A New Set of Wheels

I mentioned earlier that this past weekend was one of the best weekends ever. Another thing that made it so special and wonderful – I bought a car! For quite some time now, I had been telling myself I should start looking around. I had my car for seven years and while it still functioned perfectly, it was time for something new. Here’s the story of how it all came about:

I had pretty much already made up my mind that I would never buy a brand new car. I figured it was just silly to since the value of the car is said to plummet as soon as you drive it off the lot. So, I started looking online at a few cars that were only a couple years old to get a ballpark idea of what they were going for. I knew I wanted a Honda Accord Coupe – that was a definite. I used to drive a Civic and don’t have one complaint about the car, the service, the maintenance, etc. Everything was so affordable and dependable compared to the Ford I drove in high school.

I decided that on Saturday, after acting class, I’d run by a dealer or two to test drive the 2012 Accord to get an idea of how to compare it to the slightly older models. Upon arriving at the dealer, a salesman anxiously greeted us, and the process began. We started off with the basics so I told him the car that I was looking at, the number of doors I wanted [2] and that a sunroof was a necessity [obviously.]

Well, they only had about 3 or 4 Accord coupes on the lot. The only red Accord was an LX [no sunroof] so that wasn’t an option. The only EX [one step up] was black and that color was not an option for me. Then, he mentioned the grey Accord. Sigh.

This grey one was the EX-L model meaning it was pretty much the top of the line Accord –leather seats, XM Radio, Bluetooth capabilities, etc. As a pretty practical gal when it comes to spending money, I knew I didn’t need those things. I decided to take it for a spin anyway. With only 5 miles on it, this car was literally fresh out of the factory. It was gorgeous from the outside, the interior was fresh and pretty spacious compared to my Civic, and it drove like a champ. It was love.

After that, I test drove the new Civic coupe but my mind had already been made up – I wanted an Accord. At that point, the question was “What do I do now?” The sales manager told me they had another red Accord getting ready to come in but it was an LX-S [again, no sunroof. Not happening.] I took a look inside the black EX model with the cloth interior and liked that one as well but they didn’t have it in an exterior color I wanted. I could either keep looking around, wait for them to get additional shipments in, start looking at used cars, or see what kind of deal I could get on the EX-L.

Let’s just say I can’t pass up a good bargain. 

I had been sitting there at the salesman’s desk hours before going back and forth in my head about whether to buy, wait, grey, or red and then it just hit me! I knew what I wanted and what I didn’t want. I had an amazingly unbelievable deal laid out right before me. AND the interest rates were below 1%. NOW was the time to buy. Five hours later, the paperwork was signed, and I was the proud owner of a brand spankin’ new metallic grey Honda Accord EX-L!

Signing my life away! ;)

It feels so good to see something perfectly fall into place like that. I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to save up money and be in a financial position where I am able to take this on at this point in my life. As a follow up to yesterday's post, I've learned that if you want something, go after it. Don't put it off. Seize the day!

Oh, and you better believe I’ll be treating my new car like a baby!