Unexpected purchase
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:56 pm
Made the mistake of using my car to drive GW and BD around to our wedding planning sessions. It's noisy. The suspicion is that Honda has never owned up to strut and suspension problems on this version of the Civic, because it eats tires. In 125,000 miles, I've probably gone through four full sets, including the set I needed at 15,000 miles before they gave us new front struts for free in an apparent silent recall. It would probably be five sets, since the noise is due to the same issue, which we supposedly repaired again about a year ago.
I said would be. Looking up potential replacements, I see that Toyota is offering 0% financing on the 2009 Corollas. We liked our old Corolla, BD's car, and would have replaced it with another one last year if they hadn't still been so stodgy. Got her the new model Civic instead. Signed up online to get some dealer quotes. The only one to get back to me in three days has been the dealer right down the street, maybe 5 miles away. We went there tonight to test drive the thing.
Nothing spectacular about it. The new design is okay. Kinda looks like my old Civic. It drives well, has good acceleration, gets 35 mpg highway (theoretically) which is most of what I do. Still a bit stodgy, but then, so am I.
Initial offer is at MSRP, minus our trade. GW, who is cranky because of some dental work, says we won't do MSRP. We don't plan on buying immediately anyway, and so tell the salesman that we'd go think about it and come back in a few days. He asks what would be a good price. We turn it around and ask him the same thing. He goes away, comes back. Says it has been a bad sales day, and offers us essentially invoice price minus another $500 on the trade, which gets that up to the higher end of what I expected from it. We wait a week for the color we want, or rather I want since this is my car, and we're getting a new car. Truly didn't expect to buy tonight, but I don't think we'd do much better anywhere else. The proximity of the dealer is another plus. Next nearest is a half-hour away. And if they follow their quote, even the sales tax is rolled into the 0% payments. Not sure that'll happen, but pretty good if it does.
Haven't had a new car for Mom or Dad in over six years. It'll be nice. We even get one right off the truck, too. Meanwhile, in a telling note about our different lifestyles, my boss drove a new Porsche to work today. The old vehicle must have gotten dirty so he traded it in.
I said would be. Looking up potential replacements, I see that Toyota is offering 0% financing on the 2009 Corollas. We liked our old Corolla, BD's car, and would have replaced it with another one last year if they hadn't still been so stodgy. Got her the new model Civic instead. Signed up online to get some dealer quotes. The only one to get back to me in three days has been the dealer right down the street, maybe 5 miles away. We went there tonight to test drive the thing.
Nothing spectacular about it. The new design is okay. Kinda looks like my old Civic. It drives well, has good acceleration, gets 35 mpg highway (theoretically) which is most of what I do. Still a bit stodgy, but then, so am I.
Initial offer is at MSRP, minus our trade. GW, who is cranky because of some dental work, says we won't do MSRP. We don't plan on buying immediately anyway, and so tell the salesman that we'd go think about it and come back in a few days. He asks what would be a good price. We turn it around and ask him the same thing. He goes away, comes back. Says it has been a bad sales day, and offers us essentially invoice price minus another $500 on the trade, which gets that up to the higher end of what I expected from it. We wait a week for the color we want, or rather I want since this is my car, and we're getting a new car. Truly didn't expect to buy tonight, but I don't think we'd do much better anywhere else. The proximity of the dealer is another plus. Next nearest is a half-hour away. And if they follow their quote, even the sales tax is rolled into the 0% payments. Not sure that'll happen, but pretty good if it does.
Haven't had a new car for Mom or Dad in over six years. It'll be nice. We even get one right off the truck, too. Meanwhile, in a telling note about our different lifestyles, my boss drove a new Porsche to work today. The old vehicle must have gotten dirty so he traded it in.
