smart kitty

I finally bought a new car! It is cute, and I like it.

Even though I am a grownup with a decent job, I just had a hard time believing I was actually getting a new car. I'm 31, and I'd kind of emotionally accepted the fact that I would never be able to have a new car.

Aside from being broke for most of my life, I inherited a bit of that attitude from my family. My mom's reaction to me getting a new car was: a) Oooh, Honda? Fancy! You must have hit the big time. That is a rich person's car. Are you sure you can afford that? Now your insurance will go through the roof! b) So, it's NEW? I have never had a new car in my life and probably never will. Wow!

I've been at the mercy of a crappy car that has scrapes and bruises and has broken down on me many times, usually when I could barely afford to fix it. It was like an abusive boyfriend. I was embarrassed to introduce it to new people, for fear it would do something bad I'd have to make excuses for later. A few times I had to tell people what it had done and then act like it didn't bother me too much, although it was obvious that it did. No one could really understand why I was with it for so long. Most of the time it was fine, but other times it was really bad. And those were the times everyone knew about and wondered why I'd put up with it. But they didn't understand! I was stuck with it, and it was my fault.

On my way to the dealership I couldn't believe that they were actually going to let me have a brand-new car. I was worried that somehow they would be able to tell that I wasn't supposed to have one and retract the deal. I had already arranged the price via email and phone. But it wasn't for reals until I had signed everything, called "no takebacks" and driven it off the lot.

It was a good thing I had done all my negotiating beforehand rather than in person. It must've been pretty obvious that I was scared out of my mind. I made sure to repeat the price several times to the sales guy and reiterate that it was the "out the door, after tax, all fees included, this is the number on the check you are getting" price. But! Suddenly when I got to the finance guy, it seemed like my fears were warranted.

Now, I was not financing through the dealership. But the final registration and paperwork goes through their finance department regardless. I signed like 40 papers, and then came the paper with the total price on it. And it was $1100 more than what I'd agreed to pay! It turns out that it was just a paperwork error by the sales guy ... but I was about to barf while I waited for him to come and confirm that to the finance guy. So I was able to get the price I'd agreed to. And really I just had to wait 5 minutes for them to sort that out. And I must've looked really scared, because the finance guy kept telling me it would be OK and then paging the sales guy over and over and eventually running out to the lot to grab him. That was the longest 5 minutes!

Then I got my shiny new silver car. The End!

Notes:
-- If, like me, you are tough in theory but not in person, I highly recommend doing as much as you can over email when you buy a new car. Saved a lot of time and money!

-- Marin Honda in Corte Madera was awesome. Aside from the minor paperwork scare, everything went smoothly and they never pressured me or condescended to me. Plus, I got a hell of a deal. Other dealerships got very close to the price I was asking for (which was quite low) but this one beat the lowest by $600 and with no back-and-forth or haggling.

Posted by smart kitty on Apr 15, 2008 at 4:34 PM | Permalink