Getting a new car
Over the past few months Sara has been lamenting her '92 Buick's lack of good gas mileage and the fact that it has over 209,000 miles on it and in general is the source of a lot of worry for her (overheats, minor stuff doesn't work, etc).
Toyota was advertising a sale on their cars and a Corolla seemed like a good fit for Sara. The Honda Civic was also in the running. Her main criteria was gas mileage, but I wanted her to have ABS (not standard on the Corolla) and lots of airbags would be nice too. On her wish list was heated seats and a sunroof (the time she'd spent in the Focus, which has heated seats and a sunroof, had really made an impression on her).
The idea of Biodiesel had been thrown around by me, and I think a few of her friends as well, so I also wanted to look for a Golf since they used to come with diesel engines. The local dealer said that there were no more diesel Golfs (though I found some on the web inventory at another local dealer) but they had a bunch of diesel Jettas. I took a 5 speed (manual) out for a spin.
With only 100hp it's not fast, but with 177lb-ft of torque (it's max) at 1800prm, it will easily spin its wheels on our sandy roads as you leave the stop lights. For about $24k it had all the features that we said we wanted, though it was more than I was wanting to spend (but that's pretty much always the case, isn't it?).
I had been approved for a "blank check" loan for 5.95% from Capital One for $20k already, but a quick call to them the next day got them to up the limit to $27k. I figured that I didn't want to spend that much, but I had better be ready to, just in case the Jetta proved to be the car Sara really wanted.
On Saturday Sara and I went back to the Volkswagen dealer so she could check out the car. I took out the stick, and after getting it to a less populated area switched with Sara so she could drive it. It's been a while since she has driven a manual, and with the salesman in the back and a brand new car under her, she had a very rough time driving it. As much as I hate to think of it, it seems the 6-speed automatic would be the way to go.
Unsure if we really wanted to spend that kind of money, we tested a Corolla. While it was a little faster, it gets a little worse gas mileage, it doesn't handle as well, and it didn't have nearly as many features (safety or otherwise). It is about $6k less, however.
We never did test that Civic, figuring it wasn't going to be much different from the Corolla and even if it was, it wasn't going to be as great as the Jetta which competes favorably with sedans in the $30k price range. Plus, I think Hondas are a bit over rated at this point.
After haggling with the professional saleman, I had gotten him down to invoice price (which was after he gave me the song and dance about "How much profit do you think is fair for me?") but his manager wouldn't go for it. The diesel is in too high of a demand, now, for him to let it go at invoice (where they still make a fair amount of profit apparently), so we got it for $250 over invoice. Of course they "lied" when they said that they actually had the color that we wanted in stock.
Sara wasn't too happy about the experience of haggling with a professional. The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde transformation really caught her off guard. At one point she wanted to leave, protesting "They've turned mean!" Eventually we got them being nice again, by me fumbling with my calculator, pointing out that I am willing to pay sticker price on a car when it's truly warranted (I paid sticker for my Lightning and I was happy to do so) and Sara commenting about how we hadn't really seen many other cars, so maybe we should go and compare other cars. We didn't actually have to get up and walk, but it was close.
Tomorrow we should be able to pick up our car, assuming that they can do the dealer transfer. Looks like insurance will be less than the Civic or Corolla too, so that's a bonus. Now to check into biodiesel...
Toyota was advertising a sale on their cars and a Corolla seemed like a good fit for Sara. The Honda Civic was also in the running. Her main criteria was gas mileage, but I wanted her to have ABS (not standard on the Corolla) and lots of airbags would be nice too. On her wish list was heated seats and a sunroof (the time she'd spent in the Focus, which has heated seats and a sunroof, had really made an impression on her).
The idea of Biodiesel had been thrown around by me, and I think a few of her friends as well, so I also wanted to look for a Golf since they used to come with diesel engines. The local dealer said that there were no more diesel Golfs (though I found some on the web inventory at another local dealer) but they had a bunch of diesel Jettas. I took a 5 speed (manual) out for a spin.
With only 100hp it's not fast, but with 177lb-ft of torque (it's max) at 1800prm, it will easily spin its wheels on our sandy roads as you leave the stop lights. For about $24k it had all the features that we said we wanted, though it was more than I was wanting to spend (but that's pretty much always the case, isn't it?).
I had been approved for a "blank check" loan for 5.95% from Capital One for $20k already, but a quick call to them the next day got them to up the limit to $27k. I figured that I didn't want to spend that much, but I had better be ready to, just in case the Jetta proved to be the car Sara really wanted.
On Saturday Sara and I went back to the Volkswagen dealer so she could check out the car. I took out the stick, and after getting it to a less populated area switched with Sara so she could drive it. It's been a while since she has driven a manual, and with the salesman in the back and a brand new car under her, she had a very rough time driving it. As much as I hate to think of it, it seems the 6-speed automatic would be the way to go.
Unsure if we really wanted to spend that kind of money, we tested a Corolla. While it was a little faster, it gets a little worse gas mileage, it doesn't handle as well, and it didn't have nearly as many features (safety or otherwise). It is about $6k less, however.
We never did test that Civic, figuring it wasn't going to be much different from the Corolla and even if it was, it wasn't going to be as great as the Jetta which competes favorably with sedans in the $30k price range. Plus, I think Hondas are a bit over rated at this point.
After haggling with the professional saleman, I had gotten him down to invoice price (which was after he gave me the song and dance about "How much profit do you think is fair for me?") but his manager wouldn't go for it. The diesel is in too high of a demand, now, for him to let it go at invoice (where they still make a fair amount of profit apparently), so we got it for $250 over invoice. Of course they "lied" when they said that they actually had the color that we wanted in stock.
Sara wasn't too happy about the experience of haggling with a professional. The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde transformation really caught her off guard. At one point she wanted to leave, protesting "They've turned mean!" Eventually we got them being nice again, by me fumbling with my calculator, pointing out that I am willing to pay sticker price on a car when it's truly warranted (I paid sticker for my Lightning and I was happy to do so) and Sara commenting about how we hadn't really seen many other cars, so maybe we should go and compare other cars. We didn't actually have to get up and walk, but it was close.
Tomorrow we should be able to pick up our car, assuming that they can do the dealer transfer. Looks like insurance will be less than the Civic or Corolla too, so that's a bonus. Now to check into biodiesel...
posted by Mark at 2:19 PM
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