The new truck......

Well after many weeks and hundreds of hours searching and searching some more I finally got my vehicle. It's funny how things turn out....when hubby and I first started looking for a vehicle I told him there were only two things I didn't want.....I didn't want a green vehicle and I didn't want a monthly payment.......I lost out on both accounts.

My dear sweet and wonderful husband search and search some more on ebay, consumer reports, compared and compared some more. I test drove so many vehicles my head was spinning. I guess at first I thought I wanted a utility vehicle....something that was more reliable in the winter months...something that would have space for the kids....and Bert.....yes I really wanted Bert to be able to come on some of our adventures.

My first vehicle I test drove was a Ford Sport Trac.....fun easy drive....but the cost put it out of the market....or a least I thought. Ideally I wanted to be able to get a straight across trade for my Mustang...or at the very least a very small payment. Well the stories the car salesmen would give us about my car not being worth this or that....and the resale value on the vehicle they were trying to sell us(me). Always going in prepared, hubby would have researched the book values done cost comparisons both on year, models, mileage and extras, so we always knew when they were trying to give us the gears.

Well finally when I thought I was giving up, I decided to make one last drive through this Ford dealership that we had been to twice before....and there lo and behold there she was, in all of her glory...shiny, and just shouting at me to test drive her......I did....it drove like a charm....like a luxury car actually, all leather interior, heated seats, memory seats, automatic adjustable foot pedals, 6 CD stereo, sunroof, power back window....need I say more...this baby was loaded. I got behind the wheel of that truck and it was as if the vehicle and I became one.....it was wonderful. That was on Saturday....after the test drive of course we sat down with the salesman....I told him right then and there that I shouldn't have driven it that it was out of my price range.....he said....let's see what we can do with the numbers. Well of course he came back and we weren't close at all.....I countered.....they moved a bit....they weren't willing to give us what we thought we should get for trade in on my mustang...hubby told them that he had researched their sister company up island and that they had a vehicle just like mine on the lot for a lot more....they concured and came back with a better offer....but still not good enough.....a senior sales person tried to step in and close the deal....I think he just pissed my hubby off instead....if there is one thing you can't pull over my hubby is numbers....he sees numbers and can calculate better and faster than most people do with a calculator.....long and short...we ended up leaving.

Hubby knew I wanted that vehicle....how could we make this happen.....we called them and made our final offer.....they accepted.....we returned to the dealership....it was closing time...but we worked on a deal. They wanted us of course to finance through them.....again...hubby and his numbers....knowing they couldn't get in contact with a financial institute at that hour we did a subject to financing agreement and left. We came home and crunched the numbers....we went to our bank and got a pre- approval for a small loan. We went to the dealership armed knowing that we could pay cash for the vehicle. At this point hubby is loving the wheeling and dealing that is going on....he is trying to negotiate many options for me....but the icing on the cake came when after they said what a wonderful job they had done with getting me this great financing....yeah right....10.10% when we got a 7.25%.....that is a significant difference....Hubby saved me about $12,000 on the deal.....the dealership knew that we got a fantastic deal...I got top dollar for my trade in...we talked them down to a price we wanted...and we didn't finance...which of course they wanted us to do.....so at the end of a very long day, I got what I wanted..... so without further adue let me introduce you to my new baby.....I call her "Betsy"....yes beautiful Betsy May.....