A New Car! A New Car!*

I would have done my podcast last night, but I was a bit distracted, reading the owner’s manual for my NEW car!

Wait, did you notice that we just bought a BMW 6 months ago? Uhm, yeah. I hesitated at the time over buying the 2004 model, even with the “Honda Certified Pre-owned” package, because it was used. But I got over it, and all seemed to be well. Until I noticed that my miles per gallon – a very important thing these days – was really going down. I was getting 50 miles per tank less now than when we bought it, and it didn’t even have 20,000 miles on it yet. I also learned to tak care of my vehicle, you could do the same if you click here for more in this website.

Then there was the whole episode with the air conditioning needing to be replaced a few weeks ago. I had someone at the dealership tell me, “Well, that is how it is, driving in Houston!” Uhm, NO. I don’t think so. I drove a Civic for 7 years in Houston, and never had to do any work on that car other than standard maintenance and oil changes. Nothing. Nada. So don’t tell me that it is normal for an A/C unit to go out on a vehicle with under 17,500 miles on it. They did replace the remote start for cars for free thanks to the Pre-owned warranty stuff, but still. It should not have happened.

A floor jack is one of the top tools you’ll find in any garage you visit…or in the trunk of every vehicle owner. It is useful for changing tires, oil change, performing overhaul, and many more. I’ve rencently stumbled across a great article about floor jacks at truckersection.com and I can tell you for sure that you need this in your garage!

Then there was the “whoooooo” sound that I kept hearing that would change pitch as you drove faster or slower. It just didn’t happen all the time, so the techs never got to hear it to sort it out.

Monday we went over to John Eagle Honda to test drive the cars. While looking around the lot – several were back in the “to be detailed” area because they were fresh off the truck – we found one that we liked that didn’t have anything added on to it yet. No funky chrome sidestep. No sat track device. No fancy rims. Fresh from the factory, with exactly what we wanted on it. So we had them run the “preliminary” numbers. Not only did it take them forever, but I did the math later that night when I got home – because the monthly payments they were talking about were insane – and they were calculating at something close to 15% interest! They really made me feel like they did not want to make the deal at all because of their attitude – they knew that they could slap the add-ons on the very next morning and sell it for more. (These things are moving off the lots fast!) They never bothered to tell us how they were doing preliminary numbers based on their “guess” as to what our credit score was, instead of looking at the actual score – and the payments would have been less if they had actually used the real score. But like I said, they didn’t seem to care too much about making the sale, so we left.

I had been told by a friend that she had been shopping for the new CR-Vs at Goodson Honda on the North Freeway. (I-45 for those of us that can never remember which one is the North Freeway.) She had been really happy with the people at Goodson when she bought her Accord there years ago. So I started shopping online. I e-mailed, and Chris Coleman e-mailed me back within an hour or so. We set up an appointment. They ran the preliminary numbers for me without making Mike come over, which was perfect. Once we got to the numbers and they were MUCH better than John Eagle’s, I called Mike and he came to take over.

Goodson told me that if they didn’t have the vehicle on the lot that I wanted, they would check their sister dealership and also the shipping manifests to see what they could get for me. (John Eagle told me no to getting from their sister dealership, and acted as they had no clue what they would be getting next.) When the vehicle that I test drove had the sidestep on it, which I didn’t want because they have lowered the CR-V (better center of gravity – more safety!), and I had to step over the step in a weird way, they said they could remove it. (John Eagle said no, once it was on the couldn’t *cough*wouldn’t*cough* take it off.) When I said I still didn’t want to pay $700 for fog lights, they then went looking for a car and had one brought over for me from Goodson West. As an added perk, we got free pinstriping that they didn’t know was on it, so they didn’t figure it into the price!

The entire experience at Goodson Honda was FANTASTIC. I didn’t get that creepy car purchasing experience. They met every need I had and gave me everything I asked for. I highly, highly recommend them. I have bought two cars from John Eagle – my 1999 Civic and the 2004 CR-V, but after this week I will probably never return to them. I had weird issues with the CR-V purchase from day 1. (I was missing a floor mat that they made me pay for, no owner’s manual that took me months to get from them, no remote at first for the locks, so that took some time, etc.) Goodson left us feeling like a car buying experience should be. Chris Coleman was fun to work with and knew the vehicle well. All in all, it was great. If you want to know more about the deals I got on my vehicle see here for more details.

The new CR-V is the EX-L model, with leather seats (uhm, heated leather, because we need that a lot in Houston), XM satellite radio, a jack for your MP3 player, volume controls on the steering wheel, more safety features and airbags than I had before, built in alarm system, a trunk cover/shelf for better storage … it is fabulous. I love it. Did I mention how wonderful it is?

* There is a song by DaVinci’s Notebook that just says “A new car!” like an announcer on a TV show, over and over. I’ve been saying it ever since last night. I am a dork.