New (to us) Car

Well I honestly thought it was going to be a bit longer before we'd get to write about buying a new (to us) car.  We knew when we got home finding a car was going to be a priority especially after Steve got a job quickly; so we did what was natural, we procrastinated.  About two weeks ago we finally decided to get serious and try and find something so we could return the car we're currently borrowing.

We started with the local papers and some car websites like autotrader.com and even checked out craigslist in hopes of finding a good deal.  I hoped we would be able to skip the dealership because it sounded quite intimidating and like any new thing, a bit scary, but after viewing four or five cars from private sellers that weren't up to the quality we wanted I gave in and decided to give it a go at a nearby dealership.  And by nearby, I'm really quite serious; the dealership was right beside our apartment complex.  That's not saying too much because we seem to live right in middle of a the dealership district with no less than eight nearby.

Last Wednesday we browsed the dealership websites near us and found a Focus that would be worth perusing.  Thursday we went to the dealership to do a test drive and see if it was worth buying.  In the end it was much easier and less stressful than I thought it was going to be, and after a few rounds of negotiation we settled on a price that Steve and I both felt comfortable with.  After all the work of finding and buying a car, we still couldn't take it home because we needed to line up car insurance first.

Our new car sitting in our parking lot!

Friday morning I spent a big chunk of time talking to insurance agents trying to find car insurance that wasn't going to break the bank.  It turns out that having an insurance policy in the previous six months makes it much more affordable to get new insurance.  At this point, I thought we were a bit screwed but after some digging, it turns out my parents never took me off their policy, so in the end we did have proof of prior insurance.  This is one of the few times I'm completely grateful about slacking off on updating policies.

To top it off, we're getting a discount on our rental insurance also because we decided to stick with the same company for both policies.

Now I can officially add buying insurance and a car to the list of things that no longer seem quite as scary as they did before, and will hopefully be less stressful when we need to buy a second car.