Friday, January 27, 2006
Livin' it up, oh yeah, Friday night.....
I guess doing one's homework really does pay off. I found a total of four cars online that I thought were worth investigating. One was a sports model, which Dan's a bit tall for, one was $1000 more than I wanted to spend but also two years newer than my previous car, and the other two were the exact year, make and model as our former vehicle. Unfortunately, both of the 1999 Saturn SL2s for sale were red, my least favorite color of car to own since I had a very bad experience with a certain red 1984 Dodge Daytona that kept getting pulled over for no apparent reason other than it looked like a flashy sportcar. But the SL2 doesn't look sporty at all, so I told myself not to be a car bigot and give them a shot.
I decided to start with the ones that were the same make and model since they were the cheapest. The first one was 20 miles to the north of us (sometimes the cars cost less once you leave the confines of the big city). It drove fine and looked great, but it was kinda high mileage and for that reason I thought it was a bit overpriced. One of my goals was to find something I could still put a lot of miles on.
The next car was forty miles to the west of us. It was exactly the same as our previous car with anti-lock brakes, air bags and traction control. Had the same power windows and locks, cruise control, even the same cassette player with Bose speakers. Best of all, it only had 68,000 miles on it....not bad for a seven year old car. And technically, this one was not officially red, it was burgundy.....different, right? Ok, maybe not so much.
Dan and I both test drove it to make sure we both liked how it handled. I had run a Carfax on it to verify it was a one-owner car with no accidents or anything obvious amiss. And we went over what all had been inspected on it. In our state, cars are required to pass emissions tests, so they had to guarantee it had passed. The only defects I found were a small scrape on the front fender and a missing plastic panel inside the car (that same panel had fallen off our car as well). It drove quieter than the first car we'd tried and was of course less worn looking because of the lower miles. I had been looking at cars online all week and knew I wasn't likely to find a better deal in our low price range, so we decided to get it.
We managed to get it for about $1000 less than the Blue Book price....part of the discount was because we found it on the internet and called a certain salesperson at a certain number. And they allowed us to write a personal check for the whole amount (I'm sure they did a credit check first). Of course, our check was for about $20,000 less than what most of their customers were paying for new (they mainly sell humongous trucks). Boy, there sure is a lot of paperwork to fill out, even when you're not financing!
I got to drive our "new" Saturn home while Dan followed in our rental. I felt pretty comfortable driving it, good thing since we had to deal with rush hour traffic. I did discover that the radio station reception was kinda fuzzy, so I guess I need to tweak the antenna or something, but no big deal. And I need to remember to adjust the head rest next time I drive because it was a bit tall for me. I was so excited to be driving the car that I totally spaced out adjusting the head rest.
I am soooo relieved to have the car shopping over and done with already. Unless you prefer browsing through lots in person, I highly recommend online shopping. By picking out a specific vehicle and calling ahead, I was able to arrange to have the car out front ready for a test drive by the time I got there. No hiking out to the back of the lot where they usually hide the low-price used cars. No distractions of cars that are nice but not quite what you want. And a HUGE time saver.
So we can turn the rental in tomorrow, and we can get a little bit more normal in our lives. Now Dan can put in more quality neck healing time. I believe he's got the moist heat pack on it right now. It's really rough trying to car shop with a whiplash injury; I know because I've done it before.
I have to do a functional capacity exam next week which will be a whole other kind of exhausting. It will be a huge help to have the crisis of the accident for the most part behind me, so I can focus on making sure I don't injure myself on Tuesday. And I'll have the rest of week to recuperate except for doctor's appointments.
For now, it's time for party tunes!
"That's the way, uh huh, I like it."
-- KC and the Sunshine Band
I decided to start with the ones that were the same make and model since they were the cheapest. The first one was 20 miles to the north of us (sometimes the cars cost less once you leave the confines of the big city). It drove fine and looked great, but it was kinda high mileage and for that reason I thought it was a bit overpriced. One of my goals was to find something I could still put a lot of miles on.
The next car was forty miles to the west of us. It was exactly the same as our previous car with anti-lock brakes, air bags and traction control. Had the same power windows and locks, cruise control, even the same cassette player with Bose speakers. Best of all, it only had 68,000 miles on it....not bad for a seven year old car. And technically, this one was not officially red, it was burgundy.....different, right? Ok, maybe not so much.
Dan and I both test drove it to make sure we both liked how it handled. I had run a Carfax on it to verify it was a one-owner car with no accidents or anything obvious amiss. And we went over what all had been inspected on it. In our state, cars are required to pass emissions tests, so they had to guarantee it had passed. The only defects I found were a small scrape on the front fender and a missing plastic panel inside the car (that same panel had fallen off our car as well). It drove quieter than the first car we'd tried and was of course less worn looking because of the lower miles. I had been looking at cars online all week and knew I wasn't likely to find a better deal in our low price range, so we decided to get it.
We managed to get it for about $1000 less than the Blue Book price....part of the discount was because we found it on the internet and called a certain salesperson at a certain number. And they allowed us to write a personal check for the whole amount (I'm sure they did a credit check first). Of course, our check was for about $20,000 less than what most of their customers were paying for new (they mainly sell humongous trucks). Boy, there sure is a lot of paperwork to fill out, even when you're not financing!
I got to drive our "new" Saturn home while Dan followed in our rental. I felt pretty comfortable driving it, good thing since we had to deal with rush hour traffic. I did discover that the radio station reception was kinda fuzzy, so I guess I need to tweak the antenna or something, but no big deal. And I need to remember to adjust the head rest next time I drive because it was a bit tall for me. I was so excited to be driving the car that I totally spaced out adjusting the head rest.
I am soooo relieved to have the car shopping over and done with already. Unless you prefer browsing through lots in person, I highly recommend online shopping. By picking out a specific vehicle and calling ahead, I was able to arrange to have the car out front ready for a test drive by the time I got there. No hiking out to the back of the lot where they usually hide the low-price used cars. No distractions of cars that are nice but not quite what you want. And a HUGE time saver.
So we can turn the rental in tomorrow, and we can get a little bit more normal in our lives. Now Dan can put in more quality neck healing time. I believe he's got the moist heat pack on it right now. It's really rough trying to car shop with a whiplash injury; I know because I've done it before.
I have to do a functional capacity exam next week which will be a whole other kind of exhausting. It will be a huge help to have the crisis of the accident for the most part behind me, so I can focus on making sure I don't injure myself on Tuesday. And I'll have the rest of week to recuperate except for doctor's appointments.
For now, it's time for party tunes!
"That's the way, uh huh, I like it."
-- KC and the Sunshine Band
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