As I'm sure y'all expected...
I wound up buying a car yesterday:
Surprisingly enough, I even wound up spending $524 less on it than I expected; I knew what I was willing to pay for it, and I fully expected the dealership to negotiate me up to it. That puts it at about $2800 less than what I expected to pay for the V6-powered 2011 model that had at one point been Plan A. That will cover a large amount of the increased fuel bill from the V8 engine. :) They did try a number of things-- they pointed out that they had someone else interested in the car, they claimed that they paid $200 more for the car than I was suggesting as my out-the-door price (if they did, they were idiots...), but in the end, it worked out fine. And after the price was negotiated, they of course tried to up-sell me a service contract...
The car had been owned a whole four months before it got traded in at the Honda lot. I'm guessing someone got notified just after buying their new hot rod that they were getting PCS'd overseas and decided that a V8's mileage would kill him in a world where fuel is priced in euros per liter and traded it in on a Honda. The previous owner bought it in July of 2010. It's so close to new that the free Sirius radio trial period is still active.
It worked out just about perfect for me: When Ford updated the Mustang engines this year, both the V6 and V8 gained about a hundred horsepower, which means that the 2010 models took a huge hit in value. I paid almost $10,000 less than the guy who bought the thing last year probably did. Which means when it comes time to sell, I don't take near as much of a hit as I was otherwise going to.
Amy mostly fits in the passenger seat OK. She'd like a pad to put on the seat so that the armrests are at the right height for her, which I can certainly accomodate. It's no longer a "climb up" or "scrunch down" sort of motion to get into it, she basically can sit in it like it were, well, a normal car.
It did, however, take three hours to buy the dang thing. SURE, 45 minutes or so of it was sorting out test drives, one for me (which they had paperwork for already) and then one for Amy, but still, I do have to wonder why so many papers are involved and why so much waiting around has to happen to hand over a check for a car. Seems like this is one of those problems computers were intended to solve.
And, of course, since Amy was to be the co-owner, she had to hang around for all of it to sign all the papers. We'd originally thought we'd test drive the thing, and then she'd go hike while I was sorting out paperwork. Oops. So much for that idea.
So far, I'm loving having a decent grand tourer in the driveway. Cruising up the highway the engine's turning 1500 or so RPM and the cabin is nice and quiet. It makes a beautiful noise when you push the loud pedal, and the acceleration is quite nice.
Useless trivia:
I have now owned 9 cars. All but the two Miatas have been V8 powered, but this is the first V8 with a manual transmission. The average displacement of engines doesn't change from 4.6L, since the 4.6L engine in my Mustang is the smallest V8 I've owned. Its 315 horsepower and 325 torques put it at the second most powerful, though, behind the 345/345 that my much, much heavier Ram pickup is good for. Since this one is a V8, I've still yet to own a six-cylinder. I've also not yet owned a front-wheel-drive, either.
Surprisingly enough, I even wound up spending $524 less on it than I expected; I knew what I was willing to pay for it, and I fully expected the dealership to negotiate me up to it. That puts it at about $2800 less than what I expected to pay for the V6-powered 2011 model that had at one point been Plan A. That will cover a large amount of the increased fuel bill from the V8 engine. :) They did try a number of things-- they pointed out that they had someone else interested in the car, they claimed that they paid $200 more for the car than I was suggesting as my out-the-door price (if they did, they were idiots...), but in the end, it worked out fine. And after the price was negotiated, they of course tried to up-sell me a service contract...
The car had been owned a whole four months before it got traded in at the Honda lot. I'm guessing someone got notified just after buying their new hot rod that they were getting PCS'd overseas and decided that a V8's mileage would kill him in a world where fuel is priced in euros per liter and traded it in on a Honda. The previous owner bought it in July of 2010. It's so close to new that the free Sirius radio trial period is still active.
It worked out just about perfect for me: When Ford updated the Mustang engines this year, both the V6 and V8 gained about a hundred horsepower, which means that the 2010 models took a huge hit in value. I paid almost $10,000 less than the guy who bought the thing last year probably did. Which means when it comes time to sell, I don't take near as much of a hit as I was otherwise going to.
Amy mostly fits in the passenger seat OK. She'd like a pad to put on the seat so that the armrests are at the right height for her, which I can certainly accomodate. It's no longer a "climb up" or "scrunch down" sort of motion to get into it, she basically can sit in it like it were, well, a normal car.
It did, however, take three hours to buy the dang thing. SURE, 45 minutes or so of it was sorting out test drives, one for me (which they had paperwork for already) and then one for Amy, but still, I do have to wonder why so many papers are involved and why so much waiting around has to happen to hand over a check for a car. Seems like this is one of those problems computers were intended to solve.
And, of course, since Amy was to be the co-owner, she had to hang around for all of it to sign all the papers. We'd originally thought we'd test drive the thing, and then she'd go hike while I was sorting out paperwork. Oops. So much for that idea.
So far, I'm loving having a decent grand tourer in the driveway. Cruising up the highway the engine's turning 1500 or so RPM and the cabin is nice and quiet. It makes a beautiful noise when you push the loud pedal, and the acceleration is quite nice.
Useless trivia:
I have now owned 9 cars. All but the two Miatas have been V8 powered, but this is the first V8 with a manual transmission. The average displacement of engines doesn't change from 4.6L, since the 4.6L engine in my Mustang is the smallest V8 I've owned. Its 315 horsepower and 325 torques put it at the second most powerful, though, behind the 345/345 that my much, much heavier Ram pickup is good for. Since this one is a V8, I've still yet to own a six-cylinder. I've also not yet owned a front-wheel-drive, either.