Never Buy A Car While Temporarily Insane

Does anyone ever buy a new car and have it work out the way they think it's going to? I think I'm just hopeless at this game. I was thinking about buying a new car. Let's be honest about it. I was a sucker for a new car smell and our existing car was about to go out of warranty. I thought I was doing a good thing. But the deal didn't quite work out as well as I had hoped. My car payment went up -- $60 per month -- and so did my interest rate. And the car? It's really the same car that I had -- just newer with a few more bells and whistles -- and not as many as I had expected. When I got to the dealership, they told me I had to put another $1600 down. I told them again that I couldn't put any money down. They got me down to $500, which will actually not be put down until late in October. And since we won't have a car payment next month, we can do the $500 payment. But there were still problems. They finally got me into a 2008 Galant that they sold to me for $1000 under invoice. It doesn't have the sunroof, bluetooth, or homelink, but it does have a 6-speaker stereo and they are throwing in an ipod adapter for me. And I'm getting a car that is under factory warranty again. I think that at some point, I just gave up. I got trapped in my own objections to putting money down. "Well, Mr. Lindsey, if you can't afford to put $1000 down, how are you going to pay for car repairs that come up later?" And, "Well, what's going to happen if you need to get out of the car in another six months? You'll be worse off then, considering how the banks are now." So, perhaps I screwed myself there. Hell, I did it when I went to the dealership in the first place. I don't think I'm qualified to buy a new car anymore. Next time, I'm going to send Jeff to do it. Better still, I'm going to ask my dad to do it. Maybe I'll send Jeff and my dad together. The dealership had better watch out.

Somehow, they convinced me that I was doing the right thing, and maybe I wanted to believe them. I really thought I was doing a good thing. I don't think it turned out too badly, but it certainly didn't go as well as I had expected. Jeff is not pleased about it, but he's not angry with me about it either. I can make up the difference by canceling the $10 per month gym membership that I never use, and if I take my lunch instead of eating mediocre food at work, I'll more than pay for the difference. Besides, it would help me lose weight anyway, since I usually end up eating grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. That's what I've found to be the most reasonable lunch, since salads are expensive and most of the entrees don't appeal. But the neverending mediocrity of the Riverfront Cafe is another blog post altogether. $6 or $7 per day adds up.

I feel sort of ashamed. Getting a new car is supposed to be a happy thing, but I'm almost embarrassed to talk about it. The car is nice and should be reliable, and they insisted that they made updates to the engine in 2008 that increased performance and efficiency (not that the original one was bad). Maybe I knew in my heart that I didn't really need a new car. I should have talked myself off the ledge before I jumped off of it. But there's no point crying over spilled milk. It's done. The paperwork has been signed and will be sent off tomorrow. I have to go back up there tomorrow and finish things up. Jeff didn't want to talk about it when I got home. He wasn't angry with me; I think he was just stunned by how it all turned out. So am I, as a matter of fact.

So, what do we have now? We have a 2008 Galant ES (black) with the same basic options as our other car except for: steering wheel audio controls, alloy wheels, 6-CD in dash Rockford Fosgate stereo with subwoofer (apparently, this thing will thump -- I hope the world likes ABBA) and six months' worth of Sirius satellite radio, anti-theft system, and a shiftronic automatic transmission. I think everything will be okay. It will just take some getting used to. I have to go back on Saturday morning to have them put in the iPod adapter.

Maybe I can blame it all on temporary insanity. At least, our insurance will only go up $5 per month. I checked on that today.