I gave in...

October 04, 2006, 11:53:00 AM

Sorry for the long post...

So after a few weeks of my Bird throwing temper tantrums here and there, little things breaking, big things working sometimes, and then not the next time I turn a corner, my wife and I caved in and bought a new car to replace the Bird as my DD. Between the oil leak, the rotors being a little warped, and my electrical system throwing a fit at a resturaunt the other day, I have decided that it is time to put the Bird in park and let it think about the choices it has made. I cleaned her up the other day and parked her in front of the house until I can start making repairs, only to be driven when I need to.

So, what did we get?

2004 Chrysler Pacifica Onyx Green Pearlcoat
49000 miles

The local dodge dealer was having a sale this weekend, and they have had this car for at least 3-4 months. They had it listed as $19k but I figured since it was a sale weekend and they have had this car so long they would finally be willing to deal on it. So we asked to test drive it, they had to jump start it because it had sat for so long the battery was dead. It drove alright once the battery started charging again, when we got off the interstate and hit the brakes the whole car shuddered though. The front emblem had been smashed by someone months ago, there was a piece of weather stripping that was loose on one of the rear doors, and there were a few other minor scratches and paint chips. And the entire car was just dirty as all hell. I mean it looked like a circus had run through the rear seat. And the salesman was feeding me a line about how they have detailers come in and clean all their vehicles before they go back to the lot. I am so not making this up, there were fries under the rear seat that had fossil imprints on them. This was back when McDonalds was still bragging about serving over 100 people.

So when we started dealing on the price, I told him I wanted the charging system checked out, the rotors checked and fixed, and the weather stripping and emblem replaced. So he asked what our offer was, and I figured that since it was so dirty and needed a few things done, $17k was a good offer. He looked at me like I had just slapped him with a 2 week old trout, went through his "look at this picture of kids that may or may not actually be mine... youre stealing food from their mouths" and I looked back at him and said $17k. He shuffled off to talk to the salesmanager, who came back to negotiate with me like I was holding someone hostage. He told me that 18 was a low as they could go and then tried to BS me about how much they paid for the car and how much I am asking them to do to it, how much KBB says the car is worth (I had already checked KBB, and they were inflating that number by at least $1000) so told him that $17k was our offer, they should think about it, we are going home.

Literally, it took 3 minutes to drive home, and the phone was ringing when I walked in the door. They called the owner and asked him, he said $17,500. I said I would call them back with an answer, gave them 10 minutes to think about it, counter-offered $17,250. They took it. So we drove back over there and signed the paperwork. I spent Monday cleaning it inside and out. It took me almost 2 hours to vacuum the inside, and another 2 hours to buff the scratches out and polish the paint. I used that Turtle Wax Ice to clean up the black vinyl trim pieces and it looks brand new now. The few chips in the paint I can take care of once I find a paint marker that is the correct color.

This is such a nicer ride than the Bird on the interstate. Its going to be nice to take this instead of the Saturn when we go to Missouri for Christmas too! And now I can start doing major projects on the Bird without having to have it reassembled by Monday morning!

I gave in...

Reply #1 – October 04, 2006, 08:48:05 PM

Congrats, that's a nice looking Pacifica.
Getting a new car to do the daily grind is the way to go. That's what I did and even though my Cougar still gives me fits, I don't have to deal with it daily.

hmmm, so Turtle Wax Ice about restored the black trim? Cool, that's good to know.