angelak | Friday - Car purchasing. (Reply)

It was a FABULOUS weekend. (or fantabulous, whichever you fancy.)

Sooooo soo much happened. Is it possible to fit it into a single post?
We’ll split it up into days.

FRIDAY:

Friday I knew I was going to buy my car. I was ridden with a lack of attention span for the morning, anticipating only my upcoming deal. I took care of a few things that were important at work; I just wasn’t as much into it.

Finally I got off for “lunch.” This entailed speeding down to the Bellevue Subaru and saying my last words to Joe. Good riddance and farewell. May your next owner treat you as well as I did.

I was planning on test driving and kennel-fitting first. That did not happen. Soooo, onto the car buying experience. I got there, talked to my salesman. Things were very low key at this lot. No pressure, and it pretty much felt like I was more of less hanging out with the people there. I felt impatient to get the deal finished, and at first when there was no one to talk to between the moments where Andy the salesman who reminded me of an older version of Evan – came to and fro – THOSE moments dragged.

An older guy who used to work there showed up and was sitting at a table for a while – we talked. That made the minutes of “the finance office,” go quicker.
We made some last minute tweaks to the deal because I had over-estimated my payoff amount for Joe (absent-minded Angela.) This incurred more number pushing.

Regardless.
Finally into the finance office to sign papers and talk about add-ons. I decided to go for the “maintenance add on” even though it costs $1200. Basically oil changes and routine maintenance for the first 45,000 miles on the car. Seeing as the car is brand new, that’s a lot of miles, a lot of oil changes, and I know I’ll be paying interested on the extra amount – though I find something kind of attractive about the idea that I don’t have to worry about those lousy oil changes elsewhere. I mean, I used to do that stuff myself. And of course, there are a couple of routine things to do at 15,000 and 30,000 I think. I know 30,000, but I cannot remember the others. And they’ll give me a loaner car if those things take much time.

I asked to make sure they’d still give me the loaner car even though I’m under 25. I have been burned with that shit before. When I was browsing at the STI’s a while back, I remember a particular salesperson mentioning that the loaner cars were for customers over 25. This peeved me.

“So I drop 30K on a car and you tout a loaner-car policy (can’t remember what for) and then turn to me and say, ‘except for you, ma’am, you’re under 25.’?”

Well, needless to say this stuck in my head and I ask this kind of question for things of that nature now.

Sooo, I have to admit because my salesguy reminded me a LOT of Evan, I was a lot less on the defence. I like how Evan is, and I liked this guy Andy’s sales tactics.
He won me over when he let me test drive my car alone.

“Bring it back when you’re done.”

Instead of Nissan of Bellevue, anal retentive, “there might be cops around here,” guy – who wasn’t willing to bend with anything.
Nissan of Everett: great people. They opened my car buying experience in a really positive way and caused me to feel a lot less leary of going out in general.

Personal opinions.

Soooo, GAP coverage that Jill told me later I shouldn’t have bought through the dealer – (claims you can get it with your insurance and it costs way less and you can cancel at any time) and the maint. Plan.

I signed the papers after making about 3 different calls to my mother (who seemed to be the only one available to call) to slow down the process and allow me to think through some decisions.

I know it’s silly to say, but I must admit I am very proud that I went through the whole process on Friday of buying my car, all by myself. I survived, got a pretty good deal, and am pretty satisfied with it. I try not to think about what BETTER deals I could have gotten or this or that. In fact, I am trying not to think numbers much at all, because being a Virgo – I don’t want to spoil my joy and I obsess over these things too much anyway.

It gets old when 20 people are asking about “the numbers” on the car, rather than just being happy for you :P

I did as Invisiogoth told me: I breathed when I signed the papers.
I made comfortable conversation with the finance guy – he was more than willing to allow me several phone calls outside of his office – which is duh, but still.

And before I knew it. I signed the papers, was taking the last few things out of Joe, and bidding my old car farewell. I was behind the wheel of my new shiny black car.

TV Tim’s comment was, “it’s a very compact little car,” this morning. That was great. I’m glad he said this; I’m still fond of “petite,” as he put a different time.

So, began my trek back to work. Focusing at work felt. Impossible. Several phone calls happened. Family members. My boss joked that he needed to take my phone away. :P
I showed it off to my boss, tried to finish last minute work, and once Chris left, I bolted out of the office.

I visited faerievixen2 and glitch25. This was pleasant – although I was dying to show someone my car, these folks seemed to want to stay inside the house as it was raining and their parking lot is a lake. Glitch25 assumed it was an Impreza wagon! Silly man. I agree those things are pretty… bloated.

Are you kidding? Angela buy a wagon? Not very likely.

No car payment for 45 days. This is good. My down payment is kind of like my first car payment anyway – right? One huge one, albeit ;)

After this I drove to Everett to show it to my parents. I drove mom to get coffee for dad and I. I was getting sleepy by then. The car buying experience exhausted me.

Jim called to say he was on his way home from Vancouver, WA.
The time had flown quicker than I meant and I realized it was time to head out to Tacoma area.

I headed down to Tacoma to meet up with Jim.
Sadly, at this time I cannot remember what the hell I DID in Tacoma.
I guess I hung out with the guys.
:)

Maybe I will remember later.
Anywho. This post has been waiting for hours to be posted.

-Angela