LizaWasHere

Since I am cautiously optimistic that I’m on the mend — no appetite, but nothing forcefully leaving my body either — I made the bad decision to take both kids with me to the grocery store. We need things, like bread, and jelly, and butter.

The actual store itself was ok. Even though it was around noon on a Saturday, on the first above-freezing day we’ve had in weeks. (It’s 35!)

The trouble started in the parking lot.

As I was helping Noah get in the car and into his carseat, the cart rolled away.

It got 12-15 feet away before I noticed. Josie’s blanket was on the asphalt, and she was gaining momentum.

I shrieked at Noah not to move and ran for the cart.

After I got it, I told Noah that I was going to buckle Josie in first, after he got in the car.

Then I buckled Josie in, put the groceries in the car, and headed home.

Half-way home, Noah said, “MOM! You need to buckle my seatbelt!”

Noah was very good at the car store.

I spent pretty much all of my online time last week researching cars, both generally and then specific vehicles. I decided that I wanted a late model used car, probably 2007, but I was open to 2006-2008. So the “all you can eat” carfax report option became my best friend.

Both the Fit and Civic were strong contenders, but the fact is that I fell in love with the Prius long ago. I wasn’t willing to spend the premium on buying it new, but to my surprise, there are used Priuses (Priui?) on the market now. In metropolitian Milwaukee last week, there were 37 listed for less than $22k. (Not that I was even close to willing to spend that much. But I was willing to negotiate with dealers listing to that amount.)

At the end of the process, I knew that there were probably acceptable cars at 3 local dealerships. Jill spent time researching them, and I went to the one with the best Better Business Bureau rating, although it had the fewest 2007 Priui. I ran Carfax reports on all of their 2006-2008 inventory listings — none of which included prices online.

I also had printouts of the Edmunds.com “true market value” estimates, and the Consumer Reports used car price reports. Incidentally, those two entities list prices that are thousands of dollars apart, for the same used cars.

Noah, Josie, and I settled into a table and talked to a nice salesman, Patrick. I explained that I was a serious buyer, and that if we could work out the price, I was ready to buy today. But I also added that if we couldn’t make it work on the price, I had a long list of all the cars in the area that met my criteria, and I was willing to go elsewhere.

Patrick’s first quotes were well above both the used car online listings, and above what I was willing to pay. In fact, they were only $2-4k less than the price of a new Prius. I had a printed list of those cars too.

Patrick jumped on that, suggesting that new might be the way for me to go.

I stuck to my guns, and explained that his numbers were quite a bit higher than what Consumer Reports suggested. He asked to see the printout, and took it to his manager.

Then Patrick came back, saying that they had 2 vehicles they would consider selling for the high end of my price range, but one was a 2006. A little red flag went up. When he told me the mileage and color, I knew that it was one that had been in an accident. Thank you Carfax! I declined.

The other was offsite at a tent sale, but they could bring it back for me. It was a 2008, with a bit over 20k miles on it, and not on my printout. I asked for the carfax report, which Patrick got for me. It was clean.

We got the deal done very quickly after that. And I am now a happy member of the Cult of Prius. Noah seems to like it too, although he still calls it an Acura Racecar. (What I told him our rental was — it was the same color as one of his matchbox cars.)