Second...

Aren't I doing well to get two blogs posted in a day?!!!

As I mentioned last blog, things have been busy here...and a bit stressful too. After about a month of searching, praying and bartering, we purchased a car!

Michael and I had come to agree over the last several months on the model of car we would purchase. Michael, ever the hot rod, sportscar enthusiast, was eager to get a luxury car that had all the bells and whistles. I, ever the practical, unknowledgable car person, was eager to purchase an inexpensive but dependable Toyota, having had them in the past and knowing their dependability. We finally agreed on a Toyota Avalon! Michael got his leather seats, luxury car, while I got the dependability of the Toyota without the price tag of a Lexus or someother such.

Now to find one...

We found this more difficult than you might think, especially seeing how popular the Toyotas are. All the newer cars with the right mileage were higher than what we had set out to spend. The older, higher mileage cars might be within our price range, but many had far too many miles for what we wanted, even given Toyota's reputation to last 200,000 miles. When narrowing down our search, I had only one tiny stipulation. I wanted a sunroof. I have always wanted one and decided if we were going to buy a new-to-us car (far from new), I should be able to stipulate that at least. This narrowed the field even further. Despite ploughing through Autotrader, Craigslist, Ebay, Houston Chronicle and local ads, we found only about a dozen within a 100 mile range.

The pursuit is on...

We spent one long Saturday and pursued all the sensible options we had found in Houston. It took us all over Houston beginning quite close to home (in fact, 2 minutes away) to distant Katy. As for the search: too old, a squeaky a/c, bad used car dealerships where I wouldn't buy my cat, possible flood damage, accident on record, previous lease car, and the winner of them all--a car that had a "minor" rear-end collision but in reality had been painted all along the side, had a broken front light, missing rear end pieces and was a hideous shade of gold! With all these seemingly unsuitable cars, we did narrow it down to 1 car. This car was thankfully, the car that was parked 2 minutes from our house.

The offers...

We had the 2000 pearl colored Avalon inspected and discovered some minor issues but ones which added up to about 1K+ of work; it was already over Kelly Blue Book value. We made an offer. While the fellow had been trying to sell the car for 2+ months, he was not willing to budge much if any. We waited to hear his response after he was to take it to a mechanic. Next, we discovered another car-not previously posted...a recent trade-in, also pearl colored. We examined it once in the dark; the second time in the light and decided to make an offer. The car was very low mileage, but had a few cosmetic issues and was above our agreed on limit. We bargained for half an hour and could not come to an agreement with the sales manager.

THE CAR...

Michael had meanwhile been following cars on Ebay. I regularly nixed cars because I was not desirous of buying a car sight-unseen, and it would have to be a special car to be willing to travel and look at it. Michael agreed. This time though, Michael found a car at a Houston Lexus dealership. It was the right age, the right mileage, and the right price (oh, and the sunroof! :) ). We decided to check it out. It was, you guessed it, the pearl color...must be an affinity for the color (well, maybe not...it is, however, a pleasing color) The car was listed on the lot for 5K more than the Ebay buy-it-now. Michael and I had researched; it was below the KBB value and had been through the lecus inspection; Michael even looked at it under the lift. It had been a trade-in by an older gentleman for a brand-new Lexus. What an ideal position! and Michael and I were not only in complete agreement on the price we were willing to offer (that had been issues in the past), but the salesman came down another $800 from his asking price! We were thanking God for his provision as we drove the car home from what was to be merely another informative car shopping experience.

I am very thankful for the car, and even more so that God brought unanimity (our prayer) and peace to the decision so that both Michael and I were pleased to purchase this car.

Anyone want to buy a Hyundai?