Wednesday night, January 4th, my husband comes to me and says that we have to have a discussion about our cars. Natasha is a '99 Audi A6 with 210,000 miles on her, and has had an unexplained engine issue for about four weeks. Mac is my 2000 Dodge Stratus with 173,000 miles on him. At the beginning of December, he began overheating. Marshall discovered an oil leak and a leak in the water pump. A few days later, Natasha's problems start. Great, now we have 2 cars with significant issues and only one handy hubby to fix them. As much as I dislike car problems, this couldn't have happened at a better time because Marshall had 4 weeks off from college for the holiday break.
Back on track now, he patches up the oil leak and keeps 4 gallons of distilled water in Mac so we an refill the water pump each time we get in the car. Talk about inconvenience, but hey, Mac was drivable again. I get dropped off and picked up from work each day thanks to Mars. Well, on that Wednesday, he comes to me talk about Natasha. He thinks there's a timing belt in the engine that is not as tight as the one on the other side of the engine, plus a spring broke. Our options become: 1) he takes Natasha's engine apart and fixes everything himself. 2) we take it to a repair shop. 3) we ditch the German wench and get a new car. At this point we decide that 2 is out of the question because it would be $1000+ for the repair due to it being with the engine. I'd rather use that $1000 for a down payment on a replacement vehicle. Marshall still had a week and a half left of his break, and he was confident he could take his car apart and put her back together again in time. Ok, that was going to be the plan. If repairing her was going to cost more than $500 and take more than 2 weeks, she was getting put out to pasture and a new car was going to be purchased. We'd sell her for parts and add that money to the down payment.
Thursday, January 5th rolls around. After we watch an episode of our favorite television series together, he asks, "Can we talk about cars?" I'm thinking he's going to tell me that he dug deeper into Natasha's heart and found another problem, that it's not worth spending the time fixing her. "We need a new car...but it's not Natasha; it's Mac." What? Mac? How is that both of our cars can be on the brink?! "There's a rattling noise coming from the engine that I think is a piece of metal getting ground up and making its way into the oil." Dirty oil? Even I know that's not a good thing. "I don't expect Mac to live til the end of the month. We need to look into getting you a new car."
Hmm, new situation for us. We have to finance a car. My father purchased Mac for me in March 2006 and I paid him back for it. Natasha was bought outright on craigslist. We haven't had car payments in the 4.5 years we've been together. Time to crunch some numbers. I do my financial whiz thing, and then call my father-in-law, who lives in Houston. He tells me that everything is going to be ok, and offers to come up on Friday to talk us through this car buying process.
Friday, January 6th appears, and the guys pick me up from work in Jeff's truck. We talk and make plans to go to a dealership on Saturday. I found a 2010 Mazda6 with about 40,000 miles for $12,888. We could manage car payments with financing that amount. After lunch on Saturday the 7th, we go to look at the Mazda6. We owned Megan, a blue 2003 Mazda6, but she died when we got into a car accident February 2010. This is how Natasha came into our family. I really liked Megan, and was looking forward to keeping her for a very long time because she was roomy enough to tote a growing family. So, I needed a new mommy car, something for me to drive that could last me 8-10 years. Why not get another Megan but a newer version?
While we were on the used car lot, I saw a 2011 Nissan Rogue. I walked past it like it was Prince William, slowly and with my mouth open. I drool and swoon whenever I see a Rogue on the road. I think they have a magnificent design and would be perfect for a family. Not too big, not to small, but just right. I had never been in one before. Marshall saw my behavior, and suggested we take a look at it. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I couldn't find a single fault with it other than the sticker price was $19,832--out of our budget. It then came time to decide which of the vehicles I wanted to test drive. I wasn't as excited about the Mazda6 because the model had changed from Megan. It was much smaller and made me feel very cramped. I lied and said I didn't know. "You want the Rogue, don't you?" I gave him a look that read, "don't do this to me. Don't ask me to drive and fall even more in love with a car we can't afford." Needless to say we test drove the Rogue first, and I smiled the entire time. When it came time to drive the Mazda6, I was not as happy because there was a subtle flapping noise that we couldn't identify, and the acceleration was poor. We didn't talk numbers with our sales guy because we had to go home and think about how we could afford the Rogue.
We went home and researched other Rogues, and found that the same lot had a 2010 Rogue with 43,000 miles for $16,999. Definitely more financially feasible than almost $20,000. We also saw a red Rogue in north San Antonio that was a 2010 with almost 37,000 miles for $15,988. Since I had a Girl Scout meeting on Monday night, and dealerships aren't open on Sundays, we would go check out the red Rogue on Tuesday after I got out of work.
Monday, January 9th...we are driving home from work in the drizzling rain and about 1.5 miles from home Mac starts rumbling and clambering from his engine. We come to a stop line 1 mile from our house, and Mac overheats, stalls out. Great... Marshall lifts the hood up, and steam billows out. He refills the water pump, and then pours 2 gallons of water on the engine. It's so hot it boils off the waterfall. After 5 minutes a nice guy pulls up and offers to help us push it to the side of the road. Mars starts the engine, and decides he thinks we can make it home. Thankfully we do, and we park Mac in the driveway. It's 5pm, and we don't have a car. I called my neighbor Shawna to see if she could take me to the airport to pick up a rental car. She takes me, and I get a red Nissan Versa through Saturday (that came with an empty gas tank! grrr). Before leaving, I emailed the Girl Scout Director and told her that I wasn't going to make it to the meeting and why. Ok, now I have a car so I'll be able to get to work tomorrow--whew! Goal #1 has been achieved.
Now the pressure is on to find a car. We need to find a permanent vehicle for us by Saturday at 6pm because that is when the Versa is due back. My boss lets me leave work at 3pm on Tuesday, and by 4:30 we arrive at the dealership in San Antonio to look at the (cheaper) red Rogue. It checks out, and drives really well. We're happy, but want to see the report about the car's history. Apparently it was bought in January 2010 in Dallas, then in late August 2011 it was in a minor accident at 36,600 miles. The report doesn't give details as to what the accident could have been. After much deliberation and Marshall reinspecting the vehicle, we decide that it must still be fine. I'll save you all the details about coming to the final price, but we agree to $15,500 plus TTL. USAA offered us a 5.04% loan for 60 months, but the dealership found an alternative offer of 3.45% for 60 months. I wrote out a check for our down payment, did all the paperwork, and I was able to drive my new Rogue home that night.
Meet Donovan Carson Reeske!
I absolutely love Donny, and I am so proud! It seems silly to say (or write) but I feel much more like an adult with my first post-college car. Donny better stay away from other cars that don't play nicely because I'm keeping him for the rest of his life!
