Car Shopping

Many of you have been watching my Facebook profile with great interest as I shop for a new car. My beloved little 1995 Nissan Sentra with 275,000 miles on it has decided that it wants to have its motor taken apart to be repaired. But the actual repair work would cost more than the value of the car itself, so that just doesn't fly with me. After fighting with my car for few days (It's winning by the way), I decided to invest in a new-to-me car.

I started looking around in used car lots for what I could find within my cash budget. And the result was: not much. I found a few vehicles, but they had not been taken care of and needed some work before they would be worth driving. After doing some number crunching (I rox at math, yo) I realized that I could in fact afford a small payment if I chose to get a newer used car. So payments or less-then-acceptably-air-conditioned rust buckets? Imma go with payments.

Many certified used cars at some dealerships in the area really caught my eye. I test drove several including two major contenders that met nearly all the criteria on my lengthy list: a 2008 Toyota Corolla (which was in reality just a tiny bit out of my price range) and a 2006 Mazda 6. After driving the Corolla again, I knew that I loved it, but the tough part would be talking the sales dude down to a price that I could afford. My aggressive haggler of a grandfather tried his best to bring the price down, but the sneaky dude would first say he would go down a few hundred, and then he would come back with an offer on extended payments that brought it back to the original price. Immediately following our departure from that dealership I put my algebra skills to work on my cell phone's calculator and was like "oh HECK no!!!" So as much as I adore that Corolla, I'm probably going to have to let it go. *sniffle* Here's a pic of it...

Adorable, eh?

Then we went over the place with the Mazda 6 and haggled with the sales dude there. The price is good and definitely within my budget, but I still wasn't sure. So in an attempt to make me love the car, they let me take it home for two days and see what I thought about it. I do like the car and it's super fun to drive. (V6 engine baby, *Tim Allen grunt*) But I'm not quite sure that I love it, and I don't want to put so much money into something that I do not love. Then I think about all the money that this thing will cost, and although my budget can absorb it, the thought of it all nearly paralyzes me. So I'm still not sold on it. But just for your enjoyment, here's a pic of it...

Pretty too, huh?

I'm gonna check out some private sellers online to see what I can find there for the next few days. But the car shopping thing is ridiculously hard. Especially in this heat which has given me a couple of sunburns. No fun. So anyways, we'll see what happens and I'll be sure to post something about whatever car I end up purchasing. Any suggestions would be appreciated!!!