My Search for a Vehicle is Finally Over

On Monday morning, my Dad and I went to a Honda dealership downtown and browsed their inventory. I test drove a 2005 Honda Civic VP (the next-to-lowest model in the Civic line). I really liked it, so we told the salesman that we would be back sometime in the evening to discuss the price. When we returned home, my Dad called a friend of his who owns a car dealership in Texas and mentioned our trip to the Honda dealership. My Dad’s friend said that he would call the dealership and get us a lower price. At first I was more than a little skeptical: what kind of influence could a car dealer in Texas have over a Colorado dealer? My Dad’s friend, in short, was able to get the Honda dealer to waive all of their hidden “dealer handling fees” (fees of that type can often reach over $400), and he learned that they had a brand new top of the line Honda Civic EX with a little hail damage on their lot. He talked them down about $4,500 on that particular car!

That evening I had to go to work, but my parents stopped by the dealership to see the car and drove it by the library so I could see it. Since I just ran outside for a minute to check it out when I was supposed to be working, I wasn’t able to test drive it myself, but I loved the car’s appearance and told my parents that I wanted to buy it. They both assured me that it drove very well, and since I had driven a similar model that morning, I was convinced that it was what I wanted. It was pretty dark outside, but it still looked nice. The hail damage, much to my relief, was very minor: only a few bumps here and there, hardly noticeable at all.

The next day, I had to work again and my parents went to the dealership to do all of the paperwork (it took them over three hours. Ouch). My Dad put the car in his name, so my presence was not required, although I will be paying for the car myself. When the negotiations were complete, my parents dropped the car off at the library and gave me the keys. By the time I left the building at 9:00 PM, it was dark, of course, so once again I could not actually see the car very well. I hopped in and spent several minutes trying to find the headlight and mirror controls. One really cool thing: it has a sunroof, but it took me awhile to figure out how to open it . . . so many shiny buttons.





I’ll be paying the car off until I’m about 117 years old, but this is how most people buy cars (or so I’m told). I would have liked to just hand the dealer cash and be done with the whole thing, but unfortunately my savings account is rather empty as of late. It must be nice to be rich.

Since my brother works at a bank, he was able to get me a loan with an amazingly low interest rate. Also, my grandparents surprised me by sending a check to help pay for the car. So, I am quite pleased with how everything turned out. I’ve received a great amount of help from many people, and I am very thankful. I'm so glad that I will no longer have to drive my Mom to work every morning.





My brother is a little jealous. He bought a new Nissan Sentra a few months back, but when he was car-shopping he desperately wanted the same Civic that I bought (even the same color). The night I brought it home he was flipping with happiness and asked me if he could take it to the homecoming dance. Yeah, right. We drove around and listened to Ugly Casanova (why I chose that CD as the soundtrack of my first test drive I’ll never figure out). Joe spent most of the drive hanging out of the sunroof, and later we swapped places so I could take a turn. He assures me that now I'll get all the ladies. Ahh, if only a car could have such power . . .