New Car!

Crazy weekend – there’s no other way to describe it than I had a crazy weekend.  Ken and I celebrated our 34th anniversary on Saturday.  We went out to lunch / brunch and had a nice meal at the Milwaukee Grill.  They have great breakfasts.

It was nice to sit together and chat.  We spent an hour over our meal, talking in general and just being together.  We both feel like the time has flown by.

We left the restaurant and Ken said, do you want to drive through the Nissan lot next door.  Well we looked at the Kia, Nissan, and Subaru dealer next door.  We were planning to go to the movies but had about forty five minutes to kill.

This is how we shop for cars.  We drive in the lot, drive up and down the rows.  I say I like (since it was for me) and Ken gets out to look at the vehicles.  We talk price, miles, and so on.  We stopped to look at one car and a salesman came to us.  We chatted, he wanted us to come in.  We said we were just looking.

We wandered around looking at different cars.  A second salesman came to talk to us.  We told him the same thing.  We wandered some more and Ken was out looking at a vehicle and a third salesman came to us.  We drove around to the front of a building to look at a Sol.  Ken went into the showroom.  I was going to stay in the car but decided to hobble in.  My legs are generally pretty tired when we shop for cars.

I sat in the Sol, it was nice but I had the same issue as the van – I had to crawl up into it.  I was not in love with it but Ken liked it.  He told me to come sit in the Forte.  I thought it was too small but gave it a try.  The steering wheel telescopes and adjust up and down.  I was able to get into the car without any problems.  I closed the door and the stuff on the door didn’t hit my knee.  I was surprised by the room in the vehicle.  Ken and I don’t hit shoulders when we both sit in there.

We tried my scooter.  It isn’t ideal but I think manageable.  The guy asked if we wanted to do a test drive.  Now we were supposed to be going to a movie.  Ken told him it was our anniversary and had plans.  So we said we’d come back after the movie.  We got to the theater with about five minutes to get into the movie.  This is never enough time for me.  I just hate trying to find a seat in the dark and find a place out of the way for my scooter.

We sat in the parking lot talking about the vehicles we tried.  One of the vehicles we wanted to try was a Honda Fit.  We drove to the Honda dealership and was looking at them and test drove one.  It was okay.  Getting my scooter in would have been easier than the car we bought but the space inside was not as comfortable or as roomy.  We went back to the Kia dealership.

The salesman – Doug – looked at us funny.  He said we didn’t have time to go to the movie.  We’ll probably go next weekend.  We went out for a test drive.  After five hours (I think) we drove away with a 2015 Kia Forte that when we test drove only had 12 miles on it.

I don’t buy cars this way.  I research.  I check with my insurance.  I get preapproval from my bank.  I do all this prep work.  This time I didn’t do any of that.  We drove home Saturday with a new car.  There’s extra space in the garage so once it is cleaned, Ken and I should both be able to park in the garage.

I worked on budget and the new car (and this is a shock) will actually save us money.  I called for insurance and our insurance is going down.  I’m just blown away.

Ken and I figured out a way to prevent my scooter from dinging up the tail end.  He took a dowel and attached a heavyweight fabric to it.  I put the fabric over the bumper and slide the scooter out.  No dings to the car.

Here’s the best part though.  I drove it to work this morning and it wasn’t painful to get in and out of.  It was awkward to get my scooter out but given time I’ll be able to do that more easily.  It was raining this morning so it was a little rough to get everything the way I needed it.  My routine is obviously going to be a little different but the less pain, the better.

My phone can go through my car, so when I’m driving I can make calls with a touch of a button on the steering wheel.  I’ve been playing with this a lot (sorry girls) and really like it.  Next is to get my MP3 player out where I have a ton of audio books and try it out.

Ultimately, I was feeling like I wouldn’t find a car that fit me and I would be comfortable in.  I even told my middle daughter I’d probably end up with another mini-van even though that wasn’t what I wanted.  Now I have a new car.  It is going to save me money every month on payments and gas.  I fit in it and can drive it comfortably.  I’m happy with the purchase.  Thank you Doug at Kia.

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