Car shopping -- Day 2

So we left off on Saturday night with nothing.

I went home Saturday and, because my friends suck, decided to surf the internet for a car and go to bed instead of going out for my birthday. While searching, I found a 2007 Trailblazer with only 7,000 miles on it at CarMax. It was white, low miles, and cheap. I called my uncle who works for GM and he pulled up the carfax report and found that the car rolled off one of his lines in Michigan. I felt good about it and decided to take a look on Sunday and drive it on Monday.

After looking it over I thought if I liked driving it, I would just buy it on Monday afternoon. I left work early Monday for the test drive. I liked it. It was not too big, and again, cheap. I could have the sucker paid off in a little less than 4 years. Also, CarMax is AMAZING! They offer this 100,000-mile/7 year warranty from the date of purchase. It is awesome. No matter how many miles are on the car, you buy that plan for $1500, roll it into the loan at purchase and CarMax or the company that makes the car will service it for a $75 deductible. It is a really impressive deal if you think about it. The best part is that they do not haggle. I was never left for the infamous “15 minutes”.

But, I put the car on hold (yep, just like a pair of jeans) and walk away to sleep on it. By that I mean go home to make sure there is not a better deal on something else. The first site I pull up that night has a 2008 Accord with 5,000 miles on it for less than $19,000. I call on it to find out why it is so cheap and why the previous owner returned it after 5 months. (I love Carfax reports.) The guy at the dealership calls the old owner at home and finds out he had some “financial issues” and was forced to return the car...totally feasible in this economy. I tell them I will come and look at it Tuesday after work.

Tuesday, the Accord guy calls me during lunch to tell me that they have arbitrarily changed the wheels on the car and raised the price $2,000. WHAT?! I was PISSED! I told him to put the old wheels on and lower the price. He tells me they do not have the wheels anymore. I tell them fine, just lower the price. He says they cannot do that and I tell him I felt screwed and do not want the car. I was crushed.

Regardless of all of that, I make my dad meet me at the dealership anyway. I test drive the Accord and it is okay. We negotiate the price down $1,000 and my trade-in (sweet, sweet MINI) up $500 and ask for a 100,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. I get all of it! So that night I drove off with a 2008 Accord. It is mine now. So all of you that have awed over how great yours are, will sleep better tonight knowing that I have joined your club.
So far, I do not really love it. In fact, I do not even like it. I am so hoping it grows on me.

Oh, and at the end of the night, the salesman takes me to the back of the lot to show me my exact same car WITH THE OLD WHEELS ON IT! After telling me that they did not have them anymore, he has the audacity to show them to me as I am driving off the lot with a more expensive car. Grrrr! I hate car sales people!

Because it is already late, I cannot get a good picture of it, but if you click on the Accord link it looks just like that one. I will try to get a pic of the actual car in the morning.  The interior does match Cooper quite nicely, and she looks very excited to go for a ride!