The last couple of weeks, J and I have been out car shopping. My little '88 Honda Accord lost it's air conditioning last year, power steering at the beginning of the year, and a couple weeks ago started overheating (a really hard thing to combat when it's 115). I had done my research and knew what kind of car I wanted to buy, but it's been such an experience to find one that a) doesn't smell like an ashtray, b) isn't scratched horribly inside and out, or c) has a million miles on it. I finally found one I liked last week, but before I could act on it, the dealer sold it. So when I called the dealer back about that one, he said that he had just got one in that was exactly the same as the one I had liked but had even less miles on it. So yesterday, J and I made our way to the dealer to check it out and hopefully make a deal. So since I was trying to trade in my Honda (one dealer we had visited was going to make it worth my while to trade it in, so I was pretty much insistent that they all give me the same amount), I had to get the car down there. The dealer is located 12 miles from our house. So yesterday, I left the house at 1--and got to the dealer around 3:30. I would be able to drive a couple miles and then have to pull in somewhere for about 20 minutes until the car cooled enough to try to move it again. And I think the outside temp was about 113 yesterday, so I'm sure you can imagine that was a lot of fun for me. There were truly times that I wanted to break down and cry (and we won't mention that when I made the first stop, I realized that I forgot some important papers at home and had to track down a friend who could get into my house and bring me my papers--and she knows that I absolutely love her for it!). So J met me at the lot, we checked out the car--it wasn't quite as clean as the first one was, but it only has 17,000 miles on it, and for a 2006, that's pretty much unheard of). We spent hours there last night just buying the car--between haggling on price and their paperwork, we were on their lot for 5 hours. The bad thing is that since they just got the car on Saturday, it hadn't been through the shop or detailed yet, so I couldn't leave with the car yesterday. I was promised it would be ready by 10 this morning, so J dropped me at the dealer on his way to work this morning. I finally drove off the lot at 2:30 this afternoon with my car. As much as I would love to be a cool mom and drive an SUV, everything about them just screams more $$--from the price to the gas mileage to the insurance. So I may not be that cool, but hey, my car has air conditioning and power steering and doesn't overheat, so I'm pretty happy.
(Oh, a note about color: I have to say I really hate the gold cars, but it seems like that's all I can get anymore. The Honda was gold, the Camry is gold, and now my Sedona is gold. *sigh* Maybe one day I'll have another color car)
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