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Friday, July 15, 2016

On Handling Life's Curveballs.



To my core, I am a planner.

I spend too much money on fresh agendas at the beginning of every school year. I extensively research every restaurant I plan to eat at while on vacation. I schedule date nights with friends at least two weeks in advance.

So when it was brought to my attention that my 2008 Nissan Sentra needed a couple thousand bucks worth of maintenance and replacements, let’s just say that I was not prepared.

I’ve spent the last week walking in and out of car dealerships by myself. I feel like I’m back in my networking days with all of the “warm lead” calls I’ve been subjected to in the last 72 hours. I’ve researched and haggled, and researched and haggled some more. It is, indeed, a grueling process.

And I am exhausted.

But strangely enough, it feels good to be doing this on my own. Not just with my own money (okay, that part doesn’t feel THAT good), but visiting dealerships on my own, test driving on my own, not giving into salespeople’s shit on my own. It’s a learning process, and I think we can always be thankful for a chance to learn about ourselves and what kind of person we are capable of being.


Just a little reminder that “unexpected” doesn’t necessarily mean “bad.” I’m not exactly thrilled to be dishing out some extra change each month, but it will feel good to feel safe in my own vehicle, which I haven’t in awhile. I was banking on ol’ Bessie Blue (my car…) to get me through the next two years of graduate school, but sometimes things don’t work out the way you planned. And that's okay.

Have you ever dealt with buying/leasing your own car? If anyone is interested in some tips on negotiating with car salespeople, let me know! I feel like a borderline expert at this point. Not really, but really.


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4 comments

  1. I'm a big planner too and the ones I hang out with tend to not be. It makes me crazy. I just started leasing my own car a few months ago. I wasn't prepared as well but after a few months, I don't even remember that it's on lease since it just automatically takes payments out. haha you got this girl!! :)

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    1. Haha, I really need to set up automatic payments! But life of a server, I never know how much is going to be in my account during any given week, so it's best I do it manually...LOL! Thank you :)

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  2. I had to buy a car on my own two years ago and I remember at the time it was the most exciting and stressful event. My Nissan Murano was totaled by an idiot taking a left hand turn while on his phone! I got lucky though. I bought a used car (Nissan Rouge) that was from that year. Someone had bought it, put in leather seats, a sun roof, and a few other customization.. drove it less than 200 miles and traded it in. I bargained down to 17,000 and put $8,000 upfront. It lowered my monthly payment to 200 and I'll have it paid off quite soon! I also got lucky with a sales man.. when I went with my husband to get him a car the sales person harassed (texted/called) us for weeks saying how dare we waste his time and not buy a car. He was the worst!

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    1. Wow! I can't believe they had all that work done just to return it after less than 200 miles. What an amazing deal. Not great circumstances in which you had to get the car, but glad you were okay :)

      I don't even know if I could handle someone saying something like that to me! Salespeople need to realize that a car purchase is never personal. I get the whole commission thing, but that doesn't serve as reason to act like an a-hole when things don't go their way, ya know?

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