Felicia

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about selling my car and getting a van.

I wanted to clarify a little from that blog.  I wrote about going back to a minivan.  I should say, back to a minivan as my everyday driver.  The hubster was the minivan driver more recently.  And for a while the minivan was the third vehicle of the house.  (P.S. We aren’t doing the third vehicle anymore.  It seemed reasonable with that vehicle being paid off; until we sat down and added up the insurance maintenance!)

So, it’s not like I’m jumping back in to a minivan-land after an absence.  I still have a good base knowledge.  Over the past two weeks, I’ve gotten a refresher on market prices too.  My overall generalization on minivans is that there are generally two types of minivan owners:  families and older people who drive very little and have their routine maintenance at a dealership.  I’ve been after a used van coming from the second type of owner!

My auto buying tips include 1) Know what the competition is selling a similar vehicle for!  There are a lot of over-priced vehicles out there!  2)  Know what your vehicle is worth.  I traded my lovely Blueberry car in tonight and received $1500 more in trade-in value than another dealership I had talked to!  3) Check the carfax!!  A lot of dealerships offer the carfax for free.  If they don’t offer one, they are worth the money!  I was talking to a private owner two days ago that stated there had been no accidents.  I got the VIN #, checked the report and found an accident with front end damage to the van.  I called him on it; suddenly he couldn’t talk and had just sold the van.  and 4) Don’t be afraid to walk away if you don’t get the terms you want.  I once had a dealership call me a week and a half after I had went in to see them.  After that many days, they were finally ready to give me the price I wanted.  Sadly for them, I had just bought a different vehicle!

Yesterday I received a text from a dealership in Holland, who had viewed my for sale ad online for my car.  I hopped on their website and found a van that looked like exactly what I wanted (minus the tv that the kids were hoping for!).  I made an appointment for today – as soon as possible!  I’ve lost two other vans so far because I wasn’t available right away.  I drove an hour and a half to see this van.  So I brought the title to my car.  I had the cash amount in my head that I was willing to pay over my trade-in, if the van was the right one.  It drove wonderfully!  It is super clean!  The salesman was nice and friendly.  And the amount for me to pay was $1000 LESS than what I was willing to pay.

Although my calendar didn’t really want me gone for over four hours tonight, tonight I am thankful that we are now the proud owners of a minivan once again!  The kids want to name it Felicia.  So when I drop them off places, they can wave and yell “Bye Felicia!”

P.S.  I looked up why “Bye Felicia” is a catch-phrase.  I must ask the kids more questions.  I don’t think they think it is was google says it is!  If they do (which I doubt!)  . . . they are all grounded!