Something new

Time to buy a new car. I hate to say it I really do. I LOVE my car but there are so many things about it that are just not convenient about it. It's finally paid off so now the looking begins.


I have always loved the look of my car, the moment they came out in 2005 I knew that I had to have one. I did a lot of research about car buying, decided that I wanted the one that was called cool vanilla, and set off on my quest. I chose a price that I wanted to pay that I would not go over and visited many dealerships to find the exact one I wanted. I needed the SXT, the mid model of the three. For sure not the base model but one step up with lots of power. I knew what I wanted and I was going to get it.
Joe and I would visit the dealerships and the first thing they would ask it "How much do you want to pay a month?" I would say that doesn't matter, what matters is the actual price that I will pay for this car. After visiting about two places and walking out of both places we tried one in Everett, WA. I got as far as actually talking number and negotiating price at this place. I was arguing every bogus "fee" that is tacked on. Hidden fees actually that dealerships put on the MSRP to pad themselves for when negotiations go down. These fees can add up to thousands of dollars that you actually do not need to pay if you tell them you wont. But they prey on people who have not clue and just accept these fees and that's how they make money. I decided not to trade my current car in, it was paid off and we could use three cars just in case. I had gotten them to remove all the fees except a $550 Advertising Fee. The lady we were dealing with said that there was nothing we could do, that was a fee that had to be paid. I said no, you are wrong I do not need to pay for your advertising and told her my max that I would pay for the car. By this point we had been there for two hours. We said we were going to leave and she said "Good luck finding this car for that price."
That is where my new little Internet salesperson in Eugene, OR came in to my life. I was able to find the car in OR, tell him what I wanted to pay and to take out all the bogus fees and guess what? No hassle, I went down that next weekend and bought the car before I even drove it.
The sweet little lady who pretty much told me to go to hell a few weeks earlier called and asked it I was still interested in the car and that they could probably work with my numbers now. It felt to good to say "I did find it for the price I wanted to pay and I'm driving it right now."

So now begins the process all over. I'm going to try to sell my car outright but it not then I'll trade it in. I have it narrowed down to two vehicles that I like.
The Subaru Outback

The Mazda CX-9

I have to have all wheel drive is my main qualification as my car does not have it and it is needed for when the weather turns. The Subaru is most like the car I currently have size wise which is fine. The Mazda has third row seating which is a nice option but has worse gas mileage than the Subaru. I'm going to check out some cars this weekend while Joe is 4-wheeling on Saturday to kind of get a feel for which one I like better and options, then I will narrow it down to one, choose what I want to pay and start the negotiations all over again. This time I'm going with a black car.