We went to South Point Nissan today in hopes of finding Casey’s new car. The used and new dealerships are in separate locations (within a few blocks of each other) so we ended up at the new dealership before being redirected. When we finally got there, Brady took off like a mad woman while we located the sales person and located the car we were there to see – a 2008 Nissan Altima. Casey uninstalled Brady’s car seat and we all took it on a test drive. This is definitely different than Infiniti and they don’t jot down your license and insurance information and let you go on your way. Oh no, the sales person has to go with you and sit in the front seat. I guess it beats our last experience with a Nissan dealer when they were adamant about driving it off the lot too.
We really liked the Altima and the way it performed but figured we owed it to ourselves to look at what else was available before making a decision. We found a 2006 Nissan Maxima for the same price but with 65k miles versus the 40k the Altima had. The age, mileage, and size/gas mpg weren’t what we were looking for but it had some of the options that our FX has that we enjoy, that the Altima didn’t have. I guess the sales person trusted us more after the initial test drive and he just let the three of us go out in the car.
When we got back to the dealership Brady was acting crazy and her and I went to go eat Goldfish in the FX while Casey went back to talk to the sales person. He made an offer, they countered, he countered, and eventually we came to an agreement. Or so we thought. Apparently somewhere along the way there was a miscommunication and they were charging us more than we had originally thought. We told them that wouldn’t work for us and gave them a lowball general number that we wanted to drive the car off the lot for (with taxes, title, registration, and fees) and thanked them for their time. As we were getting Brady in her seat, I asked Casey how long he thought it’d take before they contacted us again and he said not very long. Well at that exact moment, the manager walks up (we think the sales person had Parkinsons) and asks us if we knew about the Maxima they had and THAT car (being 2 years older than the Altima, 25 miles more on it, and 5 years old overall) we could drive off the lot for what we wanted. We admitted it was a good price, thanked them again, and said we’d sleep on it and be in touch.
Now we’re torn on what to do. As exhausting as it is, buying a car is a major purchase and I want to shop around to find the ideal car for us and to fit our needs/wants/budget. I found a 2006 Volvo S60 at Austin Infiniti that we are going to go look at in the morning and then maybe go back to the Nissan dealership if that doesn’t work out. All the Hondas (Accords, at least) are more than the Maxima or Altima and just don’t seem like as good of a deal. So hopefully tomorrow some time we’ll be a two car family again. Now we just need to clean out the garage.