Friday, November 14, 2008

new wheels

today we had the best car buying experience ever.

last night the hubs and i shopped for cars online. we found web sites for a few of our local dealers, plugged in our parameters (price range, mileage, mpg, size) and voila we were virtually walking car lots. i narrowed it down to a few for the hubs to consider. he filled out the info to get the credit pre-approved and this morning the dealer called him and said c'mon down, you're the next contestant on the price is right.

in less than an hour we test drove the car, signed the paperwork and drove off w/ a new vehicle (2005 hyundai sante fe). it has heat--which is a plus since the hubs' doesn't. it has about 100,000 miles less than the hubs' car and...no check engine lights. and it still has about 30,000 miles left on its factory warrantee. of course that won't last long w/ the amount of miles the hubs drives, but at least i know he won't be stuck on the side of the road in bum fuck egypt.

there are two downsides. one, it's white. my car is white. i hate white cars. they show dirt like a mofo and they're boring. but, that's really minor. two, no more than a month ago we paid off the hubs' car and for the first time since we've been married we didn't have a car payment. though this car payment really is one of the lowest we've ever had.

i'm just amazed at how easy and stress free the whole process was. i think i told the dealer that like 50 elebenty times. it was an independent dealer, small town, but not one of those note lot places that lets you pay by the week.

after getting the car we went to pick the kids up from afterschool care. when the girl walked out we acted like wtf? where's our car? it's been stolen! she believed it for a split second and then was all excited to explore the car. when the boy got in the car he was like, 'dude, this is a sweet car.' so, they approved : )

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Congrats!

I did the white car thing once. It's always silver or maroon now for me.

Sherendipity said...

I'm with you on white cars, but I just bought a black one and it shows every speck of dirt as well.
Internet shopping is the best!! I did about a month of that, visiting the sites of various dealers. You narrow down your price range, and what you can get for it. You narrow down your visual choices.
It's awesome.
I knew exactly what I wanted when I stepped on the lot, and when a woman knows what she wants, she doesn't have to put up with male salesman asshole syndrome.

Astarte said...

It is definitely hard to get a car with no stress involved. Too bad about having another car payment - we have one now, too, for the first time in years, and all I can say is, SUCK. But, I love my car!!!

creative kerfuffle said...

the car IS nice and the payment isn't as bad as some we've had. and, this weekend we cleaned AND washed my car out so it feels new too : ) whoot!

broad minded said...

ahh . . a hyundai.