Tuesday, September 23, 2008

New car!

I bought a car on Saturday, as many of you already know. It still hasn't quite sunk in yet. Every time I see it in the driveway I wonder who the hell is visiting, lol.

I'd started to think about buying a car a couple of weeks ago, after I got some of my other obligations paid off and was able to finally start saving a decent part of my paychecks. I figured I'd save what I could over the next few months and hopefully find something decent used around the beginning of the year (and actually one of the goals I wanted to add dealt with saving a part of every paycheck for that purpose). I mentioned this to my grandmother, who brought up the possibility of a new car. I thought she was nuts, but she has a GM credit card and she had about $1500 credit on it that could be used for a car. The catch was it had to be new. And the credit was going to expire soon. Since GM was having a big sale this month where all of their cars were being sold at employee prices, I told her I'd look into it at least.

I didn't think much would come of it to be honest, but a decent used car costs quite a bit anymore. I'm not the type who can buy a crappy car and then fix it up. I needed something that would get me around and not need a ton of work and cash put into it. So I thought, who knows? By the time I got employee pricing plus an extra $1500 off it might not be that much more to buy new.

I went last Sunday with Danielle to hit all the GM dealers and see what types of cars they had available and get a general idea on prices. Purposely scheduled it so that I could be there when the dealers were closed and no salesmen would try and pressure me into test driving things or buying cars. I decided I would try and go the next day after work to test drive a few different cars. One of them was the Pontiac G5. I'd seen a red one at one of the dealers I'd really liked.

The next day while I was at work both Mark and Danielle went to that dealer of their own accord and test drove the G5. And then both texted me that I should buy it. I laughed at them, a lot. All I wanted to do was try out a few different cars and then see if there was any way I could work out a payment plan and get my shit together by the 30th when the special ended.

The next thing I know, I'd spent 3 hours at the dealership after work. I'd driven nothing but the G5, never made it to any of the other cars. I took it home to show my gran and she talked to the salesman. And suddenly I'm giving them $200 to hold the car and putting a sold sticker on it.

The rest of the week was spent dealing with the salesman and insurance company and whatnot trying to work out all of the details. My gran gave me a lot more money as an early graduation gift for a down payment. Mark thought I was being cheated (I wasn't, he had misunderstood the numbers I told him) and started calling around to other dealers. I'm glad he did, as it made me realize that with the bigger down payment I would be able to afford some of the extras I'd initially given up on. And still cut the term of my loan by a year.

So I went in Thursday night asking if they could get me a different car. One with the sunroof and sound system, and another package that had cruise control and ABS and better wheels and a bunch of other stuff. The finance lady was SO pissed about it. Apparently she'd spent a couple hours getting everything worked up for the first car and then I wanted to change it all. Oops!

They managed to get it all worked out and actually got the right car in from Ohio the next afternoon. I went in Saturday morning and signed a bajillion papers and it was mine.


Most of the rest of Saturday was spent learning to drive it, as it's a stick shift and I've never really driven one before. Mark, being the jackass that he is, had me out on the road after ten minutes (I thought I was going into another part of the parking lot we were in, but noooo, it was the main road). It must have been hysterical for him to watch me flip out. By the end of the day I still wasn't that great at it but I knew everything I needed to be doing and was getting a lot better. Now it's just a matter of practicing. I'm hoping to take it out with my mom this weekend and be ready to start driving it to work next week.

The downside of this is that I lost an entire week and didn't really study for an accounting exam I had tonight. Oh well...I don't think I did too badly!

And speaking of Mark I have a ton of shit I could write about, but I think I'll save it for next time. Maybe. ;)

3 comments:

Jadey said...

:O I wana hear more....

I'd say, being the genius that you are, you've done fine on your exam:)

And "signed a bajillion papers" that made me giggle, bajillion, its such a funny word.

And btw, i had no money for clothes shopping, Book shopping on the other hand is an entirely different matter, I didn't want to be dragged around clothes shops if i wasn't buying anything:P Well sometimes I don't mind but to hell if i was going to go then when i had books to look for:D

Christian said...

YAY NEW SHINEY CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!! Red = sexay :D I agree with Jade on the exam thing btw ;) Mark seems like a good guy too, and seems to like to make sure you don't get screwed XD YAY CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Niall said...

Nice car ^_^

It's lucky you have awesome people around you to help with various costs and things :)

When I eventually come to visit, you're driving XD