I'm really excited!
The love of my life, a 2003 Golf, decided to abruptly die with the sudden, horrid metallic fapping of a dead lifter and a completley messed up valve. The engine is loaded with gunk, it needs new lifters, oil pressure is shot and my mechanic tells me that he doesn't want to go down "this road again." Apparently a lot of VWs from this era have this gunking up problem and you can rebuild the motor, spend $1000 in parts, 10 hours of labor and not be sure there aren't head/block issues, etc. New motor would be like $4,000. Checking the web, I see lots of owners with issues like mine, some preowned buyers finding they need a new motor after a few months. Egads.
So I'm thinking, WTF, what am I going to do? The last thing I was expecting was to have to buy a new car. I swing by the Toyota dealership near my house. It looks pretty quiet. LOTS of cars in the lot, a veritable harbor of Prius, stretching into the distance.
Turns out I qualified for a new promotion that started very recently, 0 percent financing and $500 down payment thrown on top of your down payment. I tell the saleswoman that I'm after something small, super economical, hatch, manual transmission, she finds me a Meteorite Metallic with the power package and 14 inch wheels. I test drive it, it's smooth. I like it. The display in the center is jarring, but hey, it's new. Visibility is awesome. It's more aquariumish than the Golf was and I loved driving in that glass cube. I like the styling. It fits me. It's sorta, the Toyota version of the silver hatchback. Sticker is $15,000 something, I'm kinda wondering if I should just look into a used civic for $1,000 and drive the bitch into the ground.
But I think about the fact that I'm qualified for the 0 percent financing. It was actually a surprise for me, since I had garbage credit for years and years and had to get my mother to co-sign for me on the Golf in 2003. I paid off all my debts, never missed a payment on that car, but I still had pretty lousy credit and only qualified for a couple credit cards, a discover card etc with like $300 credit limits. I used them all heavily all year, never carrying a balance and paying in full, but USING them, you know, funneling my money through them to raise my credit score.
Apparently it worked.
THe place is quiet and I can see in the saleslady's eyes that she's hungry to sell something. I was scanning this forum before I drove over there and saw the thread about March sales being WAY down. You could see the weariness of the slowdown in everyone's faces. It's rare to see a new nice car driving around with a proud happy new owner these days. People aren't even washing their cars right now (the steady drizzle this past couple of weeks hasn't helped).
I tell her I'll put $1,500 down, they're adding the $500 as part of the promotion, there's a new car buyer tax credit this year, i'll take a donation tax credit on the golf (an agency will tow away for free, too!). They cut the price down a little bit and agree to the 15 inch wheel upgrade (woohoo). Total price for the car ends up being $11,000. I pick it up on Saturday with 6 miles on the odometer. (2 of those six already belong to me from the test drive).
So, if you're on the fence and haven't been to a dealership in a few weeks, check out some of the deals going on right now.
Oh, and the dealership, Vallenti Toyota in Westerly, offers free oil changes and tire rotations for the life of the freakin car. How bout that? I gotta make sure that includes synthetic oil.
I'm really pumped. I'll miss my golf. Despite the quriky VW problems you encounter, it really was a total blast to drive. I was impressed with the Yaris, zippy, tight, fluid, quality. Simple is good. The bevy of nooks and crannies, pockets and pop-up doors (the passenger's glove box area reminds me of hungy, hungy hippos) is nifty to say the least. It's just cool, funky, well designed, and it's a freaking Toyota so maybe I won't have to deal with window motors going out and headlights that burn out every 5 months and radio reception that was awesome the day I drove off the lot and mysteriously went to hell and got just one station a few weeks later. NEVER could they figure out why that happened, the wiring was "fine" or whatever. ARGH.
So this is my introduction. I am going to take good care of this car, keep it spotless. I won't beat on it, go 80 mph for a 4 hour drive before the engine is broken in. . .go through a carwash immediatley behind some high school kid who just took his old Dodge Ram through the mudpuddle flats.
I do appreaciate the large community around this car. That's a sign to me I've just bought a good product. The information here is helpful, and, for someone committing to a new car purchase, reassuring.
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