The Replacement

Today we finished our business with our old van. We met up with the insurance person and talked financing. Ugh...when you have to deal with loans and such, it can be such a rush, and such a drain.

We knew where we planning on going to get the replacement vehicle. We had researched online about used cars/vans and decided on one. We were told that the one we wanted (a certain color) was sold out but there was a WHITE one for sale cheap. White IS cheap. I've had a couple of white vehicles and the dirt really shows up on these vehicles.

L and I get out on the lot and talk to the Internet manager. He shakes his hands and gives me a wink. Oh brother! One of those! He walks down the lot and shows us the red car, on the way to that cheap white thing and then he says, "Oh we didn't sell the Blue car." Was this just a ruse to get our hopes down and "wow" there it is all of sudden? Whatever.

L drives the car around the town and we decide that's what we wanted. Love the color. On the financing they put this ridiculous high number on there. We say, "Ahh, that was at least a thousand cheaper on your online price." So the salesman looks and changes it. Then we said, "What about the Internet special price?" He goes talks to his manager. We sit there, knowing darn good and well that they are stalling. He brings it down $500. Then he said he COULD bring it down by a thousand IF we financed with them.

I stuck to my guns and said that we were going with my XYZ credit union. They kept arguing with us, "Oh we could get you into a bunch better rate." Blah, blah, blah.

Well, about that time "duty" called and I needed to find the ladies room. I went in there and called my XYZ credit union and they told me that's how they are and not tell them the rate, etc. I came back and wondered what I missed. So we repeated that we were using XYZ credit union. Then they "couldn't offer" that lower price because we weren't financing with them. That was a bunch of crud!

We go into the little financial office, signing papers on the car and that manager offered us this wonderful deal to extend the warranty. He asked us how long we plan to keep the car, etc., and all that. Then the deal was they would do this and this if we were willing to pay $2,000 more on the original price we agreed upon. Again, we took the "no we aren't taking it," stance. Then the guy asked , "Why?" Well, duh, what DO YOU THINK? You are offered this really low number and then this higher number (for this wonderful warranty deal). Which one would you take? Yeah, I want to make my monthly payments higher than I was thinking. Duh....obviously the LOW number, we will take our changes with what might happen with the car.

We went back to XYZ credit union and closed the deal. We took back our rental...I'm going to miss the Sirrus Satellite radio on it. We cleaned out the rental and went into the back and cleaned out our wrecked van.

Our wrecked van looked so pathetic! The front bumper was off and the wipers. I say, "Is THAT it?" The van where it was struck looked awful! We took all of our papers, maps, and little toys out of the van. It was a good van and we only had it for almost 3 years. In fact, we had new tires on the van, that were only 1 month old! We were planning to keep that van for a long time. But our plans, are not necessarily God's plans.

We are still praying that the Gap Insurance will come through and we won't own anyting on the van. It's like being forgiven on a loan and we don't have to think about it any more. I just hope and pray this will be the case.