Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The car dealership saga continues....

I know you are all just dying to know what in the hey howdy hell the conclusion is to my car buying saga. In truth so am I. I know, I know, you all have real lives but this is all I got to entertain so here you go. So when the car dealership told me I couldn't have the Acura that they sent me home with on Saturday night I was pretty disappointed. It was a sweet car, a silver TL with leather seats (heated of course), Bose stereo system, sun roof, V6 engine and all the lovely stuff that comes with a sweet ass company car that this one started out it's life as. It was too old though (2003) and had 97k miles on it so the banks wouldn't finance it. You know how much it cost? $9000. We were putting a thousand down and only financing $8000 over 3 years. The banks wouldn't finance that? They wanted me to buy something newer, more expensive, and with less miles on it. Basically something that was worth more than what I was going to pay. So um yeah. Where is the logic in that? Fine, I told them to tell me what cars I could get and I'd choose.

There were 2, a 2007 Corolla S in white and a 2005 Jeep Wrangler in Silver. I had already test driven the Corolla the last time we were in and chose the Acura. I didn't like it. It was terribly uncomfortable, the seat was horrid. I don't know if it was me or the seat but my friend owns one and she's not built like me. She said the seat just sucks. Well I wasn't so enamored with the drive either. It was the first car the salesman tried to sell me and I got out of it and told him I wanted to try something else. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $14k for something I don't like to drive. What a waste. That'd be just a crying shame and I couldn't get myself to do it.

So let me just give you the back story on Jeep Wranglers. My hubby has always wanted one and when I moved back to San Diego (before we started dating as adults) I took him to the dealership and he got one. In burgundy. He loved the Wrangler but hated the color and I mean hated the color. Me? I liked it. Briefly. It was right after that we started dating and by dating I mean we got pregnant. Have you ever ridden in a Wrangler? Gotten in and out of one of those damned things? Are you 5 feet tall like myself? Add 9 months of pregnancy and that ever so smooth ride that you get in one of those suckers and you'll know why I detested that Wrangler. Plus I was not about to have my newborn riding in the back of a freaking Jeep. No way. I made him get rid of it. Mean evil girlfriend that I was I wouldn't marry the man and I made him get rid of his Jeep.

So when I went to the dealership on Monday they said that the only thing they had for me was the Corolla and I asked about the Jeep. They thought I was nuts, I mean I had a kid and a booster seat. This was a 2 door off road vehicle. It's a 6 speed, they actually asked me if I knew how to drive a stick. Oh pulease, I was raised on one. Learned to drive in a 5 speed truck and took my driver's test in one. I have only had an automatic for the past 5 years. The previous 14 have been with a stick, I think I can figure it out again.

Here's the break down
Corolla S : $14,000 2007 25k miles automatic 4 door 4 cylinder engine

Jeep : $13,000 2005 46k miles 6 speed 2 door 4 wheel drive (I don't need it but hey right?) in line V6


Really, they had me at the V6. I have one now and going back to a 4 cylinder would be painful. Really, painful. You can put me in something ugly, I don't care, but you take away my power and it's going to make me bitchy. I don't speed but damn it all if I pound on the gas pedal I expect a response. The Corolla did nothing. The Jeep I'm kinda worried about flipping but I know it won't. My hunny drives those things like a bat outta hell and they stick to the road. I don't drive nearly as maniacal and flippant as him. Oh and btw, when I called him to tell him that we had the option of buying another Wrangler and did he have a preference he said "Is that a trick question?". Poor guy, thinking I was messing with his brain. Because I do.

The question now is will they get us financing on it. The bank says yes but (oh you knew that was coming right?) they want a bill with my hunny's name on it as proof of residence. Not the mortgage with his name on it, not a credit card statement. No they want something like a cell phone bill, electric, cable, something that says you're in the house. This is after all the check stubs and w-2's and what not. The thing is the hunny doesn't do the bills, they upset him. I've always done the bills so when we moved in and I set everything up I used my name. Guess what? Most of those companies won't change or add his name. They'll put him in as someone who can call in for help but they won't put his name on the bill. The loan is now in a wait and see what other hoops they want us to jump through limbo. We can have the loan but we haven't signed on it yet because they are going to have to figure out what the hell they want.

If all else fails I was able to put him on the cable bill but it doens't come out for another week or so and we'll have to wait. If the dealership doesn't want to wait the 2 weeks then we'll do something else. Hell we've done this much so far and there will always be other cars. I'm tired of dragging the kid to dealerships anyway, I told them they were going to have to wait until it was convenient for us to come back in and don't expect it to be in the next day or 2. If they really want the sale they'll figure something out I'm sure. Since when was car buying more complicated than buying a frikin house?

4 comments:

Kimberly said...

damn girl this is crazy! I thought I had a hard time when it came to car buying but this wins hands down! when you go back just give them a blood sample because that seems like the onlly thing they have not asked you for.

Anonymous said...

what a bunch of bullshite! gack! just reading this post made me frustrated . . .

MichelleSG said...

Doesn't it just? As of now I am driving around a Jeep that belongs to a dealership. I'm wondering how long I can get away with that...

Death before Decaf! said...

Frustrating is certainly an understatement.