New and more new

The house-husband is no more. He has a new job that pays a bit better than the house-husband gig, but with a longer commute. To go with that new job, we bought a new car. The new car, wasn't planned or budgeted for at this time, but the old 1998 Ford Windstar was going to need over $3000 in repairs and we had wanted to replace it later this year, just not now. New car shopping with my husband is always fun. This last time was no exception.

He received his offer for employment in the mail on Friday. On the following Monday he accepted the offer and began all the paperwork and so on to be hired on at the new company. On Wednesday, he decided to bring the van in for some work because it was intermittently overheating. The mechanics started looking into it and said initially it looks like there is a leak that is allowing "mud" to enter the radiator. The leak was most likely due to a bad head gasket. That night we did research on possible replacement vehicles, new and used. We even visited our credit union's website as they have an used car connection. We narrowed down our choices and pretty much figured the van was going to be donated and we'd be buying a new car within a couple weeks. We love to go to car shows, so we already knew what kind of cars we liked so were looking at Honda Elements and Ford Escapes. This would be the husband's primary car so he would be making the final decision. The van was pretty much his car anyways. I'm not a fan of the big cars.

Thursday morning after dropping the daughter off for preschool, we dropped the VW off for it's yearly maintenance to make sure it was running well. I really wanted to buy a Honda as a the replacement vehicle. I like most of their cars, but have never been able to buy one. I suggested we have lunch at a place next to a huge Honda dealership and we could test drive some cars.

We walked onto the lot around noon on Thursday and at 5:30pm the husband was driving off the lot with brand new Tangerine Mist Honda Element. We started looking at the used ones and test drove an used Element. The husband is EXTREMELY picky about the seats in his car. One time after buying is Nissan truck a few years ago, he was so upset with the seat in the car that he wanted to buy a Ford Ranger truck seat and have it installed in his Nissan. Test driving these Elements was extremely important for Mister Picky. He also has to really peak into every nook and cranny of the vehicles. The more we looked around and drove the cars, we realized a brand new one, which was more comfortable to drive, was only the difference of a couple thousand dollars.

BUT . . . the husband was very difficult with the sales people during negotiations. He basically gave them an impossible offer and said, "I knew you couldn't make that price and I offered that price because it goes against my grain to go out and buy the first car I see. In order for me not to regret shopping around more and buying this car, I'd have to get an amazing deal like the one I put on the table for you." He continued on about how he'd would hate the car if paid more and realized he could have done better by shopping around more. His offer was $1000 down and $250/month for 4 years. Everyone was very cordial and we thanked them for all the work and said we would most likely be back, but we just couldn't buy today. Meanwhile, I am dying with laughter on the inside seeing my husband give these speeches. I almost think he would do well in politics some day.

So, we walk to our car that is parked at the restaurant about 3 blocks away. We are about 1/2 a block from the car when we hear someone yelling the husband's name. We turn around and the sales manager is running down the street with one last offer. Amazing. The husband pretty much got his deal. We paid $1000 down and they gave us $1000 for the van as trade-in (sight unseen mind you and it is still at the shop and they don't know this) and $250/month for 4 years. They drove us to pick up the van and we paid about $95 to have the radiator flushed so it would at least make it to the dealership.

What a day. Car shopping with the husband, is always entertaining.