Beep beep!

Oct. 4th, 2006 10:34 pm
judecorp: (i am stupid)
In the circuitous fashion of our life together, we have secured not the first car we put a deposit on, nor the second, but instead the first car we test drove and were initially interested in - the Toyota Matrix.

After the Versa salesperson told us he could not expect to get any Versas until mid-November, we shifted gears and went back to looking at the Scion xA. We ran into the same problem as we did with the Versa (not a lot of cars on the lot, usually in white only) but Jen found a local dealer last week who promised us that they were expecting a 2007 Salsa Red xA last Saturday. And then Saturday became "Monday at the latest" and then "Monday or Tuesday" and well, here it is Wednesday evening and there is no Salsa Red Scion xA at the dealership. We were starting to get a little anxious.

The day after we put the deposit on the Scion, I received a phone call from someone at Boch Toyota (one of the places I'd called to locate an xA) who saw that I had inquired about the Matrix and that they found an additional car (not just the one in white). I told him that we had just put a deposit on another car elsewhere.

Tonight we decided we would just drive out to Bach Toyota and see if they had any cars we could buy today, either a spiffy xA or a significantly discounted Matrix (they're a big dealer and usually charge less). They did not have a single xA on the lot (though they had a bunch of xBs and tCs) and most of the Matrices (that's what it is, right? not Matrixes) were 5-speed, sold, or pre-owned. They had one automatic 2007 Matrix but it was /expensive/ - it had all kinds of extras like cruise control, the sports package, 6 CD changer, yadda yadda. We said we couldn't buy that car because it was too much money.

Some sales closer person came over and told us he could get us the car for $2K less because he wanted it off the lot, so we agreed. Then our salesperson came back and offered us the car at only $1K less and said that there was "no way his manager would approve the $2K" and we tapped the paper with the other dude's price on it and said we would buy the car for this or we would buy our Scion. So we got our car around dealer cost, which is pretty sweet.

It's still a little out of our price range, and the payments are about $30-$40 more than we would have paid on the xA, but we got a better quality car with more storage space and it has so many keen extras that I don't know what to do with. I snicker and giggle every time I think about driving a car with a "sports package." (We won't even talk about the leather-wrapped steering wheel - gross - I need a cover.) I still miss my 1998 Nissan Sentra base base base model.



Beep beep! We pick it up tomorrow night, and tomorrow morning I get to sell our first born to the insurance company. I hope the car doesn't get trashed in Dorchester!

(Also, the car fiasco made me 1.25 hours late for my freaking shot. How annoying.)
judecorp: (if i ruled the world)
So we've given up the hunt for the elusive Versa. It was just too crazy to think that there was not a single dealer in this area that expected to have one any time in the near future (read: when we need a car) that wasn't bright white or fire engine red. We got tired of calling dealers and getting the "we expect a truck in the next 10 days maybe" runaround. And, admittedly, I started to just get really stressed out about Jen not having a car for her new job. She also is taking next week off between jobs and we were going to use some of that time to get some stuff fixed on the Focus (breaks check, oil change, finally fix the trunk damage from the vodka bottle, general maintenance check) since I'd actually have a car to use for work. So the idea of cutting it to the wire was not going to work.

We went to Plan B, which is the Scion xA. It was one of the first cars we test drove (the same day as the Matrix) and we liked it quite a bit. It was a little higher on emissions than I liked but it has decent gas mileage and handled pretty well (more like an economy car than the Versa but good). And it is certainly well within our price range - actually on the lower end. It's cute, it has a hatch back, and reviews all list it as quite dependable with little maintenance required. I think Edmunds said it had the Lowest True Cost To Own in its class, so that's nice, too. Jen found a dealer locally that is supposed to get one, yes one, on Saturday or Monday and she put a little deposit on it so we get first dibs. It's a nice maroon color (Scion calls it "salsa red" which does not look like a fire engine) and it is a little pricier because it happens to have the optional extra airbag package (side and curtain air bags), which is cool because I kind of wanted that anyway.

The sucky parts are that it doesn't have as much haul space as the Versa or the Matrix or the other cars we looked at, and that it doesn't have much pick-up. But I guess that's what happens when you get into Car Desparation Crunch Time. Besides, it's cheap and cute, and heck, I don't require much more than that.

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