See...what had happened was...
Isn't that a great way to start a story?
Seriously though, here is the scoop on a purchase that happened about 5 months earlier than planned.
Meet Kitty.
Named after what the little girl in "Monster's Inc" called Sullivan.
And because this car was covered in all things KSU Wildcats, it seemed appropriate.
We bought Kitty about 5 years ago after someone T-Boned the side of our Toyota Tacoma.
We used the money from that accident to pay for her.
In fact in all our years of marriage (coming up on 9 here), we've only had car payments for about 1 of them.
Anyways, she fit our needs and treated us well.
We did a lot of maintenance on her, but always said it was better than having car payments that we couldn't afford.
Flash forward to the last month.
Bud called me.
He was in a fender bender.
Going approximately 20 miles an hour, he looked into his rearview mirror and then his head was in the airbag.
The crash investigator said, "You hit the airbag sensor perfectly. It shouldn't have gone off at that slow of a speed. I saw a car that flipped 2 or 3 times last week and it's air bags didn't deploy. PS your vehicle is most likely totalled".
Ugh!
Not in the plans.
The plans were to hold out until June when Bud gets his promotion.
We would then feel comfortable having car payments.
Plans change.
Sure enough the insurance people did their thing and declared her a total loss.
I have to say this couldn't have all happened at a better time though.
We filed our taxes, I love to get money back.
We received a special gift from Bud's Grandpa.
And the insurance company gave us Kitty's value in cash, which as it turns out was more than we had paid for her 5 years ago.
It was time to start our search for a 'new' car.
We had a price range we wanted to stay within, that would allow us to have 40% to put down on the vehicle.
We also had a few things we knew we wanted since this next car was going going to be with us for at least 7 years.
That list of things included: Leather seats (easy clean up with kid(s), I wanted a sunroof, lower than 40K mileage, silver or white, and Bud wanted bluetooth capability).
Here is where I will offer our piece of advice for all of you who are in the market for a vehicle.
DO NOT BE AFRAID TO LOOK OUT OF STATE.
We used Cars.com, USAA (our insurance) has a car buying service, and even eBay will list dealer vehicles.
Let me tell you this was our first vehicle as a married couple, purchased from a dealership.
I've ALWAYS purchased private party.
We searched and had about 3 vans we had our heart set on (PS we also knew we really wanted a Toyota Sienna- better gas mileage than an SUV and in our opinion more comfortable).
Well one van would sell and then we'd find another that would fill it's place.
We talked with sales reps and crunched numbers, but in the end if they couldn't meet our price we walked away.
Finally, a dealership in Palm Beach, Florida passed all our tests.
It was a van we had seen early in the process and kept coming back to.
Ultimately, we opted to fly Bud down to make the purchase and to drive the van home.
This dealership was USAA approved which meant we got an additional $200 off our price and that covered Bud's airfare down there!
All in all we've been asked "WHY didn't you buy locally"?
Our answer: "We saved nearly $2000 going out of state".
I may not clip coupons, I may not always shop the clearance section, but when it comes to big purchases we work hard to stay on budget.
We opted to put my student loan payments on hold until after Bud gets his promotion so that we would be comfortable with our payments now.
In the end our car payments, ugh, are under our target price range and we have a van that we LOVE so much.
2011 Toyota Sienna XLE and she only had 35K on her!
She passed the BIG test ;) of whether or not Bud & I could both have a Route 44 Sonic beverage up front!
Answer pictured above, YES!
We got our white van with leather seats, bluetooth, sunroof, a 7 yr/100,000 mile bumper to bumper & power-train warranty and a few other perks we didn't even know existed.
She's going to be with us for awhile.
Through cross country moves, hopefully an expanding family, and so much more.
Another perk:
It's easy to get Bitsy in and out her car seat and none of us are cramped anymore.
It's so easy to get her out and such a smooth ride that this is her after a short ride home from the DMV.
PASSED out.
She was moved to her crib shortly after this, but isn't she lovely just laying there snuggled up with a blankie?
Moral of this story is....utilize the internet to find what you want, don't settle, and KNOW what you want and how much you can get it for before you go to a dealership. Also, don't be afraid to travel to get what you want.
I hope you have a Blessed Wednesday!
Oh and in case you were wondering we haven't decided fully on a name for our new van, but my Wheel of Fortune loving hubby is leaning towards Vanna White (get it... it's a white van?). Thank you to my friend Julie for suggesting such a fun name!
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