Woot-hoo! New(er) car!

[hkellick]

So, despite the panicky typo goodness of yesterday's post, I have managed to steer away from a bad car and landed myself a car I, my father, my brother AND, most importantly, my mechanic, like. :)

So lemme tell you about my day.
My day ACTUALLY started around 3:30 AM. Just woke up. By the sounds of it, alot of people had problems sleeping last night (my mom, Josh and dad). Tried desperately to go back to sleep and failed miserably. Kept thinking about the car and how I had a bad feeling and how I was unhappy with the Grand Am and how I didn't want to exchange one money trap for something that could be a money trap soon. And it supposedly already needed alot of work.

So I got up and ended up posting my last message which was panicky and typo-filled and... yeah.

Tried to go back to sleep again at 5:30, failed again because mind WOULDN'T SHUT UP... and then decided at 6:30 to skip work today and go look for something better before I made a big mistake.
Bummed around the house until 8:30, showered, dressed and started looking online for a list of well rated mid-sized cars and picked out about 10. Then I saw that the Mercury Sable, my old car, was currently well rated.. so I checked out the 2000 Mercury Sable and it seemed like a good car and I'm rather attached to what I have now and think it was a good car, so.. I'll make sure I check that out.

I was about to go down to a bunch of dealers on Transit, go back to Lea Honda.. go back to Saturn.. go to a couple in the general area I missed yesterday... but before I get there, right in front of my house is a West Herr Ford.
Well, I swear my grandfather's ghost led me there.. I thought to myself.. you know.. it can't hurt to look.
Got in, was greeted by a salesman.. told them what I'm looking for in terms of price and my list of good choices for cars and he told me I hadn't added Ford Taurus to the list. So.. i figured I'd humor him and look.
Looked at it and the first thing I think is.. god, it looks like my Mercury. Get in it and the resemblance is completely uncanny. So I take it for a car ride and... I fell in love with it. It was exactly what I was looking for because it was exactly what I had, but newer (a few newer extras like keyless entry and doors that look automatically when the car moves.
We talked about it, I told them, again, my financial constraints (about $7300 plus tax) and.. he actually agreed to meet them!
Then offered to let me borrow the car for the afternoon to drive around and make certain I love.

That, to me, speaks volumes more than anything else. They were so certain I wasn't going to buy anything else, they loaned me the car for the afternoon. Got home, called dad and told him what I'd found and got his name and password to consumerreports.com to look it up. The consumer reports review was good. Only bad thing was there was a recall on THAT car for a chip working either the rear brake or one of the right lights. I asked them to look at it before I get it tommorow.
So the initial reports were good.. called Kristen and told her the good news (and how I'd skipped work) and she was thrilled. We talked for a little bit. Made a few more phone calls.. but then phone calls from all the other dealers were coming in and I didn't wanna deal with them at the moment, so I ignored them and contacted Al, my mechanic.

Now, as you may recall, Al was supposed to look at the Grand Am today. That was part of the deal with Northtown Resellers (the ones who I felt were trying to push me into a mistake). I asked him how it did and the answer was.. it did exactly what the mechanic at Northtown said it would... but he warned me once again about the engine and that it was probably a ticking time bomb. So I asked him what he thought of Ford Taurus and he said he didn't, personally, care for Fords but he thought it was a good car. I told him about the car and he told me to bring it in at 2.

So I power napped from 12:35 to 1:30 (and apparently missed the UPS guy who rang the bell and probably had my papers from PBS&J to sign and fax back) and then was up to deliver the car to Al. Al looked at the car, green lighted it (though he said I needed to replace the right CV boot as it was leaking grease and probably rotate the tires) and I brought it back home.

Mom got home at 3:20 and saw it and thought it looked nice :) I agree :)

The fun part started about 4:30.. Dad went back to Basil's resellers (The Ford Focus I almost bought) and got his money back from them.. and then to Northtown.. where he had to fight because they said they'd already put money into fixing the Grand Am since their mechanic and Al had agreed on the problems. Well, long story short.. I probably burned a bridge or two there, but to be honest.. I'm not sure I care. Dad may like Northtown, but I felt pushed and I didn't like him and what he was doing and so... well, it's his problem, not mine.

Dad arrived at our house at 5:10, we went over, signed the papers, put a deposit on the car and at 4:00 tommorow, it will be mine. All mine :)

Like I said to dustkitten, all I need to do is get another TMBG bumper sticker for it to REALLY make it my own ;)

Yes, I am much happier than I was at 4:30 this morning.
And as someone who is happier, I hope I sleep better :) I desperately need it.

So.. that's the state of the LITE today. Tommorow I give my old car to Marc, pick up the new one.. and go back to apartment hunting, packing and.. whatever else I gotta do.
Oh, and Kristen comes in for the weekend. Yay! :D

*falls asleep now*

Comments

[lite.livejournal.com]

Nah. Why the hell would I want to hit a pedestrian?
And leave a dent in my new car? I THINK NOT! :o