A resolution to the "car issue"

Ok, this is kind of an ad...but no one paid me or reimbursed me in any way to do it...

For those of you who have followed the story the past few weeks, you know that my (not so beloved) 2009 Subaru Outback wagon died unexpectedly on the next to last day of school.  I had it towed to our local repair shop to figure out what had happened. They had a ton of business that week, so it took them a couple days to sort it out... Turns out the engine was blown.  Since the Subaru has 104,000 miles on it, Subaru basically said, "not our problem", which, although true, was uber-irritating.  They did offer me $500, if I had my car towed to them, towards the purchase of a new, not pre-owned, Subaru.  Ummmm......no thanks.

Meanwhile, we were in the middle of the never ending house re-fi--our mortgage lady is great, however, the lender we ended up working with wanted an appraisal and so on and so forth...no problems, just time consuming.  And...no way to finance a car while in the midst of that.  Added to the drama, we still owed money on not only that car, but the other Subaru as well... ("It's a Subaru, we can do a 72 month loan..we'll drive it forever!"  AGGGHHH!)  Luckily, we didn't owe much on either, so as soon as the re-fi was done, I hustled over to both banks and paid off both cars.  Now the good news is that thanks to the re-fi and the car payoff, we don't have a mortgage payment or car payments in July and our total monthly payments (for both/all) will be lower every month after (Ahhhh.....)

So, the Subaru has been sitting in the back lot of our local repair shop, waiting for the re-finance of the house to be finished, so we could pay off both cars and start car shopping.  Oh, and then we had to wait for the title to arrive (it actually came very quickly, in about a week, I was pleasantly surprised) so we can sell it.
Last week, the house re-finance finished so we started the great car shop.  We had actually created a short list of vehicles/amenities we wanted/needed, so "all" we had to do was go test drive and figure out the best deal for financing.  (We tried our credit union, but the dealer actually had a better deal).

Our short list of amenities (some are mine and some are the Mister's) included:  4wheel or AWD, leather seats, pre-owned certified, good (extended) warranty (either included or available), around 30,000 miles (or less) on the vehicle. We also (obviously?) had a price constraint on the total price, monthly payment and amount down...although Mr. Ranch pointed out that he plans to drive his Subaru forever, since it hasn't had a problem (knock on wood)...so I "should" relax and be willing to go up a little on the monthly payment.  He and the car guys thought it was funny that I dreamed of a $202.72 monthly payment...like my Chevrolet Cavalier was.  I think I can still hear them laughing. I also really wanted a sunroof, power seats, and dual temp controls...features I had on the Volvo but didn't have on the Subaru.  Oh, and a sunroof...a sunroof would be nice...I asked if I could have a tape deck, along with a CD player, also like the Volvo and no one laughed..they just blinked at me.  Side note...during our search I discovered that a 1998 Volvo XC Cross Country Wagon can be purchased for about $1500 and that most "only" have about 150,000 miles on them...Guess what The Girl is going to be driving in three years?!

So back to me...the requirements led us to a list of possible types of cars (don't make fun of me if I mix up the makes/models...this is for fun only!):  Hyandui Santa Fe, Honda Pilot, Mercedes something, BMW something, Ford Explorer, Acura MDX..Volvo was briefly considered, but the new ones just don't have the reputation for reliability, so I vetoed those.  Subaru didn't even make the list because I'm angry with them.  Blah.  The Boy suggested a Mustang, but although it was fun to drive as a rental, it doesn't really meet (any of) my other criteria.  From the start, I thought the Honda Pilot was our strongest contender, then I drove it...drives like a truck and has to be switched into 4WD...darn, no thanks.  So we proceeded on, eliminating car models as we went.  Car Max was a great place to do this--they had a lot of choices on the lot.  We considered buying a car there, but in the end, Car Max didn't have "the exact car" we wanted. They could get it, which was great, if we had a working vehicle and could wait...but after three weeks of rental cars, I was ready for a car of my own....Mr. Ranch really, really wanted a Mercedes.  They were very nice cars and the price was about the same as we ended up paying, but here are my "stupid" reasons for not buying a Mercedes...1.  The cup holders had stupid safety rails on them  2.  I'd look like a dofus driving my Mercedes into the woods to go camping  3.  I'd cry if one of my students dragged their keys along my Mercedes in the faculty parking lot, even though it would be covered by insurance like any other car. 4.  There was not an option for a 3rd row seat   5.  The sales guy didn't fawn over me, he actually seemed to be worried that I would "hurt" the car I was "interested" in buying.  So, yeah, stupid reasons....but, hey...

Which leads us to Acura.  In another (interesting?) side note, Mr. Ranch told me after everything was done that his Aunt and Uncle had the same "discussion" as us, leading to the same result (Uncle R wanted his wife to get a Mercedes, Aunt S wanted an MDX...they bought an MDX....giggle).  We were very lucky, when we walked onto the Acura lot, the salesman who came out to greet us turned out to be a great guy.  Leo listened and didn't laugh when I told him the specifications and had a couple cars on the lot that (almost) met our requirements. After test driving and some angst over which car and what price and about three visits to the dealership to see what was "new today"...we ended up with a 2011 Acura MDX (white outside, tan inside) that meets all our requirements and wishes. (Reminder to self...even though praying that I would find a car seemed stupid...I guess it worked...) There were a couple cosmetic things that the dealer already said they would fix/address, so the car stayed at the dealer for a couple extra days, having child repellent (stain repellent) applied.  The Girl has been telling The Boy that he won't be able to ride in the car, because it "repels yucky things", which isn't very nice, but makes me laugh every time.  (I keep picturing the the scene from the second Fast and Furious, when they had ejector seats). If you find yourself in the market for an Acura and are in the Denver area, definitely check out Courtesy Acura on Broadway! (And, I think if you tell them we sent you, we "earn" $100..so we'll take you to lunch or split it or something....)

As one more side note, our car salesman, Leo, is on "vacation" this week because he needs to have some medical issues addressed.  I'm sure he would appreciate a prayer or two that the problems are identified, treated, and hopefully eliminated so he can get back to work.

Now all we have to do is have that darn Subaru towed to the salvage guy (he is also currently on vacation) and hand over the title then the "Great Car Drama of 2014" will (hopefully) be at an end....