Once upon a time there was a girl named Goldilocks who wanted to buy a new car. Ok, so it was me and it was just last weekend but you see where this is heading.
I have been driving a base model '99 Honda Civic for the past eight years. His name was Stivic and we were in love. However, Stivic was getting very old and I couldn't bare to watch him die. He seemed to always be in the shop for some problem or another; first a knocking sound when I made left turns, then a high pitched squeal from the AC, then knocking sounds when I made right turns. The final straw came after a midnight run to Wendy's for some munchies. I rolled down Stivic's window to grab my fries and spicy chicken nuggets and after gleefully grabbing my indulgence I pulled away and stopped to roll up my window. See, Stivic's window has always been a little sticky so it takes both hands to crank the sucker back up. However as I reached for the crank it easily glided around counter-clockwise. However the window did not follow suit. It was broken....and of course it was raining....and only 37 degrees out. After driving the mile back home I was forced to cover the window with a trash bag and hope for the best until morning when I could take it in. Almost $300 later I had a functioning window and a notice that my oil was leaking and all three belts needed to be replaced. Let the car shopping commence....
Over the course of the next week my husband tried discussing with me what cars I could get to replace Stivic. I felt pretty set on the fact that I wanted another Civic but agreed to test drive a few cars he recommended. After doing some searching on AutoTrader we set out on Saturday to spend the day test driving cars.
First stop was a Honda dealership of course. I had found a used Honda Fit that sounded pretty interesting and it was in our price range. I hopped in the driver's seat and took off heading to the highway for a test spin. The car was surprisingly spacious for a hatchback and had quite a pick up and go. I was really digging driving the car around. My favorite feature was the back seats. They fold flat so it was like I was getting a station wagon with the look of an adorable hatchback. Back at the dealership we examined the car a little more. It was silver (acceptable color) but it looked like a used car. I mean, it was a used car....but it looked like it to. Even though it was only a 2010 it looked old. While I would have been upgrading to power windows it didn't have key-less entry and the AC unit looked out of the '90's with the crank dials instead of modern button selections. The price was right but it just wasn't feeling like me.
Next up we headed to yet another Honda dealership because it was on the way to the cars my hubby wanted me to look at. I had found a beautiful blue Civic online that I just had to see even though it was a few thousand over what I was looking to spend. A salesman greeted us before we even got out of the car and after checking out my print out of the car he sent us down the street to the other half of the dealership where the car was. Apparently they are so awesome that they have two locations within a block of each other. Who knew? Once down the street we were informed that the car was indeed back at the first location. Now, this was frustrating. Just as we were about to hop back in the car the salesman started asking about our price range. He then went on to say that they didn't carry any cars for that price and they would never negotiate more than a couple hundred off the sticker price. He said sorry and walked away leaving us with our jaws on the ground. I have never in my life seen a car salesman walk away from a sale with so little effort. It's not like I was looking to pay only a couple grand for a car. We were looking at two to five thousand less than sticker prices. What car dealership doesn't negotiate? I am torn between being happy that he didn't waste my time and pissed that he dismissed me so easily. That left a real sour taste in my mouth and anyone who wants to know the name of the dealership should message me because I am more than happy to bad mouth them.
Finally we were headed to the Hyundai dealership where my husband wanted me to look at the Elantra and the Accent. His thought being that they were good cars and we could possibly get a brand new one for only a little more than our price range and the lower interest rate would make up the difference. After waiting in line to talk to a salesman (really Hyundai, really?) we finally got to speak with the floor manager who was a older gentleman with huge dark circles under his eyes and who reeked of smoke. He pulled around an Accent hatchback in a weird shade of blue for us to test out. This was a brand new car with only 5 miles on it yet when I hit the accelerator to take off I felt like I was back in Stivic. It had no pick up at all. The whole thing felt like a cheap version of the Fit and was actually way more expensive than we first thought. Next up was the Elantraewwww. It smelled horrible inside even though it was a new car and it had this weird black and tan mix interior which I have to say is a deal breaker. I don't care what my husband says, I could not stand looking at that interior every day for the next ten years. After finding out that gray on black was another option I hopped in and took her out on the road. I immediately started to panic a little. I felt like the car was closing in on me and my claustrophobia was in high gear. The window ledge was high, the dashboard was high and the whole thing felt tight. By the time I got back to the dealership I was ready to explode and I jumped out took a deep breathe and stretched trying to relieve my panic. This was definitely a no go. Looks like we were back to Hondas.
By this time it was raining pretty good. We took a look through the rest of the Civics I had printed out from AutoTrader and realized that really only one other fit nicely in our price range. It was a 2007 which was fine but it had 85,000 miles on it. After looking up the CarFax we decided we could at least check it out and see. It was still pouring when we arrived at the Mazda dealership the Civic was at. The salesman pulled the car up for us and we made a mad dash it the rain to hop in. I immediately felt relaxed. Even in the rain it felt open, light, and refreshing to sit in the driver's seat. I quickly realized that this car was pretty loaded. Power everything, key-less entry, cruise control, CD player, and even a moonroof. (What is the difference between a moonroof and a sunroof by the way?). I was pretty psyched as I pulled out of the dealership, I felt like I was flying down the road and every turn was so smooth. I was in love. The only thing still tickling at my brain was those miles. But as I stopped to think, Stivic was five years old when I got him and had around 85,000 miles on him and he lasted me eight years. This beautiful car was also five years old with the same mileage. It was just a newer version of the same car. It was even the same color. I was sold. After some negotiating we finally came to a reasonable price and with my awesome credit (811 Woot Woot!) I was able to get it for 3.43%.
As I left Stivic behind with the salesman I almost teared up a bit. We had so much history together. But I am with Stormy now (get it? He is silver and it was raining when I bought him) and he is just right.
