Umm, Car Stuff
Wednesday, 10-1-09Thom,
I’m having trouble getting a hold of you … just a bad time for you I think during the day. I need to get this message too you in that I won’t be able to pay for the plane trip. I’m hoping maybe your father will step up to the plate. Rich says that he can’t do it and I know that it is something I shouldn’t ask him for. I wanted very badly to help you, but we ended up buying a new car on Monday. I’ve been looking for a couple of months and the deal just came in when it did. It was the day the financial market – Dow closed at 778 minus. I didn’t know for sure if they’d give me a loan. I was worried about the other car loan because my bank is now no longer in the car loan business. I didn’t know if my credit would be good, but it passed through and actually my interest rate was lowered 4%.
But, just the same I’m not going to be able to pay the ticket. I thought I could take it out of the money I didn’t need to pay school loans ($400) due to my own deferment that gives me a month off of the bill. But, that money was needed for the car. I thought then I’d just pay half the rent now and catch up this next month, but I’ve had too many expenses – I’m down to having only $500 to pay $900 rent. I’ve got to give them something. I’ll have to catch up again by next month. If it is an emergency that you’ll need the money, I will not pay the rent, but I think you’d shoot me if you found out I did that without asking if there were any other options. I’m really sorry I can’t be a better mom with money. On the good side though … the phone and small part of Best Buy bill got paid Let’s have a wooHOO!! For That! Please call when you get a chance and maybe we can figure something else out.
This blog entry following explains my thinking the morning after the evening I bought the car (Tuesday morning blog).
I love you dearly.
Mom
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Good morning … This is me. Hmm, trying a new font … thought I’d be different this morning.
No, my computer isn’t fixed yet. Rich said though that he would help get it to his guy that fixes his computer. It’s got this terrible black and white screen and it’s not getting better. I think it’s going to need a new start-up disk. I hope the repair guy has one, because I don’t. *Sigh*
Ok, on to other news. This is pretty much it … we bought a new used car last night. Ok, there I said it … yah I’ll repeat that … we bought a new used car. We got a 2006 Honda CR-V EX. Hmm, that pretty much says it all, right?
Ahh … a picture says 1000 words …
This is my pretty new baby with the blue eyes! Thinking that I have to make a big adjustment here in that there was a certain amount of pride in the appearance of the Black Xb. I didn’t like that it felt so tinny, matched the Chicago cabs, cost so much for the price, and all, but I did respect it in its own Iconic form. I think that the new CR-V is going to be a more standardized driving vehicle. But, this will be a good thing. I never got over the feeling with the Scion that I was being watched for having been unusual.
We started by looking at a 2009 variation of the CR-V EX. I chose that model over the LX because it had some standard features like the tinted windows, alloy tires, keyless entry, upgraded stereo, AND A moonroof. The EX-L model included leather seats, a subwoofer and satellite radio and the only options to be added are the navigation system with the camera for rear parking. That be nice, but wasn’t within my price range. The things that I got added to the package with the EX model were the things most important to me. At one time I thought the computer was more important, but when given a choice of no computer or getting Rich’s car with a computer, I chose not to have it. Mostly this is because the handheld computers GPS seem good enough. True I’m holding it close to the wheel, but that’s ok … helps me to justify the devises I already own.
There are a few other nice things with this 2006 vehicle I eventually was able to buy. I like the interior colors. They are also the deep midnight blue and have the feeling of being almost a carpet. They are suede like, not plastic type – so I feel like I’m more in luxury than in a truck. The car has XM satellite which is another nice feature. I would have to pay $12.95 per month if I want to keep the service more than 90 days, but I will have to do some experimenting with it. The big deal I saw so far besides all the channels without advertisements is that they have CNN on radio. MAN that station gets around! The vehicle seems to have tons of storage space. It’s thingy in the middle of the driver and front-seat passenger folds down so that’s sorta neat. It only has the one glove compartment – not two like the 2009 model, but it’s just fine … It seems pretty deep.
I like that the seat folds down 40/60 and I haven’t tried it out yet, but it’s supposed to fold down and then toward the back of the front seat. Maybe I can get a picture?
Pshwoo … I guess that is all mine! This is what we’ve got. I’m going to need going out a few moments this morning to see if I can handle moving those seats. I didn’t try that part and am not interested in how it goes. Oh that’s another thing that’s cool … it’s got a pneumatic back door so it opens and closes really cool. Actually, that’s a very big deal all along … all the doors open and shut with a nice sound … with my Scion there was a different kind of slap – that which comes from a less solid frame. You know … kind of overly light and airy. Now we get a decent THUMP! So cool.
Hmm, do you know we even get a temperature gauge for outside? I know … now it is the little things. I didn’t think about it until I got home, but it never occurred to me … well maybe once … but it didn’t really occur to me to open up the front hood to see what was inside. Maybe that was an error in judgment, but to be very honest, I wouldn’t have had the faintest idea of what to look for. Hmm, my bad.
Couple of other things. We got back the cruise control and we got something new to us in that we have radio controls on the steering wheel. That’s a new deal that has yet to be tried out. I think there is a 12 AV too. So that might be kind of interesting as to plugging things in. The carpet is in great shape – can easily come out to be washed, and the previous owner wasn’t a smoker … that’s a big deal. It was a one owner vehicle so that was nice too. I found a little clip inside that said, “Grandpa.” But, according to the preset channels he might have been a young one, unless the people checking out the car did that themselves. It was inspected to the point of being certified.
Another nice thing was that when I buckled the seat – I didn’t get cut off at the neck as I had my car. AND, this car has airbags deployed on the front and sides. I had only front airbags in the other car. The windows seem large, though I haven’t had the opportunity of pulling it into a parallel park. Hopefully, I’m not going to need going through that this morning. There is a good chance that the clients will take note of the new vehicle. If not a passerby client, I know that the client who opens the door will say something about the new vehicle. I wouldn’t have picked the Midnight blue Pearl exterior color as my first choice, but I like it a lot more than having gone to one of the grays or green. I like that it is dark and not an unnatural color. Hmm, AND it’s got a security system. It becomes engaged if anyone were to break in my car or try to take out the security system – and if anyone tried to make their own key, it wouldn’t work because there is something in the key that allows it to be used. I forget exactly how that works. It was a lot of information to take in.
I’m not sure if I said it before, but the car has 34,000 miles on it. For an ’06 car, I didn’t think that was too bad. The car in itself cost $18,600. The payments are going to be up from my $395 to a new cost of $455. I didn’t think the change in cost was that much in comparison to what I was getting. It really is a nice upgrade for me. The car has 3 years or 45,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty including the tires. It has roadside assistance like free towing and it has GAP insurance, so if I totaled the vehicle and the insurance only paid what it was presently worth, the GAP would cover the amount needed to replace it. I thought that was a good deal. I had to pay like $1.50 extra a month to get the first payment not until November 10th. I figured that would be enough to get my finances taken care of.
I don’t have all that worked out. A good part though. I had to put down $1,000. I am doing that by cashing in my check that I should get today. It should be deposited right away and be good to use by Friday … that’s when I told them they could cash the check. I figured that the check would be $1300. Usually that’s $900 for rent and $400 for car. This time there will be $1000 for car and $300 for rent. Rich is paying me $400 now for rent, a slight increase, plus $100 toward Comcast. So, this month his $500 plus the $300 will go to pay rent. I usually use his money for paying the school loans, but this month due to deferment, I don’t have to pay the loans. I am going to have problems in that I had wanted to give Thom $300 for his air flight. I don’t think I will be able to do that. He’s going to need the money sooner than the next check and I still have to catch up the rent. I had wanted to give him money through that money not being spent on school loans this month, but I can’t use that money twice. I will ask Rich one more time about it, but otherwise I have to let it go. Rich did say that he picked up my medicines and it was only $60 – so that part I covered in money that he didn’t give me in the $500 so that I didn’t get any Rich-deal, He only gave me $440 and not the $540 he should have given. We’ll have to talk about that to him. Ok, this is really not fair … I just checked my account. I got $100 fee for overspending
I know that he’s having problems getting to his daughter’s because of firing the people he needs to fire from work. She didn’t understand very well last night and he left the call telling her he’d try to work something out, but I know he really has to be at work … the choice at the time was to go a week earlier, which would be this week, but that means bowing out of the classic, which is the fishing contest’s last week. That would be an unfair thing for her to ask – pretty much because she wants him to see a balloon show. He tries to explain he wants to see her not the balloons. He said he would go after the weekend he was scheduled, but she doesn’t want to hear anything about it. We’ll see. I’m not sure how it will work out … just that it will.
Ahh … Rich is going the weekend he was supposed to to his daughters, but instead of staying 4 days, he’s going to go for 2. *Sigh* Sometimes things are just hard to work out. At least she should be happier.
Better go now though. We’re late for the shower and keeping Rich from using his computer. I think he took advantage of that and went back to bed, but I know I have to be fair. He gets back the computer AND he has to get up too!
posted by Ann Marie @ 10/01/2008 02:22:00 PM
Comments: 1
