epiphany

Elementary Principles

In one of the most panicked days of my life, yesterday I sold my old car and bought a new one. As I mentioned a week or two ago, my 96 Intrepid was not doing well. I started looking at cars and had narrowed my choices down by the end of this past week. I was interested in the Honda Element and the new Honda Civic. I had test driven both and couldn't decide which I liked more, since their advantages are significantly different. The Element is quite utilitarian, is easy to clean, has lots of storage room (storage room is big for nomadic types), and gives a high view of the road. But the Civic is sporty, handles well, and gets amazing mileage.

On Friday, I was at the Honda dealer discussing finances. They, of course, were quite eager for me to buy a car. Their Elements were slightly too expensive for me, but I could afford a Civic LX (the medium grade of Civic). However, I had walked to the dealership from work and didn't have the Intrepid with me. From my description, they told me that they might be able to give me $200 of trade in value. I was hoping for at least $500, so that was a disappointment. They recommended I try to sell it.

Friday night, I took some photos of the car and posted an ad on craigslist.org, asking $1,000 or best offer.

Ten minutes later, I was getting calls. Saturday morning at 8:30, I sold it to a guy for $800.

I hardly slept Friday night because of all the math and comparisons and planning going on in my head. Saturday morning was full of selling the car, projects at church, and running to the bank and department of licensing.

I had also been looking at Nissans at a dealer up north that some friends had recommended. Burt, the rep I had been working with, called while I was at the Honda dealer the previous day. When I last went to their website, I noticed a used 03 Honda Element for sale. I called him back Saturday morning (in the midst of all my other stuff) and asked him about the Element. The price was still too much, but I thought I would see if he would haggle. (Honda dealers can't charge less than MSRP, so they won't haggle at all on new cars.) I fully expected that he wouldn't take my price, which was quite low for what I'd seen Elements going for.

I went. I test drove. I got my price.

So now I have the first car payments of my life. I'm also alternating between contentment/enjoyment of my new(ish) car and the panic that comes from thinking I should have offered less or gotten the other, having settled into that expectation during the night on Friday. I hate the struggle of deciding between two good choices. Yet I'm good at clinging to that struggle well after the choice is made. So here we are, my nice little car and its overwhelmed owner. Here's to a quiet and contented future.

Posted by jonhanneman at January 22, 2006 6:09 PM | TrackBack