paulyblog

It’s official, I bought a new truck.  Well technically it’s not new but it’s new to me.  I bought my dad’s truck.  It’s a 98 Chev Silverado with only 114,000 kms on it.  He never drove it during the winter so it’s in perfect shape.  Not one spec of rust on it.  It should last me for a little while.

This also means that my 96 Civic (a.k.a. “my baby”) needs to go.  I put it for sale last night and I think I might have found it a new home.  I hate to let it go but I don’t want to be paying insurance on 3 cars.  I just put in a bunch of money in repairs lately which kind of sucks but I’m glad to know that someone else will enjoy it.

Everything should be finalized by the end of the week.

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We picked it up last Friday.  It was pretty cool to buy our first car.  The official mileage after the pre-delivery and inspection was 11km.  Now it’s at about 150km.  It rides nice, way better than my older 96 Civic.  The best part is the MP3 CD player.  I doubt I will ever need a satellite radio again.  Jenn has been making MP3 CD’s like crazy.  The fact that you can fit about 200 songs on one CD is pretty cool too.  I won’t need a dozen CD’s anymore.

Last week we were also supposed to buy a 2000 Nissan Xterra.  On Friday I went to the bank to get a bank draft for the price of the Xterra and the safety certification.  I was told by the dealer that all it needed for the safety certification was a few lights and the safety would only cost $205 plus taxes.  It sounds too good to be true since I remembered the brakes pulsing during the test drive.  The person in the service department assured me that the brakes were fine to pass the safety and that the pulsing was probably due to fact that the vehicle was sitting on the lot.

On my way to the dealer on Friday I was called back into the office to help someone with an e-mail server problem and I didn’t make it to the dealership before closing.  I was alright with it because I was told the safety certification still needed to be completed before the vehicle could be licensed.  I also was second guessing myself and wanted to take the weekend to think about it.

On the weekend Jenn and I went back to see the Xterra and decided that we would get it.  The price was right, it didn’t need much to safety and we were in the need of a more reliable vehicle.  The weekend went by and this morning I went to the dealer and dropped off the bank draft.  The vehicle was supposed to get its safety certification and I was to be called once it was complete.

This afternoon I got a call from the head of the service department and was told that the person that had done the safety check last week didn’t have time to complete it because he spent too much time lubing the gear for the 4wd because it wouldn’t go in 4-low.  That’s when I was informed that the front brakes, rotors, wheel bearings, pinion seals, and a few more critical things needed to be done for the vehicle to be safetied.  It went from $205 to an extra $500 for the safety certification.  The dealer did give me a good price on the work that needed to be done but I just couldn’t spend an extra $500.

I was already cutting it close since I was using the money that I needed for my basement repairs and this would have made things way too tight.  I was hoping to get most of that money back by selling my 2 older vehicles but I haven’t gotten any offers on them yet.  I just couldn’t risk being stuck with 4 cars.  Disappointed, I picked up my refund at the dealer this afternoon.  I wish I would of known this earlier on because I really did want the Xterra.  It got my hopes up.

I am doing my basement wall in 2 weeks. I hope I sell one of my vehicles by then.  Now I am not sure what one to get rid of.  I have wheel bearings coming in for the older Civic.  Once the wheel bearings are installed the car will be good to go.  The S10 is in rought cosmetic shape but it runs like a dream.  Doesn’t burn an ouce of oil.  It has never given me any problems.  I will clean up the rust and give it a coat of tremclad rust paint.  I guess I will just have to wait and see which vehicle sells first.  The one that’s left will be the one I end up keeping.

Cars, civic, decisions, paulyblog, s10 Cars, civic, decisions, paulyblog

It’s official!  We bought a new Civic.  After many test drives, comparisons, and research we decided to go with the Civic LX.  Why?

Local Service
I don’t want to have to tow my car 4 hours away if something goes wrong with it.  We don’t have a VW and Subaru dealer here.  I know that the service at the Honda dealer here is awesome.  On various occasions they have bent over backwards for me to get me all fixed up.  I have spent a lot of money there and they realized that.

Value
I know that Civics hold their value.  I know that Civics are reliable cars.  I will get 34 mpg in town and 50 mpg on the highway.  The price was reasonable for the features I was getting. The Corolla with the convenience package didn’t come with cruise control and it wasn’t available as an option.  You had to move to the enhanced convenience package and that one was the same price as the Civic LX and didn’t come with aluminum rims.

Availability
The model and colour that I wanted was available.  I got lucky because they only got it this weekend.  The Corolla was another car I was considering but they are so hard to find because they are new.

Financing
The  Honda has bi-weekly financing which lowered the monthly payment.  The reason why it’s lower is because there are two months a year that have 3 pays.  So you actually make two extra bi-weekly payments per year (which lowers the payment).  This option is not available from Toyota and Volkswagen.  It was available with Subaru.  The interest rates were reasonable. I am paying 2.9% interest for 60 months.  The new Corolla was 5.9% interest and the Subaru was 4.9%.  I am sure the interest rates will drop in August some time because the new 2009 Civic will come out but I wanted one now

We get it on Friday.  They will install the automatic car started and tint the windows.  I saw it at the auto glass shop after work.  It will look sweet with tinted windows.

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