A New Car!!!

No, I wasn’t on the Price is Right. No, I didn’t win a new car. However, here is a story of how everything kind of fell into place.

The Hyundai (The Goose Mobile) I have been driving was closing in on 200,000 miles. It was almost time to get new tires and put brakes on again. So, Sam and I had been talking about looking at cars that would get good gas mileage because of how far I drive to work.

We made an appointment to go to the dealer to see a friend of hers to just run numbers and look at cars. We also wanted to get the Goose Mobile appraised. We had a vehicle or two in mind that we knew did good on gas and would probably get us into a lower car payment.

We had been looking at Chevy Malibu’s or the Chevy Trax. Sam’s friend, Mark, told us that there was a Trax we could look at, but it was already sold. We wanted to see just how much room was in it, trunk space, back seat space, etc… I was surprised at how much room was in it, especially since it doesn’t really look that big.

Sam was also interested in the Chevy Equinox. Once Andrew is sitting facing the front in his car seat, Sam would like to get into one of those. There was a Demo on the lot, which was priced right, but the color was, what Sam called, “Baby Poop Brown.” HA!

As we were getting ready to look at some other cars, someone yelled to Mark that a Trax, which was supposed to be sold, was suddenly available. So he grabbed the keys and let me take it for a spin.

I really wanted to dislike it, but I didn’t! I really was impressed with it. I offered Sam a chance to drive it, but she said she didn’t need to. She said it handled well, which it does. When we got back from the test drive, they told us our appraisal on the Hyundai and gave us the rough estimate of the new car payment. It was significantly lower than what we are paying now, and Sam said to write it up.

We had hoped to get it financed through the credit union that we already have out van loan through, but they wanted a crap ton of money down. That kind of ticked me off a bit. We already have a loan through you, and have never missed a payment. Why would you not want to help out one of your members?! Oh well. Their loss.

When I called the insurance company to switch the insurance, they asked me what year the car was and both Sam and I were surprised that it was a 2024 model! I think we both assumed that it was a 22 or 23.

It was obvious that we hadn’t planned on buying a vehicle while we were there. I had the huge double stroller still in the car from our trip to the zoo and I hadn’t really cleaned the car out at all. Luckily, the stroller fit in the back with the car seats and the rest of the stuff I had to take out of the Hyundai.

It was one of those things where everything lined up and fell into place. As a bonus, I ran into my friend Christine, who does all the marketing for the dealership. She and I met 10+ years ago when the dealer hosted their first classic car show. My other friend, Mark, was there working in the finance department. He went on the air with me when we were promoting that first car show and it was great to see him.

The way they worked everything for us, they have customers for life! I had to work tonight, so I cannot thank them enough for all they did to make things happen in a hurry today.