Ride the Whip!

So last Thursday I was driving home from work, and lo and behold, I see a white SVT Lightning at a local dealer. My immediate thought is "man, that's awesome, I wanna go look". I decide that I should just hold off, check some information online (aka listing price of it), and see if it's something I can even afford. So that night when I get home, I do my research. I can afford it. The list price is something I can negotiate. Now, I just need a loan. So I go online to my credit union's website, and fill out an auto loan app. Done, in, should hear back within 2 days.

So I go over during my lunch break on Friday to just look at the condition it's in. It's a 2001, and it's white. Overall it's not bad (not excellent condition, but good). Has a few paint chips, some rust in the truck bed, and the front grill is rusted. Easy fixes (and good price negotiation points). I figure I'll visit again on Saturday and talk business.

Saturday rolls around, and I haven't heard anything regarding my loan. I call my bank around 11AM, and they have nothing on record that I applied, apparently their online app is broken (doesn't submit). So the rep asks if I want to do it over the phone, and I say sure why not. So I get that all done, and I choose to do a local pickup of the paperwork. She says it can be ready today, but the bank closes at noon (at this point it's about 11:15, and the bank is about 20 minutes away). So I hop in my car, speed the hell over to the bank, and at about 11:50, I have preapproved check in hand, and I'm good to go.

So I go over to the dealer, and test drive again, the works, finally we sit down to talk numbers. He goes through this long BS routine of trying to pull credit (so they can try to beat my financing, unlikely). Finally when we get to prices, the list price is at $23,872, which is absurd for the condition and the year (blue book for 2001 in excellent condition is $19,000, which the truck was not in excellent condition). So we go back and forth for a while, I finally say I can do $18,500 driveaway right here right now, I've got 2 checks ready to be signed. He says "I can't do that, I'd be losing money." So no go. Oh well.

I go online looking for some other local Lightning's to check out, and see one at a Ford dealership. It's dark blue, 2002, and has about 7,000 less miles than the 2001, but is listed online for $19,999. I go over to check it out, give it a whirl, and it's beautiful. Just about everything I wanted and expected from a Lightning. Only problem is that since it was traded in, the guy who owned it before put 20" spinners on it (real thing, not Walmart ones). No biggie, they're just not my style.

So we go into talks, and I end up driving it away for $19,999 including tax, title, and license. Not too shabby, as it ended up selling for about the blue book value for that year and the mileage.

So now I've got me a new truck that'll eat just about anything that people around here will throw at it.

Yay!