The $1 Christmas Tree

Another long, draining day.

After getting estimates on how much it will cost for me to get the starter, A/C and rear brakes fixed..actually, fixed is a generous word - they need to be outright replaced. Looking through my repair record, I have sunk WAY too much money into this car. Here's a list of what I have put into it the last 2-3 years:
Timing Belt
Water Pump
4 New Tires
Battery (seems innocuous but the batter prior to it exploded and corroded parts of the engine)
Struts
2 rims
2 alignments
Front brake replacement
A/C Repairs - "patch" fixes that failed six months after

What's next? Transmission?

I already knew I had $1500 in repairs to deal with so I anticipated that the financial issue would only grow if not stay stagnant. I started working on financing and I've been researching cars ever since Tamara and I almost got ourselves killed on Osceola Parkway when my car steamed up during a rain storm and I couldn't see the road. That was a highlight - driving down the high way with the windows rolled down during a tropical rain storm (Irene, I think?).

Anyway, I could gripe about the problems I've had with the car but suffice to say, this latest $2000 bill officially would I paid more in repairs than what I paid for the car in the first place. So, that's the end.

So, tonight I left work to negotiate the car of my choice, which has worked out to the Toyota Matrix. I test drove it and loved it. But, I've never bought a new car or any thing from a dealer so I was worried about negotiations. Then I thought, I deal with people infinitely smarter and more challenging than car salesmen every day of the week, I can deal with this.

I used my natural talents (talking very fast and being able to think fast) to be just as much of a salesman back. I had all my data from the internet and found discrepencies between their internet pricing schema, invoice and sticker. I forced them to justify every single item other than the car and options I asked for. I told them I was an auditor and I acted like one! I ticked, tied and got very hardline about the padded profits. And, frankly, I became a jerk. I became a literal jerk in this process. It went a little something like this:

Salesman: I've already given you my best price, how much of this profit are you going to ask me to keep?
[pause, mutual stare down]
Me: A dollar.
[stare down]
Salesman: I'll go talk to my manager.

So I got it for almost $1500 under invoice (and almost $3K off MSRP), which I believe is quite good for a Toyota. I feel very good and proud of the deal I got, especially being a woman. Women are always jerked around and I didn't feel that I negotiated like a woman. He tried the whole, "Oh this is Jenny's first sale.." and all kinds of nutty stuff like that but I was totally unmoved by it and very frank by what I thought was B.S.

And really, it's my birthright. My mother was a shrewed negotiator and so was my grandfather. He bought negotiated a Christmas tree to a $1 once and when I named the dealer profit, that dollar was in honor of my Grandpa.

Here are pictures, anyway.

Here's the exterior in the color I got, "Cosmic Blue:













Here's a view of the interior: