I am SOOOO Stressing!!!

All right, all right........

I know exactly what you're thinking.....

"She's stressing?? Gee what's new???"

But seriously....you'd be right!!! I have come to discover that it is my job in life to worry. I happen to be VERY good at it! I can take the most minute of things and make it in a full blown world catastrophe. I think I even create things to worry about =)!! As if life wasn't stressful enough........

So now for my NEW thing to stress over.....

ARE YOU READY????

=)

=)

I am car shopping.

Okay before you all flip out and think to yourselves - OMG! Is she nuts?? Let me tell you that I have asked my self that very same question. I assure you, I am not insane. I am of sound mind and body(ok well almost sound body). It just seems that I have picked up a new talent!! It's called......

RATIONALIZATION

I have found that I am quite good at this =)

Here are my reasons:

Better Gas Mileage

Newer Car

More Warranty

and the best one:

ONLY MY NAME WILL BE ON IT!!!

So.........

Here goes the real story.....

I shopped online for two whole days (yeah, I got paid to do it!!) to find the perfect car, my new golden chariot..........AND I DID!!

It was a new 2008 Ford Focus SES. If you haven't seen the new 2008 and 2009 Focuses, you should go check them out. This was an absolutely perfect car for me. It had:

Leather Seats

Power Everything

Ambient Lighting - this is a truly cool thing, you can change the colors of the lights in your interior!!

Microsoft Sync - this little gem lets you control your Mp3 player and cell phone all by voice command!!! Safety and coolness at it's finest!!

Great Gas Mileage

Really all that was missing was my beloved sunroof!!!

This was just an all around awesome little car. I found this little miracle at Suntrup Westport, so I emailed the dealership to investigate the kind of deal I might be able to scrounge up. It seemed that I was gonna get an awesome deal!!! The car originally listed for 20K and I could pick this one up for 15k or LESS!!!

WHOO HOO!!!........ right?

Is it ever that easy??? Seriously??? OF COURSE NOT!!

Friday night was spent cleaning out the Jeep. I was sad. I love my Jeep, but she's not very gas efficient and I use my 4 wheel drive like once a year. So with bittersweet feelings, I vacuumed and wiped down the interior. While doing this, I made myself a promise -

I WOULD NOT GET SUCKERED INTO A HORRIBLE DEAL!! It wasn't that I needed a new car because mine was a piece of crap, because it's not. It's a matter of getting something that could benefit me in the long run, if I don't think it's going to......I won't do it. My momma didn't raise no dummy!!! HA!!

ANYWAY>>>>

So I worked on Saturday until noon....ugh. Then after work I made my little jaunt North. I was excited and nervous!!! As we pulled up, I saw it!! A little sleek black dream, beckoning me to drive it and take it home =).........So I took it for a test drive...I LOVED IT!!! As I'm driving around relishing my excitement......I noticed the first little truth of the day.....

THE CAR HAD 5600 MILES ON IT!!!

That's alot of miles to just leave out when someone is inquiring about a car. I feel like I should have been told BEFORE I drove up here. It was a DEMO!!! The sales lady - Jessica(don't ever go see her, save your energy) told me that it would be discounted - yeah? Don't believe everything they say....I also made sure to inquire on the factory warranty, I asked if the warranty kicked in the day I purchased it or the day they put it in Demo service. She assured me it was from the day I purchased it.......

Apparently knowledge is not a requirement to work at Suntrup Westport. Either that or she must have thought I was pretty stupid. I did further investigation to find out that the information she gave me was FALSE, A LIE, INCORRECT, MIS-TRUTH.............You get the point. Seems you only get the balance left on the factory warranty.....not a good thing to mislead someone on....

That was mis-information number 2, number 3 came when the numbers she gave me over email didn't realistically come close to what she gave me in her little cubical from hell. First off, I know the market for SUV's in today's economy has slacked off quite a bit and values are down. So I wasn't expecting to get every penny of my payoff without rolling a little over. That being said, I had pulled the KBB and the NADA values myself so that I had first hand knowledge of what I was dealing with. I found that 7500 was the low amount for a "rough" trade in, 11500 was the high amount on an "excellent" one. Always be prepared!!! Miss Jessica did the usual disappearing act to find out her first proposal. It was laughable!! READY????

23,000.00 roughly for a 15,000.00 car.......Uh.....I don't think so!!!!

They offered me...........................................8500 for my Jeep. That's when I got insulted. I looked at the print out she had from KBB. I noticed she left off SEVERAL things that would bring my value up!! Do I look like an idiot?? You want me to eat 6K on my trade??? Not to mention there was NO discount allotted for the 5600 miles on the damn car already! I asked her about that......"Oh, sorry. I didn't tell him, I forgot.".....REALLY??? How do you forget the car you're selling has 5600 miles on it??? I think it was a blatant attempt to pull the wool over my eyes.....not gonna happen chickie.......meanwhile, she's holding the keys to my Jeep...literally holding me hostage!!! We must have went back and forth 5 or 6 times and I was there for a total of almost 3 hours!! The stupid chick kept holding my keys...TWICE we tried to leave. I obviously wasn't going to get anywhere with them and she wasn't getting anywhere with me, but she wouldn't give me my DAMN KEYS!!!! I was aggravated and angry and it was the most horrible experience of my car shopping life. I would NOT recommend them to ANYONE!! I had to DEMAND my keys...I finally got them, then got the hell out.....NEVER GOING BACK THERE!!!

I told myself I was done looking, I was keeping my Jeep and that was that............until YESTERDAY!!! =) I have been in email contact with Doug Reuther of Reuther Ford.....They are offering me a realistic amount for my trade, and he went and took the time to find me a Focus with EVERYTHING I wanted on it, for a good price!!! Not to mention he has been professional, upfront, and very accomodating. He took the time to review my information, listened to what I had to say and was just an all around awesome salesman. He worked some honest preliminary numbers that he broke down for me so that I would have the utmost understanding of what was going on and what was going where. I would send everyone I know to this man even if my deal doesn't work out the way I want it and I would go back later myself!!!

SO!!! Yesterday I filled out the credit app, and now I wait patiently.........I still say if I don't get the payment I want or the bottomline I want, that I will walk away. But at least I will walk away knowing that someone really tried to help me and not cheat me =) !!!! I'll let you know, when I know!!!