NOT a one post wonder

Were you beginning to wonder if I was going to ever make another post, or not? The last few weeks were not spent the same way I had planned. My car, Old Faithful--who now appears to be a little more old and a little less faithful-- left me stranded on the interstate a couple of weeks ago. So, since our other car is also very well-traveled, we decided it was time to trade one of them in so we have a car we are confident will take us on our roadtrip and back later this month. I've spent more hours than I care to admit looking and thinking about cars and financing.

I am thankful that my summer schedule gives me some flexible time to car shop, and thankful that we were able to get financing approval easily, but I really, really, really do not like car shopping. It's one of the few types of shopping I dread. I hate feeling like I have to play games to get the best price. I hate knowing other people are probably getting a better deal than me on identical cars because I do not play the game well. I hate the way the salesmen act like the manager is pulling all they strings and they are just innocent and powerless middlemen. I hate the way they focus on the monthly payment rather than readily telling me what interest rate they are charging or what extras they are trying to squeeze into the deal. But I have to admit I do kind of enjoy the look on their face when I pull out my financial calculator, calculate my own payment, and tell them we already have financing arranged through our credit union with a better rate than they are offering.

During this ordeal we have discovered that I am emotionally attached to Old Faithful, our 2000 Honda CRV. We bought her when we were expecting Corndog, in the summer of 2000. I was thinking about what would be easy to get a carseat in to and out of and it has been a super car for us. We've put over 185K miles on it, but I'm still not ready to let her go. So, we are trading in the car SH drives for work and we'll be sharing the Honda and the new car. Hopefully all the wrinkles have been ironed out and the car shopping saga will be over by the end of the week.