SoupNazzi
Shared on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 11:38What a weekend.
Last week I started working four 10-hour days.
Anyways, Friday was my day off last week. Unfortunately, Thursday evening, my smoke detectors decided to go off through out the entire night. Around 4am, I got fed up and just took a stool and tore them down. I'm thinking that their issue may be related to my possible electrical issue. (Yes, they have new batteries).
So, I was pretty worn out on Friday.
Got up and went to run some errands, and get a quote on getting our Honda Accord patched up. It had a cracked windshield, cracked tail light, and a hole in its bumper. It has also been rear-ended pretty bad, and had rear-ended a suburban (barely scratched that tank, but messed the Accord up). We were thinking of trading it in for a Corolla or Civic to see if we could lower our monthly payment and get better mileage.
Anyways, I took it to a repair specialist. He basically told me to ignore the bumper and tail light and just get the windshield fixed. The more I thought about this, the more it made a bit of sense. Accords are in high demand, and although mine needed some fixing, I researched online (kbb.com and Edmunds) and figured that even if a dealership had to sink $1,000 for repairs into it, they would still be able to turn around and sell it for $2,000 over the trade-in value.
That being said, I stopped by a Toyota dealership on a whim, just to see what they had in stock. I had stopped at the Honda dealership, but they had ZERO used Civics in stock and no Accords that I was interested in.
Anyways, I started looking at some Corolla S's. Then, the salesman and I sat down and started talking numbers. He had his people look over my Accord, (Bear in mind that I hadn't cleaned it up or anything) and then he told me how much they'd give me for it. Holy shit was I surprised. I knew the blue book trade-in value of my vehicle, especially with the condition it was in.
They were offering me $1,000 over what the trade-in value was. I was happy to say the least.
Then, I started looking at Camrys. I love the new Camrys... The new body is pretty sweet.
I actually test-drove a Camry SE, the "sporty" version of the Camry.
Last week I started working four 10-hour days.
Anyways, Friday was my day off last week. Unfortunately, Thursday evening, my smoke detectors decided to go off through out the entire night. Around 4am, I got fed up and just took a stool and tore them down. I'm thinking that their issue may be related to my possible electrical issue. (Yes, they have new batteries).
So, I was pretty worn out on Friday.
Got up and went to run some errands, and get a quote on getting our Honda Accord patched up. It had a cracked windshield, cracked tail light, and a hole in its bumper. It has also been rear-ended pretty bad, and had rear-ended a suburban (barely scratched that tank, but messed the Accord up). We were thinking of trading it in for a Corolla or Civic to see if we could lower our monthly payment and get better mileage.
Anyways, I took it to a repair specialist. He basically told me to ignore the bumper and tail light and just get the windshield fixed. The more I thought about this, the more it made a bit of sense. Accords are in high demand, and although mine needed some fixing, I researched online (kbb.com and Edmunds) and figured that even if a dealership had to sink $1,000 for repairs into it, they would still be able to turn around and sell it for $2,000 over the trade-in value.
That being said, I stopped by a Toyota dealership on a whim, just to see what they had in stock. I had stopped at the Honda dealership, but they had ZERO used Civics in stock and no Accords that I was interested in.
Anyways, I started looking at some Corolla S's. Then, the salesman and I sat down and started talking numbers. He had his people look over my Accord, (Bear in mind that I hadn't cleaned it up or anything) and then he told me how much they'd give me for it. Holy shit was I surprised. I knew the blue book trade-in value of my vehicle, especially with the condition it was in.
They were offering me $1,000 over what the trade-in value was. I was happy to say the least.
Then, I started looking at Camrys. I love the new Camrys... The new body is pretty sweet.
I actually test-drove a Camry SE, the "sporty" version of the Camry.
I was tempted. It was maxed out with everything, but it was also a V6 and that would have defeated the purpose of trading my Accord in, as my gas mileage would have gotten worse.
I decided to take a break and go home and check the blue book value on some of the Camry LEs they had on the lot.
When I walked in the door, I knew something was wrong. The smell was horrible.
My puppy had explosive diarreaha in her crate. She was sick. She had never gone the bathroom in her crate before... not even pee.
This was bad though... It was everywhere... on the carpet, on the walls, on her, coated all her toys...
So... I spent the next hour outside in the yard cleaning the crate, the dog, and the carpet and walls.
Thankfully, the only casualties of her sickness were her toys, which I threw away. She's all better now, and has a bunch of new toys to boot.
After I got that all done, and checked the blue-book value of the LEs I was looking at, I returned to the dealership, and, with the blessing of the wife, proceeded to trade our 2003 Accord in for a 2007 Camry.
Gone: 2003 Accord with cracked windshield, bumper, tail light, no warranty, and 76k miles.
Received: 2007 Camry, 30k miles, pristine condition, 3 year extended warranty (or 75k miles), and $60 a month less payment! They offered the Camry at $500 under dealer retail (according to kbb.com and Edmunds) and gave me $1k over the trade-in value of my vehicle in it's "as-is" condition.
Not mine, but this is exactly how it looks.
I decided to take a break and go home and check the blue book value on some of the Camry LEs they had on the lot.
When I walked in the door, I knew something was wrong. The smell was horrible.
My puppy had explosive diarreaha in her crate. She was sick. She had never gone the bathroom in her crate before... not even pee.
This was bad though... It was everywhere... on the carpet, on the walls, on her, coated all her toys...
So... I spent the next hour outside in the yard cleaning the crate, the dog, and the carpet and walls.
Thankfully, the only casualties of her sickness were her toys, which I threw away. She's all better now, and has a bunch of new toys to boot.
After I got that all done, and checked the blue-book value of the LEs I was looking at, I returned to the dealership, and, with the blessing of the wife, proceeded to trade our 2003 Accord in for a 2007 Camry.
Gone: 2003 Accord with cracked windshield, bumper, tail light, no warranty, and 76k miles.
Received: 2007 Camry, 30k miles, pristine condition, 3 year extended warranty (or 75k miles), and $60 a month less payment! They offered the Camry at $500 under dealer retail (according to kbb.com and Edmunds) and gave me $1k over the trade-in value of my vehicle in it's "as-is" condition.
Not mine, but this is exactly how it looks.
So, although I didn't get a better gas mileage vehicle, I didn't get one worse either. A win-win situation for me no matter how I look at it.
Shit... and I was going to talk about BF:BC. Guess I'll save that for my next entry.
Shit... and I was going to talk about BF:BC. Guess I'll save that for my next entry.
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Comments
Submitted by ekattan on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 11:45
Submitted by th3midnighter on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 11:55
Submitted by Lbsutke on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 12:25
Submitted by SoupNazzi on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 13:09
Submitted by char on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 10:53
Submitted by SirPoonga on Thu, 06/19/2008 - 10:59
Submitted by th3midnighter on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 14:24
Submitted by Hoplite on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 11:28