New Car!

(Well, new to us!)

We got Lauren a car! This was our very first experience buying a used car, and it was shockingly simple and stress-free... much more so than our new car purchases have been. Used cars are impossible to compare, since they are all so very different, whereas new cars are essentially the same anywhere, so once you identify one, you just negotiate your best price wherever you can. Somehow this purchase process went so smoothly though! Not sure if we were just lucky or this is the way to go.

We started with the Consumer Reports research we do on all our big purchases. (The same CR research for which my dear friends always call, to get the Jeff-and-Kathy pre-analyzed and distilled, quickie version. "What fridge am I supposed to get?") We narrowed it down to reliable and safe used car options and then Lauren chose the "cute ones" from that list. That was a several week process that started as soon as she got her job, which was the only reason she needed a car at all.

One night last week, we went to CarMax, which was a great place to look at tons of used cars side by side. CarMax was awesome! Absolutely no pressure from sales staff. Very friendly and helpful folks. No-haggle pricing, so you could compare vehicles very easily and know how much they were going to cost. In about an hour and a half, she had selected the vehicle she wanted- the Hyundai Elantra.

Over the weekend we looked online at all the Elantras available in our year, price and odometer range, all over the state. That was a time-consuming part of the process. It was helpful that a lot of vehicles have the Carfax available for free online.

Yesterday we planned to go back to CarMax and also to one other dealer in town who had two cars we wanted to see. The regular dealer happened to have a particularly great car that we ended up purchasing. Jeff even got them to come down from the sticker by quite a bit, which made it even more fantastic! I couldn't be happier with the deal. And it was so easy!

CarMax has mostly fleet and rental cars for sale. Those have high mileage for their age. Tons of last year's models with around 35,000 miles. Great prices though, especially compared with comparable vehicles at most dealers. All their cars looked like new. I would definitely recommend them to anyone. Everyone I asked about them during the process had the same positive opinion as well.

Last week, Laura said something about "being upside-down" in reference to a car loan. I had never heard that term. (I promise, I do not live under a rock.) In a span of about four days since then, I swear every time I turn around, someone is saying it! It's so funny how that happens!