Today is a good day for my car to die...
Oct. 14th, 2004 01:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2Well actually it died Sunday, but whatever.
I got a call Tuesday afternoon after I'd left for work. North End Auto left a message for me to call. I did some more online shopping when I got home. I submitted an application for financing online with Carter Volkswagon in Ballard for a Volkswagon GTI, although I was a little worried that Volkswagons in general are pricier than I'd like. This one was barely in my price range and had 36,000 miles on it, which was a bit much, but it still was under warranty.
Then I filled out a smaller form expressing interest in another car with another dealer. Not an actual credit application, just to let them know I was interested in their car.
I got a call from North End in the morning. Yes, my car was dead. If I could give them the title they would arrange for someone to come take it away.
I think that was around ten am. Anyway I got up, showered, got dressed, and drove up there. I paid them for their "work" on the car (it was only $80.00, they just charged me for an hour of service or something). I gather all of my junk from the car, and then went over to the liscensing place, where I got an affidavite of title. I couldn't find my actual title, and in point of fact I'm pretty sure I've never had one for the Saturn. After I finished paying for it, I was supposed to get it from my Credit Union, but then I just let it slip my mind. Several years later I got something from them that I was supposed to take to the liscensing people in order to get my title, but again I never actually got that far. At one point I made sure that my regisration showed that I was the owner... but I neglected to get the title.
At least, as far as I can recall. Anyway the Affidavite was very easy to get. I handed it over to North End Auto, along with my keys, and now I just need to make sure that I fill out online that I've "sold" the car to whoever they called to come get it.
By then it was only noon, and I felt like I'd accomplished a lot already. And I had three hours to shop for a new car. I first stopped at a dealer on Aurora at about 135th, because they were a dealer for one of the types of car I was thinking of buying.
Several times they tried to sell me a Chrysler Sebring, which they had several of, but I kept pointing out that I wanted a manual transmission, which they didn't have for that make. Anyway they discovered a used car of the type I wanted with a manual transmission, which had just come in, so they set to work selling me on that. It was typical high-pressure sales stuff, the manager offering amazing deals because they hadn't sold any cars lately, and the young salesman being amazed at what a great deal I was being offered. But it wasn't all show -- as the salesman said, half of their dealership was Jeeps, and Jeeps get about 15 miles per gallon, and nobody is buying them right now. The place really did seem slow, with a lot of employees standing around talking, so when they said they'd only sold five cars so far this week, it was probably true. When they said that they were willing to accept incredible crazy offers as a result, I took it with several grains of salt.
But essentially, they knocked their listed price down about 3,000.00, which brought it more in line with what I thought the car was actually worth based on my online research. They were willing to take 1,500 down, which was easy for me to do, and could promise me around $300 per month payments, which was something I felt I could afford without causing myself unneccessary financial hardship. At one point the manager threw in four free oil changes over the next year. I think he offered some other stuff like tire rotation or something, but naturally anything he said that didn't get written down was just him saying stuff. He tossed in a $100 gift certificate for their little accessories store, and the salesman showed me the store while he checked on my credit history. But I didn't really need to buy accessories so at another point he just knocked $100 off my down payment. He also tried to give me a vacation, all expenses paid except travel, but I declined so instead he gave me a little tool set. What the heck. He did seem pretty desperate to make a sale.
And in the end I got a 7 year 70,000 mile warranty that covers just about everything. Did I get a fantastic deal? Who knows. I hate dealing with high-pressure sales people who seem so desperate to be your very best friend until you sign the dotted line. I did feel sorry for the salesman, he was a young kid who'd only been there two months, and he admitted that there was a lot of pressure to make sales and he wasn't sure it was the best kind of job for him. But anyway, I let them talk me into buying the car. I think I was happy just to have the whole car shopping thing over, so that it wasn't hanging over my head day after day. The funny thing is, I was sold on this particular make more on looks than anything. It looks cool. I'd checked to make sure it was also considered a pretty solid car, and it generally is. It doesn't get quite as good of gas mileage as I'd like, but somewhere in the mid 20's, which I consider acceptable at least. It's not low to the ground like my Saturn was, so it feels different to drive and will take me a while to get used to. It has more room inside, more passenger room, and if I fold the seats back I could even put my bike in the back, so that's cool. The version I got is pretty close to the basic version, but it has a nice cd player, air conditioning, power windows, and a few other nice features. I would have liked another color, like blue or red or black or purple (this model comes in a very nice dark plum), but at least it isn't gold/bronze/wine this time. It's silver.
So... I drove my new car to work today. I still need to get my insurance transfered to my new car, and I need to get an oil change for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
geojlc's car, and get it back to her. But other than that, my dead car odeal is officially over.
I was kind of in a weird mood the whole drive into work too. I mean, the salesman had seemed more excited about me getting a new car than I was myself. I guess I'm still in the mode of, well, I had to get a car, and it's nice to get a deal done, but I'm not really certain I got the best deal or the best car... so I was feeling cautious and not completely excited or thrilled, even though I really think the car looks cool, and it's cool to have a new car. And I was still feeling this way as I drove in to work, but when I slapped a cdr into the player and it played immediately I suddenly felt more in love or more comfortable with my new car. (The player I've had in the Saturn for the last two years would refuse to play almost all burned CDRs and frequently refused to play store bought music cds. I hated it.)
By now you're maybe wondering what kind of car I actually got. :D Any guesses?
I got a call Tuesday afternoon after I'd left for work. North End Auto left a message for me to call. I did some more online shopping when I got home. I submitted an application for financing online with Carter Volkswagon in Ballard for a Volkswagon GTI, although I was a little worried that Volkswagons in general are pricier than I'd like. This one was barely in my price range and had 36,000 miles on it, which was a bit much, but it still was under warranty.
Then I filled out a smaller form expressing interest in another car with another dealer. Not an actual credit application, just to let them know I was interested in their car.
I got a call from North End in the morning. Yes, my car was dead. If I could give them the title they would arrange for someone to come take it away.
I think that was around ten am. Anyway I got up, showered, got dressed, and drove up there. I paid them for their "work" on the car (it was only $80.00, they just charged me for an hour of service or something). I gather all of my junk from the car, and then went over to the liscensing place, where I got an affidavite of title. I couldn't find my actual title, and in point of fact I'm pretty sure I've never had one for the Saturn. After I finished paying for it, I was supposed to get it from my Credit Union, but then I just let it slip my mind. Several years later I got something from them that I was supposed to take to the liscensing people in order to get my title, but again I never actually got that far. At one point I made sure that my regisration showed that I was the owner... but I neglected to get the title.
At least, as far as I can recall. Anyway the Affidavite was very easy to get. I handed it over to North End Auto, along with my keys, and now I just need to make sure that I fill out online that I've "sold" the car to whoever they called to come get it.
By then it was only noon, and I felt like I'd accomplished a lot already. And I had three hours to shop for a new car. I first stopped at a dealer on Aurora at about 135th, because they were a dealer for one of the types of car I was thinking of buying.
Several times they tried to sell me a Chrysler Sebring, which they had several of, but I kept pointing out that I wanted a manual transmission, which they didn't have for that make. Anyway they discovered a used car of the type I wanted with a manual transmission, which had just come in, so they set to work selling me on that. It was typical high-pressure sales stuff, the manager offering amazing deals because they hadn't sold any cars lately, and the young salesman being amazed at what a great deal I was being offered. But it wasn't all show -- as the salesman said, half of their dealership was Jeeps, and Jeeps get about 15 miles per gallon, and nobody is buying them right now. The place really did seem slow, with a lot of employees standing around talking, so when they said they'd only sold five cars so far this week, it was probably true. When they said that they were willing to accept incredible crazy offers as a result, I took it with several grains of salt.
But essentially, they knocked their listed price down about 3,000.00, which brought it more in line with what I thought the car was actually worth based on my online research. They were willing to take 1,500 down, which was easy for me to do, and could promise me around $300 per month payments, which was something I felt I could afford without causing myself unneccessary financial hardship. At one point the manager threw in four free oil changes over the next year. I think he offered some other stuff like tire rotation or something, but naturally anything he said that didn't get written down was just him saying stuff. He tossed in a $100 gift certificate for their little accessories store, and the salesman showed me the store while he checked on my credit history. But I didn't really need to buy accessories so at another point he just knocked $100 off my down payment. He also tried to give me a vacation, all expenses paid except travel, but I declined so instead he gave me a little tool set. What the heck. He did seem pretty desperate to make a sale.
And in the end I got a 7 year 70,000 mile warranty that covers just about everything. Did I get a fantastic deal? Who knows. I hate dealing with high-pressure sales people who seem so desperate to be your very best friend until you sign the dotted line. I did feel sorry for the salesman, he was a young kid who'd only been there two months, and he admitted that there was a lot of pressure to make sales and he wasn't sure it was the best kind of job for him. But anyway, I let them talk me into buying the car. I think I was happy just to have the whole car shopping thing over, so that it wasn't hanging over my head day after day. The funny thing is, I was sold on this particular make more on looks than anything. It looks cool. I'd checked to make sure it was also considered a pretty solid car, and it generally is. It doesn't get quite as good of gas mileage as I'd like, but somewhere in the mid 20's, which I consider acceptable at least. It's not low to the ground like my Saturn was, so it feels different to drive and will take me a while to get used to. It has more room inside, more passenger room, and if I fold the seats back I could even put my bike in the back, so that's cool. The version I got is pretty close to the basic version, but it has a nice cd player, air conditioning, power windows, and a few other nice features. I would have liked another color, like blue or red or black or purple (this model comes in a very nice dark plum), but at least it isn't gold/bronze/wine this time. It's silver.
So... I drove my new car to work today. I still need to get my insurance transfered to my new car, and I need to get an oil change for
geojlc's car, and get it back to her. But other than that, my dead car odeal is officially over.I was kind of in a weird mood the whole drive into work too. I mean, the salesman had seemed more excited about me getting a new car than I was myself. I guess I'm still in the mode of, well, I had to get a car, and it's nice to get a deal done, but I'm not really certain I got the best deal or the best car... so I was feeling cautious and not completely excited or thrilled, even though I really think the car looks cool, and it's cool to have a new car. And I was still feeling this way as I drove in to work, but when I slapped a cdr into the player and it played immediately I suddenly felt more in love or more comfortable with my new car. (The player I've had in the Saturn for the last two years would refuse to play almost all burned CDRs and frequently refused to play store bought music cds. I hated it.)
By now you're maybe wondering what kind of car I actually got. :D Any guesses?
