Car Shopping

My wife's car finally died.  It had 180K miles, so it had a nice run.  A '98 Ford Escort lasting this long is a rare feat, from what I've been told.  It still gnaws at me that I was unable to fix it, but my wife is positively giddy with the prospect of a newer car.

We stopped by the car dealership after she got off work yesterday.  I hadn't done a lot of research, but you really have to get yourself into the frame of mind in dealing with the salespeople, so it helped me out with that.  We really have been spoiled by not having a car payment for the past couple years, so we're looking to get something that will be cheap, yet reliable.  Who isn't?  The salespeople try to upsell you on a car that's twice as expensive as what you want and rush to try to pull your credit before you've even picked out a car.  I think that's what irritates me the most.  Let me decide what we want, first.  No sense dinging my credit score for a credit pull when I haven't found anything on your lot that we want.  A salesperson that is too pushy only makes me want to leave the lot.

My wife did good.  She didn't fall in love with something and wouldn't let the guy sell her anything she didn't want.  She's also been receptive to my comments.  "No Chryslers or Dodges."  "I wouldn't be caught dead in that."  "I want to see the engine."  "I'll be doing the maintenance and I'm not taking out half the engine to get to the battery."   Yeah, I'm pretty cranky when looking at cars.  We'll pick it up again tonight and keep looking.  This weekend is going to be hell.  At the end of the day, she deserves a decent car and I'll be happy once she finds it.