(Or, We bought a Prius!)
I have to admit, even though we drove the car home Saturday, I’m still a bit giddy. We got damned lucky, as there wasn’t going to be another package 2 Prius in for a couple weeks, and it would be white (second to last colour on our list). The only others on the lot that weren’t sold were package 6, which was way more than we wanted, both in terms of features and price (honestly we would’ve gotten a base level model if we could have, but they didn’t have any at all). So we were talking about buying the white one when the salesperson noticed that there was supposedly a green* one on the lot somewhere, also a package 2, so he went to track it down.
This is how lucky we were–it had gotten in from the factory a half hour earlier. Score! Did I mention that it was my favourite colour of the ones available for the 2008 models? So lets see–two weeks for a white one, or get one in a nicer colour with the same options right away for only $70 more? It was a bit of a no brainer.
So obviously at that point we started talking options for protective treatments and financing options. The financing was where things got a little sticky, as we have no credit history** and it being a Saturday the financing didn’t go through that day. Still, the manager felt sure enough that it would that he let us take it home that day, and we filled out the paperwork for what we had decided on in terms of options.
Fast forward to yesterday. Hubby gets a call at work saying that it’s gone through, and we need to come back in to finalize everything, and oh by the way, we changed a couple things for you.
This is where he really came through for us. Being first-time buyers, they wanted us to add a few more insurance options than we’d picked ourselves, to make sure they didn’t get screwed over if something happened where we couldn’t pay. Normally, I’d consider this a bad thing. But the other change was that the guy arranging our financing managed to talk them down from the original 18% APR to 7.8% :eek: . So even with the extra insurance, our monthly payments dropped over $70. I’m still a little stunned honestly. I figured 14% maybe, but nothing lower.
So basically we got a great deal on a great car. We’re really enjoying it so far–the gas mileage is over twice that of our other vehicle, and it also takes gas mixes of 10% ethanol, which our truck doesn’t. Not to mention working radio, cruise control, automatic transmission***, room for passengers, backup camera…and my husband is in complete geek mode. He’s an engineer who studied renewable energy sources, so he’s wanted a Prius for years. As he put it, “This car makes use of everything I learned.”
*silver pine mica, technically
**well, he has no credit history–I also have no SSN and no job
*** I can’t drive stick, dammit