As you know, my car was stolen last month! …then recovered, without headrests or floor mats, as well as a cut off driver’s side seat belt. With our insurance policy, the car had 10 days to be found before it was written off as a total loss, and the police did find it within those 10 days. We had to pick it up from a tow yard, and Brandon drove it the 2.5 hours back in that condition. For the short day that it was at the tow yard, it accumulated a bill of $200!
Anyway, the car had a sickly sweet smell due to the individual(s) smoking and hanging up multiple air freshener trees. The smell alone (along with the bad vibes) convinced us that this was a great time to trade in the car for something new (to us) that would have more seats for the baby + boys.
As far as the overall process, we worked with the local body shop to get a seat belt installed (over $300!) so we could drive it to a Ford dealership for an estimate of the repairs. We then drove it to the dealership, where they gave us an estimate and insurance approved the repairs and gave us a check to cover the damage to the vehicle. We were planning on getting the repairs done, but the inconvenience of having to drive separate for 2 two hour drives was not appealing. Ultimately we decided that just trading it in sans repairs (we own the vehicle outright) would be the best choice for us. Before we traded it in though, we decided to get some new headrests from eBay. I’d actually never bought anything from eBay, but it was a great experience and they came fast! We had to go this route because my 2019 Ford Fusion’s headrests were discontinued.
Once we had the headrests in, we were ready to trade it in for something different! Our biggest criteria for the new vehicle was 1. at least 7 seats (there’s going to be 5 of us next year!), 2. reliable, 3. back up camera, 4. in our budget! Since we prioritized paying off our vehicles within the past year, we made a decision to never have another car payment. Once you get that money freed up in your budget, you’ll never want to go back! We had our eyes on a 2014 Toyota Sienna (heard great things about Siennas from my friend!) but also knew there was a 2013 Dodge Durango that we could look at as a backup option. We found both of these cars online at Granger Motors, and a sales person named Samantha reached out to schedule time with us.
Our ideal state for the car was to have an even trade where we don’t have to pay anything for whatever we get. We knew that our car would be valued at less than we’d get in a private sale or pre-damage, but if we could trade for something that suited our needs while not touching our insurance check, we would still be in a good spot. Overall, we knew we were trading convenience/time for maximum profit.
At Granger Motors, we let Samantha know what we were looking to do, and we test drove the Sienna while she valued our trade in. We did notice that the car was LOUD (like driving a truck loud), had a cruise control operation that would take some time to get used to, and after exiting the vehicle, the tires smelled hot. We’re very familiar with that smell because Brandon’s truck has needed fixed for that twice! What we liked about the vehicle was the size, storage upfront (it had a perfect spot to put my belt bag!), sunroof (for me, Brandon couldn’t care less), and the smooth turning. When we got back, we told Samantha our concerns and asked to test drive the Durango while she checked out the Sienna with her manager.
The Durango was love at first sight! It was SO CLEAN and had a similar feel to my car upfront. I thought we wouldn’t like two rows of bench seats in the back, but the layout felt much more future baby friendly in terms of me being close to the second row. I also liked how when we take the baby home, I could sit in the middle close to Brandon versus the captain chairs where if I needed to be close to the baby, we’d have to sit in the far back. Plus, it’ll mainly be kids going to the back, so there’s really no impact to us adults. We also loved how there were heated seats not only in the front, but in the second row! The second row had an outlet for charging, which means the boys can plugin their own cords instead of passing them up to me. Brandon liked the storage compartments in the trunk that could house jumper cables or other tools. Overall our biggest plus was how quiet and smooth it drove. We kept asking ourselves is this the right car? No way it’s priced under $14k!
When we got back from the test drive, we immediately told Samantha we want the Durango! She let us know that our Ford would be taken at $14k, and we’d get $12 back then need to pay taxes/document fees. Well, we took our first spin at negotiating and requested they pay any taxes/document fees/etc. After a brief wait, we had a deal!! We walked back to the finance department, signed a few papers with no cash exchanged either way, and walked out with a new ride fully owned. YAY!
Shortly after driving away (we drove fast in case they regretted their decision!), I checked the glovebox and opened the car’s manual. Now, our baby’s name is being kept secret (we are not accepting feedback on it!). It’s a beautiful name, and while not unique, you rarely hear it. This isn’t the same vibe of name, but for this story we’ll use the name Marley. Imagine you bought a used car (not even the one you were planning on getting), open the glove box, and find a paper from a previous owner and her name is Marley! How crazy is that? Well, that was us!! She wasn’t the previous owner, yet still hung around in the glovebox!
That same night, while I was pairing my phone to the Bluetooth, the car told me to pick a priority between 1 and 7 and I said 1. The car said ‘Priority 1 is already taken by: ‘ and then a recording of a girl saying ‘Marley Cell’. WHAT! We were shocked!! We told the phone NO! when she asked if we wanted to overwrite priority 1. So we’re now priority 2 in the car’s system LOL. Can you imagine though?! This is clearly a sign that we have the right baby name and car! (Reminder though, it’s not Marley).
A hidden perk of our new car is that it’s so old (in age, runs great!!), that our registration will go down to just $50 next year! That’s way better than the $258 I was paying each year for my Fusion. We also use the remote start way more than with my car because it’s on the key fob instead of an app.
Now I hesitate on even mentioning this as a con because it actually turned out to be not an issue at all, but the tech obviously is the main place where you can tell it’s 10 years old. The Bluetooth is more old school than my car, but we did get it figured out. And playing The Ramsey Show podcast on a longer drive made it feel just like home!
Overall, we feel like both us and the dealership got a win-win situation. Plus, this gave us an opportunity to test our declaration that we would never have a car payment again. If we weren’t so set on finding something in our budget, we probably wouldn’t have even looked at this price range and found this wonderful vehicle!
Thanks for reading!
Davien
fluted wood & marble 
Leave a comment