You Did WHAT?! (Holidays Part 2)

So I'm fairly certain that you all know B and I can be a little crazy and spontaneous at times. So what better way to close out 2007 with a totally impromptu road trip across the western US?!

Ok, yes there is some backstory that needs explaining here. For the last several months, B and I have been narrowing down our choices for the purchase of the NEW FAMILY CAR. The NEW FAMILY CAR needed to have 5-7 seats (for carting around not just us, but also friends and family when they come to visit), be something we'd be happy with for a good 7-10 years, fit within our price range, drive well, have certain features, etc. We mananged to zero in on 2006/2007 used Subaru B9 Tribeca as our NEW FAMILY CAR of choice. We definitely wanted to find something that was gently used but with low mileage (no desire to take that nasty depreciation hit driving off the lot). Fortunately, we had financing and deposit lined up - we just had to find the right car. The other nice thing is that we knew we still had several months before we hit the really critical point of NEEDING the NEW FAMILY CAR. With the end of month/end of year coming up, we figured we had a good chance of finding a sweet deal. So once we got back to Seattle, we were going to spend the 30th & 31st visiting the dealerships we'd already scoped out on previous trips.

Now, the above plan would've been the logical and sane thing to do. But what's the fun in that? While we were back in Chicago, we had some free time and decided to see what kinds of deals were out there that might help inform our buying process in Seattle. We convinced my mom to join us as we visited 3 dealerships throughout the 'burbs. The first place (a Subaru dealership) had a few Tribecas but they weren't in the best of shape and the sales guy wasn't very interested in making a deal with us. The 2nd place was actually a Mazda/VW dealership and had one Tribeca on the lot. This particular vehicle was in GREAT shape, had crazy low mileage (3800 miles), and all of the features/perks we were looking for. Plus, since it had been sitting on their lot for the last 6 weeks they'd already dropped the price 3 times. But it was still a few thousand out of our price range and they couldn't come down quite far enough for us. So we left and checked out one last place which wound up being a bust.

Thursday night, B and I rehash our day's experience and realize if the Mazda/VW place could come down a wee bit more, we could make up the difference. And we both recognized that it'd be highly unlikely we would find this good of a deal anywhere else. So we decide that Friday morning B would call them up and try and make a deal. Did I mention that our flight was scheduled to leave on Friday afternoon? Yeah, we like to cut things good and close. Long story short, B makes the sale, we get financing squared, insurance added, cat-sitter extended, sleeping arangements made in MN, flight cancelled, and are the proud owners of a barely used Silver 2007 Subaru B9 Tribeca!!!!!! WOOOOO!!!! Fastest and easiest experience ever at a dealership.