new car, no money
the tuesday after i hit that dang deer, nate and i bought a very expensive (for us) new car.
i knew i wanted a hybrid, since my planning time for an electric car was reduced to nil (thanks deer). and i knew i wanted used, since new cars were months out once your order. after some very fast research, nate wanted to check out the hyundai ionic, and i wanted to see if priuses had gotten any better since i last test drove one.
turns out we got neither.
first we headed to the toyota dealership in town to check out the situation there. i was even hoping for a hybrid camry, but the only used hybrids they had on the lot were two priuses (pri-i?) with 100k+ miles on them. i was ok with 50k, but that was a little too much.
so then we drove a block down to the hyundai dealer, and there were a couple hybrids in the lot that fit our critera, kind of.
the mileage was one criteria, the hybrid another. but here were my vanity criteria:
- adaptive cruise control
- moonroof
nate’s vanity criteria? not-beige interior.
i had seen a hybrid sonata on their website and was kind of enamored with it. it had all my criteria, but it did have half grey, half beige interior. i wasn’t sure if nate was going to let that fly.
but then we test drove it, and it won him over. there is a SUPER MOONROOF (entire roof is glass), adaptive cruise, and then a whole bunch of other doodads that do stuff. like a heated seat. a cooled seat. a heated steering wheel.
we did test drive the ionic afterward, but it did not have any of the doodads, no moonroof, and its mileage was a little higher. the only things it had going for it were it was a grey interior and it got better mileage (smaller, lighter car).
nate, of course, was all like, don’t let them know we’re interested, let’s tell them we’ll come back tomorrow, we gotta think about it.
but then the guy sat down with us and went over some numbers, then nate was all, let’s get it! i’m on board if you are! some strong will there, eh.
so we bought the car that night. the price, comparing what you got with the ionic we test drove, was pretty decent. and the way used cars are flying off lots, i wasn’t expecting it hang around much longer.
it’s a little bit bigger than the nissan, and sure a heck of a lot fancier, but dang no car payments for 10 years sure was nice. we put some money down since we got that insurance payout, but if i’d’ve been thinking i’d’ve saved each month to be able to buy outright (but that money went toward my student loans instead).
it’d better last 10+ years!