trendymatt's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Her name is Rio, and she dances on the sand... I went to visit Mom for Easter weekend and came back with a new car. How 'bout them apples? Eh, it turns out that G-Fresh, the Mazda of much delight, was quickly deteriorating mechanically. I trolled around online last week doing a little amateur diagnostic work to figure out what was causing the various rattles, shimmies, and general unpleasantness in driving that my poor car had been displaying for the past few months. I found that in the best case scenario, I would have had to replace a few random parts and get new tires, all to the tune of about $500. Worst case, I'd be doing all that plus tacking on an extra $800 for a new clutch and an engine mount. Considering the car had a market value of roughly $1,000, I decided to bite the bullet and walk into the Kia showroom on Saturday. What happened in there will go down in history as the best negotiation in car buying history! In a 45-minute discussion between my salesman, the finance manager, and me, I was able to talk the terms down about $4,500 off the sticker price, went from $1,000 down to no down payment, and cut $80 off of their original offer for the monthly payment. Yeah, my mom, who bought a used Kia with no power options and multiple dings and scrapes on the body last year at the same dealership, is paying about $100 more a month than I am for my new car. She's a little bitter about that, I'm sure. But the negotiation was no cake walk! The end result required two threats to leave the dealership and calling the finance manager out on the fact that he was offering me significantly less for my trade-in than it was worth. Oh, and I really played up the "broke-ass college grad" routine. Much like most girls I know have flirted their way out of a traffic ticket, I can whine my way into a cheap new car. So, in my parking lot now is a car with 300 miles on the odometer (it had 26 when I left the lot!), power EVERYTHING, a peppy engine and smooth ride. And the new car smell! I really don't care that it's probably giving me cancer - it's hopelessly addictive. In less-than-stellar news, I am ashamed to be a Kentuckian. But many thanks to Kathy Stein and Ernesto Scorsone for fighting the good fight. 9:09 am - 04.13.04 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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