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One down, how many are left again?
May. 21st, 2006 12:22 pmWell, we took care of another hurdle yesterday. They just happened to be having the huge car sale at Joe Davis Stadium this weekend. We wandered around the lot starting at about 2pm. We test drove a '99 Camry and a '99 Maxima. They were about the only cars on the lot for less than $10K. We haggled with both dealers for a bit to see what the best price we could get out of them without doing any research on the cars. Then we left, borrowed ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
branflake's internet connection and looked them up on Kelly Blue Book.
The Honda Dealership was asking WAY too much for the Camry. It was the same year as the Maxima and had only 68K miles on it (the Maxima had 128K), but seemed like it had really been ragged out. The leather was all cracked. The dash was all faded and kind of torn up. It ran like crap too, really rough. The brakes sounded funny. KBB listed the model with that many miles on it as $8200 for retail price in excellent condition (which this car was not). They wouldn't come off of $9K at all. In fact, as we were headed back to the lot after looking them up, they called us three times saying they'd come down to $8500, but wouldn't change the oil or do any detailing on it. What the crap is that?! Sucks for them, too. We probably would have bought that Camry for $8K. But they wouldn't come down. And the little they would come off, they weren't willing to do anything to the car (they had only had it two days, hadn't even been detailed).
The Nissan dealer, however, was more than willing to work with us. Not only did they come down some on the price, but they took our Trooper with the crapped out transmission for $750 (the Honda dealership didn't want to give us a dime for it). KBB listed that model (it's the completely decked out, GLE) at $7500 I believe. After the trade in, we wound up paying $250 more than that. We found out why Regal Nissan is so much easier to deal with though. They don't work on commission, just units sold. It's up to the manager to be sure he's getting what he needs from the car to make a profit. You don't have a sales person not wanting to come off the price because he wants a fatter commission check (which is exactly what the Honda dealer was doing). Works out great for both the sales person and the buyer.
So, now we've got a '99 Maxima that's got a lot of miles on it but seems to be in really great condition. And it's a Maxima, so we'll probably get at least another 100K miles out of it. For what we financed on it (I think about $5400 after it was all said and done), I think we'll get a good run out of it, probably even well after it's paid off. And our payment is next to nothing. Thanks to Chris' good credit (mine still needs work apparently), we got an excellent rate. The interior is immaculate. It runs incredibly smoothly, doesn't make any funny noises and just seems like it's in great shape. Another white car with a sunroof, heh.
Chris just called our landlord and let her know we'd most likely be out by July 15th. She mentioned if we knew anyone interested in renting it, she'd gladly sign another lease on it. But she is also interested in selling. She just wanted to make sure they buyer wasn't planning on tearing down the house and cutting out a bunch of trees to build something massive. So, if anyone wants to rent our house, let us know and we'll pass the word along.
branflake's internet connection and looked them up on Kelly Blue Book. The Honda Dealership was asking WAY too much for the Camry. It was the same year as the Maxima and had only 68K miles on it (the Maxima had 128K), but seemed like it had really been ragged out. The leather was all cracked. The dash was all faded and kind of torn up. It ran like crap too, really rough. The brakes sounded funny. KBB listed the model with that many miles on it as $8200 for retail price in excellent condition (which this car was not). They wouldn't come off of $9K at all. In fact, as we were headed back to the lot after looking them up, they called us three times saying they'd come down to $8500, but wouldn't change the oil or do any detailing on it. What the crap is that?! Sucks for them, too. We probably would have bought that Camry for $8K. But they wouldn't come down. And the little they would come off, they weren't willing to do anything to the car (they had only had it two days, hadn't even been detailed).
The Nissan dealer, however, was more than willing to work with us. Not only did they come down some on the price, but they took our Trooper with the crapped out transmission for $750 (the Honda dealership didn't want to give us a dime for it). KBB listed that model (it's the completely decked out, GLE) at $7500 I believe. After the trade in, we wound up paying $250 more than that. We found out why Regal Nissan is so much easier to deal with though. They don't work on commission, just units sold. It's up to the manager to be sure he's getting what he needs from the car to make a profit. You don't have a sales person not wanting to come off the price because he wants a fatter commission check (which is exactly what the Honda dealer was doing). Works out great for both the sales person and the buyer.
So, now we've got a '99 Maxima that's got a lot of miles on it but seems to be in really great condition. And it's a Maxima, so we'll probably get at least another 100K miles out of it. For what we financed on it (I think about $5400 after it was all said and done), I think we'll get a good run out of it, probably even well after it's paid off. And our payment is next to nothing. Thanks to Chris' good credit (mine still needs work apparently), we got an excellent rate. The interior is immaculate. It runs incredibly smoothly, doesn't make any funny noises and just seems like it's in great shape. Another white car with a sunroof, heh.
Chris just called our landlord and let her know we'd most likely be out by July 15th. She mentioned if we knew anyone interested in renting it, she'd gladly sign another lease on it. But she is also interested in selling. She just wanted to make sure they buyer wasn't planning on tearing down the house and cutting out a bunch of trees to build something massive. So, if anyone wants to rent our house, let us know and we'll pass the word along.