Welcome Home Red Honda!

Well.

We did it.

We bought a car.

And I hope to God we don’t have to do that again for an eon!

We found out the old Honda was totaled on the Friday before we were leaving for Clemson. Ernie and I were devastated. That sounds dramatic but between the financial issue and the emotional side of it….we were flailing a bit. Saturday morning found us at the computer downloading our credit reports and madly googling used cars and most likely sniping at each other a bit. Leo came in the kitchen to get a glass of water, and as he stood at the refrigerator he looked at us and said, “When did you guys last do this?" We told him it was 1990 and he smiled and said, "You guys have no idea what you’re doing, do you?” and we said, “NO, we DON’T!” At least he put it into perspective and we giggled a bit.

We couldn’t really do anything however as we didn’t have the down payment yet, we were leaving the next morning, oh and yes, the insurance company would only pay for our rental for another week…while we were gone. Geesh.

When we got back on Thursday afternoon we got online again, emailed for information on a car or two and tried to rally. Friday morning I finished up a grant proposal for work and then we headed out. We went to the Honda place first. We decided we were looking for another CR-V first, possibly a Toyota RAV4 second. The Honda place had a CR-V that seemed pretty nice but…none of the cars had prices on them and when I asked what the asking price of the car was the salesman said, “I don’t know, what do you want to pay?” and I just thought “ewwwwwww.” That is exactly the approach I didn’t want. It went on from there. He was a nice guy but between him and the finance guy pressuring us they pissed me off. Hell hath no fury like a pissed off Cynthia.

We headed over to the Toyota place and asked for Mike Sola. We have lots of friends in common and he had been recommended to us (thanks Carole). I’m SO glad we did. He was absolutely wonderful---straightforward and kind, no pressure, and funny and charming as well. BIG sigh of relief. And they had a 2011 Honda CR-V they had just gotten in. It was red. The one at the Honda place was gold. Can you see me with a gold car? Anyway, we bought it…and the finance guy there got us a better rate than the guy at the Honda place had. All around we felt really good dealing with them.

 They were busy so it took awhile to get it all done….by the end of the day we’d been sitting in car dealerships for something like six hours. We were exhausted!! We didn’t get it until yesterday because, since they had just gotten it, it still needed to be all prettified and cleaned up. We got her yesterday and she feels like our car. The boys were very pleased. I think Owen was a bit sad initially as he liked the Bluetooth and the back up camera on the rental but this morning he said he liked it better than the RAV. Whew.

So…a happy family, a red Honda with a new home, and endless recommendations for Mike Sola at O’Brien Toyota….

And it’s OVER….the car payment may kill us but we’ll muddle through as we always say.

Welcome Little Red Honda!