In case you missed Part One, we have purchased a car. It has been crazy, vaguely sort of fun, but mostly aggravating.
We got out early this morning and arrived at the first dealership before 10 am. We checked out their inventory, did a test drive, and roughly negotiated a price on the car we wanted. It was a decent price, right at $25,000, for a car with one extra feature (navigation), but without the towing package we wanted. We explained that we had other cars to look at and went to dealer number 2.
Dealer number two was even easier, rapidly coming in nearly $1000 lower for a similar car, but with no navigation and also no towing. The salesperson was lovely and polite, which is always a bonus. He encouraged us to keep looking while still touting the benefits of both the car and the dealership
Dealer number three had a beautiful car with less than 20,000 miles and a towing package, no navigation, but wouldn't go any lower than $27,000. By this point, numbers and features were swimming in my head. The one thing I could keep straight was that I didn't want to spend more than $25,000. I sketched out a rough graph on the back of the envelope and we decided to eliminate the more expensive car. Yes, it had a lot fewer miles, but it was still over our budget. Plus, the salesman was getting a little aggressive and I didn't like it.
The school day was ending so we headed home to regroup and pick up the kiddos. After mulling over the options, we decided on the car from dealer one. My husband like it, and I liked the idea of the back-up camera. We called the dealer to let him know that we were on the way. When we arrived, the car was pulled to the front and my husband took it for one more drive.
Tune in tomorrow for Part Three: The Financials.
Also in this series:
The Car Buying Blues, Part One: Doing The Research
The Car Buying Blues, Part Two: The Buying Process
The Car Buying Blues, Part Three: The Financials
