Woo! We Found a New Car!!

Finally after days of searching we purchased a new car! Like I said before, Dave really wanted a Toyota Sienna. I liked them too, but I wasn't totally convinced that it was the car for us, plus they're really expensive. Anyway, we looked and looked at a bunch of Toyotas, and I just didn't feel right about it. Not because they were bad cars or anything, but it was the price. We'd have to pay between $20 000 and $25 000 to get the year, model, and low km that we wanted, and I just didn't feel comfortable maxing ourselves out financially. Yes the Toyota is nice, roomy, cup holders and storage galore, perfect for road trips, but we don't NEED all that extra stuff right now. We have two small kids (2 years old and 10 months old), so they don't need a lot of leg room, plus their car seats already have their own cup holders built in. I told Dave that when we have four or more kids and the kids are older and bigger, then we will NEED a van and I'll agree to a Sienna right away.

So, on Monday night, after a long day of car shopping at dealerships and online, I some how convinced Dave to at least test drive a Ford Freestyle. He was pretty dead set against it. He said "sure fine, we'll LOOK at one, just to get it out of your system." We went to the Ford dealership near Dave's parents house and saw a beautiful sage green one that they just got in. It was $14999 and had 89 000 km on it. The downside (besides being a tad overpriced and a tad high in km) was that it didn't have side impact air bags or side curtain airbags. We took turns driving the car and I liked it, not my dream car, but I thought it was nice. After the drive, the guy of course, tried to sell it to us. Dave said we'd consider it if we could get it for $13000 including the trade in of our Ford Focus. WHAT?!? Did those words actually escape Dave's mouth? He's considering the Freestyle? I was shocked! Any way, it was getting late and the kids were getting crazy (mostly Rosie, she wanted to run around), plus I wasn't convinced that it was the best value and I really wanted those side air bags. We told the salesman that we'd call him in the morning and we left.

At home Dave got online and checkout out some other Freestyles on auto trader, just to see what they were going for. Then, we found something GREAT from a Ford dealer 45 minutes away! Same vehicle, same color, same price BUT 69 000 km. We called the dealership the next morning to make sure it was still there and that it hadn't been in any accidents. The car was there and it was accident free so we got ready and went to the dealership. When we got to the dealership I noticed that the sales manager was the same sales manager I worked for when I worked as a showroom greeter and receptionist WAY back when I was 18. What a small world! I was so glad to see a familiar face and I asked him to give us his nicest and best sales person because I was so sick of dealing with crapy ones. We went out back to check out the Freestyle. It was just like the other one we saw the night before, BUT it had some bonus features. This one had side impact airbags, side curtain airbags, dual climate controls, six passengers, and like I said before, 20 000 fewer km. It was PERFECT!!! I felt good about it the second I sat inside it. Dave took it for a test drive and when he got back we went to the office to make a deal. We wanted to get as much for our trade in as possible so that the price we would pay would be as close to $13000 as possible. We ended up getting it for $13500 (that's including what we got for our trade in). Dave signed the papers, paid a deposit, and now we wait until Monday to pick it up.

I'm really excited about our new car!! I'm glad we didn't max ourselves out financially, and I think it really suits our small family. It will also look better when Dave goes to business appointments, and it's the color we always wanted. It's funny that we ended up getting the car that I wanted. I knew from working in car sales from before, that the woman usually gets her way with cars, and it couldn't be more true in our situation. It's funny too because last week I joked on my facebook status "Dave and I are car shopping. 'I'll tell you one thing. I am not going to be one of those women schlepping her kids around in a minivan. I want an SUV... with 3 rows of seats' - Kelly Kappoor, The Office." and that's what I got haa haa. Once again, happy wife, happy life!! Now I have to pray that nothing goes wrong with this car otherwise it'll be "YOU wanted this car and look at all the problems....." Please Freestyle, be good to us! Any way, Dave and I are both really happy with our choice and we feel at peace.

Here's a picture of the new car, well, I should say SUV.
Me Ka Aloha
- Elisabeth