Since we moved home from Cambodia in June, 2007, we have been a one car family. We faithfully drive our tiny Chevrolet Aveo5 together, carpooling to work, and mooching rides off of friends whenever needed. We have tolerant friends, needless to say. That said, with B at home on maternity leave, and me at work with the car (I haven’t started riding my bike yet because the snow just melted the other day – seriously – worst winter ever) there have been some situations that call for a second automobile. Luckily, I have some flexibility at work, and can sometimes catch a ride with my vice-principal who lives nearby. That said, we sort of knew we were going to have to give in and get another car sooner or later. The logistics of two of us teaching, doing extra-curricular, and taking Norah to and from daycare every day would make one car inconvenient to say the least.
So…we decided we’d investigate the idea of getting another car. Our Aveo5 is small. Very small. So we wanted something bigger. But we didn’t want anything too big — people who drive around in gas guzzling SUVs needlessly make my eyeballs burn. However, we didn’t want to buy something too small, and then regret it later. We also decided we’d buy a used car, since we would rather reuse than purchase new. As well, dumping $25,000 (or 1/10th the cost of our house) into a new car seems foolish. Though the appeal of 0% financing is there, when you consider that borrowing $15,000 at 3.5% (our rate) compared to $25,000 at 0% results in $425 payments for just over 3 years on the $15,000 and 5 years on the $25,000 it becomes a financial no-brainer. As well, since we only drive the Aveo 10,000km per year, we would really not be getting value from the 3 year/60,oookm warranty offered by most. We decided that $15,000 would be our absolute max, but that we’d like to keep the cost closer to $10,000.
We had decided we’d buy a hatchback, since we like the extra space afforded by the headroom, and were considering the Honda Fit, the Toyota Matrix, or the Pontiac Vibe. The Hyundai Elantra Touring was on the list, too, but it is new in ’09, so was not considered.
On Friday we checked out a 2005 Vibe at a dealer in the city. It was my first visit to the Capital of super-dealers that relocated from the downtown core to the outskirts of the city last year. The car we were checking out was marked down to $8995 from $13,999 – and for good reason, we found out! When I pointed out the numerous stone chips on the hood, the saleslady told me that I could “buy a paint-pen for a few dollars and fix those right up.” Huh? She didn’t leave our side, or stop talking, and so B and I ended up getting a price quote on the car because we couldn’t talk to each other about the car. All taxes in, it would be $10,600. When I told the manager (who does the pricing – why have salespeople?) that I thought the car was a bit rough (it showed every one of its 122,000km) he said “Well, it’s not a new car, you know. And it has been discounted $5000 already.” Translation – we overpriced this crappy car. We left to check out a 2002 Mazda Protege 5- well known for their reliability. And, as a bonus, we had a friend with this exact car for sale at a great price, and she meticulously maintained it! However, the Protege5 wasn’t as big as we had thought it would be – and it was very low to the ground, making bending down to lift out a 40lb child unappealing. (Sure, she’s only 14 lbs now…) So we left, disappointed, and no further ahead of the car-hunt game.
On a whim, yesterday, I checked out a 2004 Honda Civic to see how roomy they were. An elderly woman was selling her Civic, silver, air, command start, and keyless entry with only 27,000km for $13,900. I checked around and the price was high, especially considering the lack of options on the car. However, it had been for sale since February, so I thought they might be up for an offer. I was surprised at the roominess, and not surprised at the thick plastic covering the cloth floor mats – good old Grandmas. I talked to B and we considerd making an offer somewhere around $12,000. However, the lack of cruise control and power windows made us reticent… The point became moot when I received an email from my uncle, the service manager at a GM dealer in a city a couple hours away. He had an ’04 Vibe come in on trade with 126,000km, all options (air, cruise, power everything, ABS, mags, keyless entry, command start) as well as a spotless maintenance record. The owner often did maintenance before the recommended time! Oh, and he could get it for us for $8500. All conversation abouy any other car stopped and we arranged to drive up to pick up our new ride.
Our new car!
