The wonders of the information age

[telerib]

Maybe I'm jumping the gun here, telling the story before it's over, but I'm overall impressed nonetheless.

When I totalled my car in '01, my parents took me to get a new one. (The insurance and myself paid for it; they assisted in auto selection.) On their way to my place, they stopped at a local Ford dealer and saw a nice 4D for $10K and test-drove it to come get me.

We drove that one, another one, and tried one or two other dealers that day. We ended up going with the 4D Contour, even if the back seat didn't fold down (its one major flaw). Then we got to sit and wait... and wait... and wait while my car insurance and loan got approved.

Stil, I thought buying a car all in one day was pretty good.

Now it's time to get Moe a car, because his job is moving him to a new office that's nowhere near Metro.

A few weeks ago, I subscribed to Consumer Reports. I spent an evening comparing small, fuel-efficient cars and came up with a few reliable models to focus on in my used car searches. Thirty minutes spent at Koons and Carmax gave me an idea of the going rates. (Neither Koons nor Carmax haggles, which I like. And I've had pretty good experiences with Koons, which is where my Contour came from.)

We decided that, hopefully, Tonight Is the Night. So last night, we checked the inventories of Koons and Carmax. Carmax has a 99 Saturn SC2, automatic, and ABS brakes. The brakes were the deal-maker - none of the other cars we were looking at had them. Consumer Reports gave it passing marks. The price was acceptable.

Today, in about 30 minutes all told, I got a quote from my car insurance people and filled out an online car loan application from my credit union. Didn't get instant approval (probably because Moe isn't a member of the CU) but hopefully it will be fast. (crosses fingers)

My hope is that we can walk into the dealership tonight with a pre-approved loan, test-drive the Saturn (please, please still be there tonight), call Geico to turn on the insurance and drive out with a new car in under an hour.

It just tickles me that this time around, we were able to get so much of the work done ahead of time, (hopefully) greatly simplifying the actual purchase process. And the ability to double-check the vehicle with something like Consumer Reports makes me very happy, because I know so little about cars.

The Saturn in question, in case you were curious.

Comments

[telerib.livejournal.com]

I called Moe and he is OK with going to Bowie. (whew) They have the CarFax information at the dealership. It's an authorized Saturn dealer rather than Bob's Used Cars, and they say the used cars are already inspected - but it probably is a good idea to have a once-over done. There's a policy where we can get an exchange (but not refund) in 72 hours if there's some problem. I do know a mechanic I liked locally, but he closes shop at 7pm.

Do you know an inspection services that works nights? We're going over tonight around 7pm is the problem.

Yay baby! She can have visitors now? (The only other infant I've had experience with was kinda sequestered for a few weeks or months because of immune system stuff.) We're on family travel this weekend (his), and next weekend (mine), and have plans Sat May 7, and will be moving at the end of the May, so the weekends of the 21st and 28th are probably full. We may need the 14th as a sanity break. (This is why we're car shopping on a weeknight.)

Actually, the evening of Sat May 7 may work out. We're going to an SCA event but won't be staying for the feast, and it's up near you. Or the following afternoon could work (pending Moeish approval). Otherwise, um, June?