Crazy weekend;
Good morning!
I had a pretty interesting weekend. Friday night, as I said before, we went to my friend's house for a cookout to celebrate his wife becoming an American citizen. That's big news. She was very excited and had lots of friends and family around celebrating with her. It was really good. Really really good, actually. We had brats, hot dogs, hamburgers, watermelon, baked beans, potato chips, apple pie (as American as can be), and even a US Flag cake. Soda and beer as well. Great food, great company.
Saturday we had simple errands planned. Nothing major, but things that needed to be done. First we had an appointment at 10am to get Amanda's oil changed at the Ford dealership right down the road from our house. This is where our day fell apart. We got there, got her oil changed but then decided to look at new cars on our way out. We were excitedly greeted by a car salesman, which was fine because I was interested in asking about there "lease pull ahead" program. Amanda and I both had leased cars and had both had them for two years, so I thought the information would be useful. It was.
We walked around looking at all the cars Ford has to offer and then decided to "run the numbers" on purchasing a new car. The numbers looked good. It was a little more than we were hoping, but we decided to buy Amanda a new car! We traded in her leased car and bought a brand new 2008 Ford Focus. It's shiny and black. It looks awesome. A really beautiful car. New features including satellite radio and a auxiliary port in the dash for plugging in an ipod. Nice interior, cool redesigned exterior and a monthly payment that was only a little more than her leased. On top of that, we own the car now, instead of it being a lease.
This is where the day gets interesting. We then got the crazy idea that I should buy a new car too. I hate my Toyota Yaris. Big time. I loved it when I first got it, but I had so many problems with it, it was more of a headache than a blessing. Plus it was time to get it fixed, lots of door dings and scratches on the side...which is terribly frustrating, but that rant is beyond the scope of this post. Anyway...I hadn't even thought of the possibility of actually selling my leased car and buying a new car of my own, but after going through it with Amanda's car, it was fairly straightforward. After calling Geico (I love geico, way more than Toyota) and adding Amanda's new car to the insurance policy, we got back into the car and headed back to the Ford dealership! Amanda had bought one of the last two Focus's's's they had on the lot (the coolest one as well, in my opinion) but I wasn't in the market for a focus anyway. I really liked the Ford Edge, but at a cost of about $40k, it was out of my price range. I test drove an Escape and really enjoyed it! It was bigger, more powerful, tons more room, safer, more features, and on top of everything else, it was "way cooler". :) The biggest problem, the increased price tag and lower fuel economy. After running the numbers, they were going to purchase my leased car from me for almost exactly what I owed on it, which was good, I wasn't about to go upside down in a new car to be rid of the yaris, even though I would have liked to. All the discounts and incentives totaled much more than the difference in the value of the Yaris and the amount owed, so I decided to move forward. I'm the proud owner of a 2008 Silver Ford Escape. I love it.
The Yaris was fine for what it was, but I was ready to move on to bigger and better things. I make a lot more money than I did when I first started so I'm able to make the increased monthly payment. The gas economy isn't that much worse (well, about 33% worst, but still, I can afford 33% more in gas cost). On top of it all, I own it. It's mine (ours). I'm no longer leasing the car. They took the broken Yaris off my hands and gave me the keys to my new escape! I'm ecstatic. Another good thing about the new car; the car insurance is lower. In fact, I don't pay all that much more per month to own this new and nicer car, because of the offset of car insurance. :) All in all, great weekend.
Sadly, we spent about 9 hours at the car dealership on Saturday, which means we didn't get to do the other errands we had planned, but that's ok. We can do them next Saturday, and we'll be doing them in our new cars! :)
I'm at work now, so I don't have my camera, but we'll definitely take pictures of both new cars and post them this week.
Until then;
John
I had a pretty interesting weekend. Friday night, as I said before, we went to my friend's house for a cookout to celebrate his wife becoming an American citizen. That's big news. She was very excited and had lots of friends and family around celebrating with her. It was really good. Really really good, actually. We had brats, hot dogs, hamburgers, watermelon, baked beans, potato chips, apple pie (as American as can be), and even a US Flag cake. Soda and beer as well. Great food, great company.
Saturday we had simple errands planned. Nothing major, but things that needed to be done. First we had an appointment at 10am to get Amanda's oil changed at the Ford dealership right down the road from our house. This is where our day fell apart. We got there, got her oil changed but then decided to look at new cars on our way out. We were excitedly greeted by a car salesman, which was fine because I was interested in asking about there "lease pull ahead" program. Amanda and I both had leased cars and had both had them for two years, so I thought the information would be useful. It was.
We walked around looking at all the cars Ford has to offer and then decided to "run the numbers" on purchasing a new car. The numbers looked good. It was a little more than we were hoping, but we decided to buy Amanda a new car! We traded in her leased car and bought a brand new 2008 Ford Focus. It's shiny and black. It looks awesome. A really beautiful car. New features including satellite radio and a auxiliary port in the dash for plugging in an ipod. Nice interior, cool redesigned exterior and a monthly payment that was only a little more than her leased. On top of that, we own the car now, instead of it being a lease.
This is where the day gets interesting. We then got the crazy idea that I should buy a new car too. I hate my Toyota Yaris. Big time. I loved it when I first got it, but I had so many problems with it, it was more of a headache than a blessing. Plus it was time to get it fixed, lots of door dings and scratches on the side...which is terribly frustrating, but that rant is beyond the scope of this post. Anyway...I hadn't even thought of the possibility of actually selling my leased car and buying a new car of my own, but after going through it with Amanda's car, it was fairly straightforward. After calling Geico (I love geico, way more than Toyota) and adding Amanda's new car to the insurance policy, we got back into the car and headed back to the Ford dealership! Amanda had bought one of the last two Focus's's's they had on the lot (the coolest one as well, in my opinion) but I wasn't in the market for a focus anyway. I really liked the Ford Edge, but at a cost of about $40k, it was out of my price range. I test drove an Escape and really enjoyed it! It was bigger, more powerful, tons more room, safer, more features, and on top of everything else, it was "way cooler". :) The biggest problem, the increased price tag and lower fuel economy. After running the numbers, they were going to purchase my leased car from me for almost exactly what I owed on it, which was good, I wasn't about to go upside down in a new car to be rid of the yaris, even though I would have liked to. All the discounts and incentives totaled much more than the difference in the value of the Yaris and the amount owed, so I decided to move forward. I'm the proud owner of a 2008 Silver Ford Escape. I love it.
The Yaris was fine for what it was, but I was ready to move on to bigger and better things. I make a lot more money than I did when I first started so I'm able to make the increased monthly payment. The gas economy isn't that much worse (well, about 33% worst, but still, I can afford 33% more in gas cost). On top of it all, I own it. It's mine (ours). I'm no longer leasing the car. They took the broken Yaris off my hands and gave me the keys to my new escape! I'm ecstatic. Another good thing about the new car; the car insurance is lower. In fact, I don't pay all that much more per month to own this new and nicer car, because of the offset of car insurance. :) All in all, great weekend.
Sadly, we spent about 9 hours at the car dealership on Saturday, which means we didn't get to do the other errands we had planned, but that's ok. We can do them next Saturday, and we'll be doing them in our new cars! :)
I'm at work now, so I don't have my camera, but we'll definitely take pictures of both new cars and post them this week.
Until then;
John
posted by John at 9:31 AM
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