Done & Dusted

Nothing good ever comes easy. Getting a good deal on a car proves that to be the case, but with a little bit of focus and hard work and sizing up the competition, the consensus is in: I beat the dealership at their own game.

If I told the GM and all the managers of this dealership that this was the first car I ever negotiated, I think they'd freak out. But, the end result is, I've gotten the car for $1800 UNDER invoice, free floor mats (which I thought they were taking out) and a few free tanks of gas. What happened, apparently, is when I got aggressive with the salesman about justifying the under invoice cost and accusing them of hiding and inflating fees it got him flustered. He ended up double dipping on some figures and gave me a price that essentially put the car at fleet pricing. I got the car for the same price a corporation purchasing 40 vehicles got!

More to the point, I got a brand new '06 Matrix for $200 LESS than a USED '04 Matrix. Hahaha!

So I'm very chuffed but it didn't come easy. I thought I'd have buyers remorse, sticker shock (though it's an inexpensive car, it's still a lot of money) but I don't. For many reasons.. Firstly, after I was on disability 2 years ago and making only 40% of my income that was going mainly into medical bills, I nearly lost my house and badly hurt my credit. So, this purchase will help repair my credit. Secondly, you can't get a car with low mileage (under 70,000 miles), good safety and reliability for under $11,000 these days. Even little tin boxes like the Focus or Echo are nearly $13,000 new. So, I realized that I got such a good deal that being remorseful is a waste of energy.

Thirdly, as I sit here and wait for sticker shock and a dawning of "what on earth have I gotten myself into?", I noticed that I didn't drive off the lot wanting to throw up. Unlike when I had the timing belt and water pump replaced, unlike when I paid $400 for the battery explosion and ensuing clean up and repairs, unlike when i had to get the struts replaced and drive on bad rims, unlike when I had the front brakes redone.. Because everytime I sunk big bucks into the car, I drove out of the service center feeling sick like I had thrown money into a black hole and wondering what else was going to go wrong. And it's something of a treat to get in the car and know it will start the first time and every time.

Anyway, I'm happy now and I feel SO MUCH safer financially and personally. That's quite priceless. The stress of that question mark that has been hanging over my head ever since last year when the A/C first broke of "is my car dying?" is now over. Granted, the car payments have 100% eaten up my raise increase, but again, that's OK because it's life, I need to drive to work every day and this car I'm committing to for 10 years.

I got an inquiry about my old car today so hopefully it will be sold by the weekend.

I thought once the catharsis of the decision to ditch the money pit and the whole new car sale process over I'd be able to sleep a full night. I fell asleep around 9 last night but woke up again at 4am. So, I'm still having trouble sleeping but at least I got to bed early. Here I thought I was getting good at sleeping in!

OK, enough yabberdabber. I'm going to get ready for work and go in since I did sod all yesterday. I need to go in early.. Plus, I can't wait to drive my car!!