NEW TRUCK FOR NATHAN

As you can see from the pictures above, we are now the proud owners of a silver 2010 Ford F150...not something we planned having just bought a house but something we knew was going to happen at some point.   Nathan had a 13 year old Acura RL that he loved and that was in relatively great shape considering its age.   It had 136,000 miles on it and was started to show a little wear and tear over the past few months.   We were really hoping it was going to last another year since it is so nice not having a car payment (I have a company car so it's free gas, free insurance, free maintenance, and just $80 to use it for personal stuff...AWESOME perk about my job for sure!).  Well, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that when Nathan would pull out of the garage, there was oil looking stuff left behind in small puddles.    We took it to Firestone on Saturday to have them do a general overview of everything on the car.    We got a call later in the afternoon that the repairs would cost about $2000-2500.    I was not happy and neither was Nathan.   We told them that we would just come pick up the car and not do the repairs.   We both called our dads to see what they would recommend for us. I wanted to get my dad's financial advice since as a CPA, everything comes down to the numbers for him.   We wanted to get Nathan's dad's mechanical advice because he knows so much more about cars and fixing things than anyone else....and we also wanted to make sure he agreed with what my dad said about the numbers too.    They both told us that we had finally gotten to the point of needing a new car since we would start putting more money into the 13 year old car than we could ever get back on a trade-in.   :(

So, being the planner and researcher that I am, I immediately took to the internet.   I got on cars.com which is honestly the best website if you are in the market for a new car.   I knew that we didn't want to buy brand new because you can get a MUCH better deal buying a car with a few thousand miles on it that it only a year old....the person who bought the car new is the one who had to pay the depreciation value.    I also knew that I didn't want to buy a car that had too many miles on it since we plan to keep it for several years.   We had decided to buy a truck because I think they are so helpful...I have had to borrow my dad's truck and friend's trucks so many times in the past.   We decided on the Ford F150 because we liked the way it had a lot of space in the backseat (and since we plan to have kids, we need the room) and because we liked the way it drove better than the alternatives.   I found about 5 trucks on the internet all with less than 20,000 miles.    I looked up and read about 10 different articles on how to negotiate the best deal on a used car and then I called dealerships to set up appointments.    

On Monday, we drove to Plano to look at a truck that was owned by the sales manager there, was brand new when he got it in January 2011 and only had 8000 miles on it.   It was pretty much fully loaded and the price was great.    We weren't planning to buy that day because I didn't think they would come down from their number that much---after making several calls, I thought they had it priced right.   But I told Nathan if I could get them down to a certain number, we could not walk away...it would be too good of a deal.    I have to say that I was shocked at myself for becoming the master negotiator.   Normally, I can't "stick to my guns" when it comes to this kind of stuff but this time, I knew what we wanted and I knew that we could walk away and find another truck in a few weeks or a month if we had to.    The sales guy didn't know what to think of a woman not backing down....and that only made me stronger.   :)   He gave me all of the typical speeches:  "we aren't making any money on this truck", "we can't go down that low", "this is basically a brand new truck so it's priced well", "we can only give you this amount for your trade-in".   I shot every single one of them down.   I gave him the final offer and told him he could either do it or we would walk away to find a dealer who could.   I started out the door and he came after me to agree to the deal.    I was completely shocked!   I have to say that I am so proud of myself and I am so proud for Nathan to have this really nice truck.   This is the first car he has ever had with less than 50,000 miles on it!   He just sits in it with a smile on his face and that makes me smile for him.    So even though it wasn't in my plan, I am thankful we were able to do it the way we did it.   I am also thankful that we are financially responsible because this situation would have been so much more stressful had we not been savers!   It's so true when they tell you to plan ahead for every worst case scenario!