Because people might be interested. :)

First I read the car’s ad. It sounded good.

Then I looked at the car. It looked good.

Then I drove the car. It felt good.

Then I did research on that year/make/model. Lots of glowing reviews. It’s not the fanciest car you’ll ever own, but people said for the money it’s a damn good car.

Then I did research on that specific car via CarFax. Good report. One small accident in 2002, which was repaired and inspected right afterwards. Two owners. The second owner – who owned it for most of its life – appears to have taken pretty good care of it. Lubed it up, replaced small parts, rotated and balanced the tires, replaced the brakes. The rear brakes were replaced just in 2006, good news for us.

Plus I found out our state has a manditory 30 day guarantee on any car.

So we got the loan app, filled it out, got the purchase agreement, put down a $100 deposit, and I’ll be dropping off the loan app tomorrow morning. Then we wait for approval.

It’s looking like by monday I’ll be the owner of a car!! :shock: I’m excited and nervous all at once. I’ve never bought a car before. My last car was a “gift”. It was a junker, so it was expected to die any day now, but my dad managed to keep it running for 4 years. So I’ve never had a loan, I’ve never went out car shopping, I’ve never picked out my new car. It’s scary! And yet strangely empowering. I did it all myself! Den’s co-signing for the loan, and he set some parameters for what we can afford and what kind of car we should get (ie, no station wagons) and what limits I need to stick to (less than 100k miles on it)… but after that I did all the research, all the comparisons, all the test-driving, all the deciding. And that’s pretty damn cool. To be honest I was very nervous about visiting a dealer by myself and test-driving a car without him with me. I just felt very jittery about it. But when I went and did it… I felt really good about myself!

It’s funny, because I’m 25 and yet I missed out on a lot. Like on that loan app? It asks how long you’ve lived at your current residence and how long at your previous one. I don’t think my answer was what they were expecting: 2 years at current, 23 years at previous. combine that with my age of 25 and, well…. that says a lot about me right there! LOL!

Gotta go pull up a picture of “my” car before I go to bed. ;) Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly with the loan approval.