new car has become all-consuming, I dropped hints, asked out-right, and was just short of begging family members to go car shopping with me. None of them volunteered. None were available. No one would go.

I realized a few weeks ago that this was a venture that would fall completely on my shoulders. It wasn't something that I knew anything about and I because I would be financing the car, I really was scared of the commitment. So many questions - how do you tell the sales guy you only want to spend under $200 per month? Is $200 a month even going to get me much of a car? how will I withstand the pressure to not get sucked into an expensive lease on a snazzy new car?

With the little that I did know about car shopping I had looked online a few times, but what I like, were those real options for me?  The longer I looked and the more I worked the numbers in my budget, the more I was convinced that $200 was the magic number. (My intention has been that when I pay off my student loan I will use that money to make increased payments on my car; therefore I would shorten my loan.)

A couple weekends ago I fully intended to go car shopping and even thought that it might workout to go an evening sometime during the week. Well, that weekend I got sick and didn't go shopping because I was home in bed.

Come back later for Shopping for a New Car, Part 2.

are you "holidazed"?

Feeling a little dazed from all your holiday activities? Try some of these tips for the holidays and I think you'll have a more memorable end to your year.

7 Holiday Tips

1.   Get a head-start on gifts. I always try to shop throughout the year, and some years I do better than others. But having gifts purchased ahead of time (shopping online is great for this, too) enables me to wander through stores and enjoy the hustle and bustle without getting trampled by it. Or I can avoid the stores altogether. Ahhh.

2.   Set up a special calendar for the month of December. This is especially helpful for the next couple of weeks. I consolidate all of my party invites and activities (not forgetting the Evites, mandatory office parties and word-of-mouth stuff) and put them on one calendar so I can plot what I can fit in and what I can't. I also schedule things like baking, shopping, trips to the post office and other unexpected time-thieves.

3.   Take one commitment at a time. The last thing I want is to enter 2011 not remembering what I did at the end of 2010. When I sit down with a friend for coffee, I will look her in the eye and pay attention to what she's saying. When I open gifts with my family, I will be there and enjoy their reactions. When I attend a Christmas service, I will belt out every carol and reflect on the message.

4.   Ditch my iPhone. This is tied to number three. Christmas is not the time to have divided attention, so I will leave my phone off or unattended whenever possible. I don't need to check e-mail constantly, nor do I need to keep tabs on every friend's vacation via texting.

5.   Spend a bit of time each evening in front of my tree. There's a reason I bought that thing and labored to set it up in the stand, decorate it and water it every day. Just winding down each evening in my dark living room with only the light of the tree often prompts me to spend some necessary time in prayer and reflection.

6.   Keep an advent calendar. This is a fun, "anchoring" thing for me to do. It reminds me of my childhood, and provides a little glimpse of the anticipation of advent as I wait to open a door each morning and see the Christmas story unfold.       

7.   Plan meaningful conversations. Throughout the season, I try to say something encouraging or "real" to as many people as possible. We exchange any number of pleasantries at Christmas, but I want people to know that I'm interested in them. And some folks I only see at Christmas. So I use the time to ask them about their year, open a spiritual conversation or tell them how much they mean to me. It's an exercise in intentionality that has never disappointed.

Tips taken from the Boundless Webzine Editor.

Your GIFT Shopping Source

Your GIFT Shopping Source

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Miscellaneous

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General (apparel, school supplies, Cameras/Frames, Craft & Hobby, etc!) - www.2bynow.net Contact Hollands: mholland@netwurx.net

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