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Friday, August 3, 2007
New Car: The Grand Finale
The original plan for car shopping was to go out on Wednesday night after Rick, my step-dad, got home from work. He came home from work on Wednesday and informed me that he was simply not in the mood to go. He told me that if I really wanted to go, we would go, but that he wasn’t in the mood. Well, that turned out to be a bit of a fib because when I asked him if we could go anyway, because I had really been looking forward to going. He promised me that he’d leave work early on Thursday and then we would go. He kept his promise, and at about 4PM yesterday, we left for Thomas Auto Sales on TV Highway. Our original impression was not great. We looked at some cars, and there were slim pickings at the lot we stopped at, so we followed the sales guy to another lot. That lot… well, there was a white Dodge Stratus that I liked, but it had over 100k miles on it. I ended up saying okay, that I’d at least test drive a Hyundai car, mostly because it was a nice color, even though the car itself did not have me super excited. I’m not sure why – it was a nice car! It sat a bit lower than I liked and it would’ve taken a lot of adjusting to get myself situated into it in a way that I would have liked. Well, it ended up that the check engine light was on the whole time. Kind of problematic, no? Well, the guy let me drive it anyway. Who does that? I didn’t say anything because the only thing I know about cars is whether they run or not, and whether they need gas or not. So, we drove it around Hillsboro a bit and the guy just let me go kind of aimlessly. He was talking mostly to Rick and very little to me. For instance, “I’m going to need a copy of her driver’s license for insurance reasons.” Not your, her. Well, halfway through the test drive, he finally noticed the check engine light and the fact that every time the car idled, it was basically shuddering. Mmm. His comment? “I guess we need to change the oil or something.” Uhhhh. I’m not that great at cars, but even I know that an oil change isn’t going to fix that. So, we got out of the car, poked at a couple of other cars, and then got his card and left. We were going to go up to Herzog-Meyer up by Murray on TV, but on our way back we noticed – Hey! Another Thomas Auto Sales! Turns out the one we originally stopped at was a new lot. The person who flagged us down at that lot was much nicer and attentive. He listened to my requirements, talked directly to me, and just seemed to generally have it together in terms of sales. I mean, if you’re not talking to the person who’s putting the money down on the car, then what, exactly, are you trying to accomplish with that sale?
Looking around at that lot, there weren’t any cars that I could rule out by the fact that they were a hideous color, and the only car I ruled out due to ugly shape was a VW Golf. The one I ended up test driving was a 2003 tan Chevy Malibu. It has a CD player in it, AC, power windows and locks, and plenty of trunk space. It’s a great size, and it’s nice and quiet in comparison to my Jeep (although, what sedan-type car that runs right wouldn’t be?). The car was listed on sale at 7995, and we told him my budget, and I honestly could’ve gotten it for just that much with my loan, but hey, if I don’t have to spend that much, why spend that much? In the end, he offered me about $3500 for my Jeep (semantics, really), and I ended up paying, with a two-year warranty added on, $5600 even.
I am quite pleased with how the whole trip turned out. With only a short frustrating experience at the start, I came out of the situation quite happy and without a broken pocketbook. Not to mention, the CD player will be nice to have for the move, as will the fact that the car has AC and heat that will, hopefully, work above the knees. I am very, very happy.
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