My New Ride

Well I did it. I finally pulled the trigger and got a new car. I settled on a 2009 Nissan Pathfinder. I’m happy with my purchase and I think I gotta pretty good deal on it. It’s not anything that I thought I was going to get. Even the color is different than what I imagined in my head. It has a bunch of stuff in it that I know I’ll probably never need or use but the deal I was offered was too good to pass up.

So I actually ended up going to the dealership after I wrote my previous blog post. It was kinda funny when I brought the car home, b/c many of the things I said would happen did actually happen. And b/c I had already predicted it made it less infuriating for me, and I was able to laugh it all off. When my mom first looked at the car, she took a peek inside and she said “why is it so small?”. She then asked me how much I got for my trade-in… I told her $4000. She said that’s it? Okay for those of you who don’t know, I traded in a 2002 Ford Explorer XLS (base model) with 116,600 miles on it. It had  A LOT of problems. ABS light was on, Rear differential was leaking, and the transmission needed to be rebuilt. For me, the repairs would’ve cost about $2500-$3000. The NADA trade-in value of my car was listed as 3,200 in excellent condition, and 1,775 in rough condition. Resale value of it was listed at $4900 (in excellent condition). I had gone to a few other dealerships and the most I was offered was $3000. So this dealership offered me the most for my trade in. But of course mom still says “That’s it?”…lol. My car came with a backup cam so when you put the car in reverse you can see if anything is directly behind you. Mom asked if the car beeps when you get close to something, I replied “no” and she said “oh well Chiumo’s (my big brother) does that. I realise that Mom only says these things cause she wants the best for me, so I let all this slide.  I’d like to think deep down inside that mom actually likes the car.  But her comments about the size of the car and the rear sonar senors make me wonder if I should’ve in fact gone with the Armada. (The Armada is of course larger and comes with both the back up cam and front and rear sonar sensors that beep when you are close to something) Of course I’m sure had I gotten the Armada the comments would’ve been, it’s too big and eats too much gas.

In spite of all that I am happy with my purchase. In the end I purchased the vehicle for about $2500 below invoice and I got $1000 more for my trade-in than I was offered at any other dealership. I would have never had the confidence to negotiate as effectively as I did w/o Jackie’s help. I really appreciate her help with getting the ball rolling and teaching me a thing two about the negotiation process. She inspired me to get the best deal possible and I think I did. Oh yeah, did I mention I also negotiated in free window tinting?…lol… I know this seems very minor, but this was really important to me and I would not have bought the vehicle without it. It really was an absolute deal breaker for me. And it was hilarious to see their faces when we were at the end of the negotiating process and they were as low as they were willing to go and I said “will you tint the windows?” They of course threw their arms up in the air and gave me the whole “We are losing money on this car and you want us to tint the windows too??” spiel. Finally they caved and I have an appointment to have my windows tinted next Sat. I’m pretty sure they didn’t really lose money on the car and they probably did make a couple hundred bucks, but I still think I got a good deal. After all, I didn’t expect to get the car for free!

Next up – Finding a reasonable price on a Nissan extended warranty. I think I may have found a dealership to sell it to me at cost rather than the 100% market-up they normally do! 

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