I am planning on buying a new car. I have never bought new and thought I never would but since this car started existing in 2004, new it is. The concept is to get a black one and trick it out like a Hearse.
I have stalled for a couple of months now, letting this idea simmer. I am actually moving forward now. This is a big move for me.
Last Sat, I went for a test drive. It was a manual which would be ok. I think my pride and that sense of power/control is what keeps me wanting a stick. But with a manual, my friends can drive it. And it makes so much more sense in the SF area.
Today, I transfered my $3,000 CD back into my checking account. The money will be there tomorrow. Had to do it today because it was at the end of its grace period and I would have to wait another 30 days for the next one or take a month’s interest penalty, something like $1.40 hit, ouch. :}
I talked to my credit union and I am pre-approved for a car loan up to $35,000 at 3.9%. I need $10,000. And it ends Jan 8th. Tomorrow. The car takes two weeks to show up. Hopefully it will roll over into another pre-approval. If not, we have to do the credit check thing and I don’t know what that will do to the interest rate. I will find out Friday.
I have the $1,000 to put down as a down payment. The car payments will be around $180 a month. The insurance will be $30 more a month. I have no idea what taxes, license and fees are going to run me. Ouch. The car will be $15,020. I would actually pay money not to have all the extra crap they can add on. I like the base model pretty much as is.
I wanted the license plate to read Serenity (SERENTY, SRNTY, SERNTY, SRNITY) but these appear to all be taken. So back to my original plan of X 00001. Point for those that recognize it, you gotta be pretty geeky to get it. I expect sandpanther will have the best shot.
So what else am I missing? I am set to buy the car this weekend if I want.
My car’s registration runs out in Feb and it needs to be smogged. The blue book (1991 Mazda 323, 156,000 miles) for it is $470 dealer trade-in, $950 private sale. It is a good little car, hardly has ever needed maintenance, cosmetically not so great but adequate. Anyone want to take a chance on it? I would fill you in on every quirk I know about it, if you are interested.
Where are you getting insurance for $30/month? Or is that $30/month more than you’re now paying? (And does that include lower rates after you get rid of the Mazda?)
Your numbers don’t seem to add up – is there a typo? ($1000 down + $3000 CD means you need $11,000 on a $15k car. And if you’re approved for $35k at 3.9%, an $11k loan shouldn’t be a problem, either if you pay for it tomorrow, or with getting a new pre-approval. If the age of the credit check is the issue, then they will need to run a new one; but unless you’ve done something pretty bad since the last one, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Save yourself and the buyer a world of grief and get the Mazda smogged before you sell it. I know a couple of people who might be interested in buying that car, but I won’t recommend to anyone buying a car that hasn’t been smogged. Sara and I (mostly Sara) got burned badly on that once.
I think she means that if she adds in the $30 insurance increase and the interest over the life of the loan the car costs a total of 15K.
The walking out the door cost of the car should be $15,020. Interest, taxes, fees, insurance and all that are extra. I just have money stashed in different places with easy access to take care of that stuff. I am ignoring the interest on the loan because it will take care of itself with the monthly payments ($180).
Insurance is an additional $30 more a month than what I am currently paying. This is with swapping out the old car for the new car. Considering that the price difference is the change between a 1991 basic used Mazda to a brand new, bank financed Toyota type car, I am impressed it is only a $30 increase. I was expecting much more. I love USAA.
Not all the numbers are there. $3k for the CD, $10K from the loan. There is $2k in checking, $3K in savings, $3K in another checking and another $2K in another savings. The CD was just the hardest to get my hands on in a moment’s notice. I have to order the car, pay $1,000 deposit and the rest when the car gets here in two weeks. I am guessing something like $2k for tax and fees, so the car purchase total is more like $17k?
The pre-approval comes from a special offer from my credit card. They like me so they gave it to me. There was no credit check involved. After it runs out, they might have another pre-approval special for me or they might actually have to do a credit check. I didn’t pay a lot of things in 97 (it was a bad year for me) and they are still on the credit account so I don’t know how good my credit looks. It has only been in the last couple of years that I have started to get credit card offers with no annual membership dues instead of the ones that want you to pay $120 to apply and $6 a month to have the card at 24% interest.
If a private buyer wants the car, I will be happy to have it smogged. I really like my mechanic and trust him. I would have the car given a once over so that whoever gets it will have a clue. If it goes to the dealer, I figure they can do the smog for less than I can.
What an odd beastie that is! There used to be purple hearse that drove about the lower east side years ago when I lived there. I always found myself waving at it when it went by.
Here I thought I had gone and gotten myself an odd car after the death of the Hank. I am now driving a Subaru SVX, 1992 with 103,000 miles. It is a nice ride though! It will go in for a full once over, since it is an older car, on Friday at the dealship that has serivced it all its life. I hope for a clean bill of health.
Odd is a good word for it.
Good luck with your new beasty. Does it have a name yet?
I may know someone who might want your car. Lemme check. When are you planning on doing this, and has the dealer actually checked out your car yet?
I am thinking of ordering the new car on Sat. The dealer doesn’t have a clue about my car. Not sure when the trade it would happen. It was a strange experience having it be no haggle. There was no pressure and I didn’t really know what I was doing. I went in, played with the car, test-drove it and left. Kinda nice but not what I was expecting.
Well, given the “success” of Saturn, Toyota’s looking to replicate the no-haggle experience with the Scion line.
Uh, is it a manual or an automatic? You say that it’s a manual, but you’d rather have the control of a stick. Stick usually means manual, i.e. three pedals on the floor. The specs page on the net says that it’s a 5 speed manual (5 on the floor, stick shift).
There used to be a kid that lived in Glenwood (Scotts Valley) who owned a hearse. It had a bumper sticker “I want your body”, though I think a license plate frame “I just want you for your body” might be better.
“X 00001″ or “X 1011″
How about “X58 X62″ ?
or
“DWRF HRS” (Dwarf Hearse). Would you then call your garage Hearse Castle?
That body doesn’t look too aerodynamic, and if you put tires on it with good grip, you’ll get a lot of rolling resistance, but I probably don’t need to tell you about Scion’s Friction.
I am somewhat interested in the 323. I don’t really have an appropriate street car. My van gets sucky gas mileage and the roll cage in the Miata is a bit of a pain to crawl over. I’m realistically, probably still a month or so away from putting the MG back together and in the meantime, I’ll have to tear the Miata apart to race prep it.
The car I test drove was an automatic. My car is a manual/stick. I am torn between which to order. There is an $800 difference. The resale value is better for an automatic but I don’t expect to resell this car, especially after what I do to it. I want my friends to be able to drive it because I don’t want to be stuck doing all the driving if we take my car. For years, I have pushed to take other people’s cars because I don’t care to drive. I am willing to do my part and with a new car, it should be my turn to put miles on it, but if I am not feeling well, I don’t want to dig into my reserves just to get people home. Gina is not that much fun that way. That is why I want an automatic.
On my current car, the manual provides more power and better gas mileage. There is no numbers about the difference between the gas mileage between the two types of transmission on the Scion. I have heard that the stick is a little difficult on the Scion. I would like to try one but I don’t know if I can find one. Still need to look.
The plate would be X 00001.
I am thinking of calling it an SD Hearse for Super Deformed anime style.
Scion’s Friction.. He is a haunt of alt.calahans and has a bunch of bad puns on his website.
You are a bad bad man. You might enjoy
Make your friends learn to drive stick.
what she said! I know I have been very grateful to the friends of mine who have let me practice on their manuals to get better at my driving. Now I finally feel confidant enough to do it on my own…
of course a spur-of-the-moment run to the movies might not be the best time for a driving lesson if what you really want is to kick back and just chill out while someone else takes the wheel…
I would be more than happy to teach my friends to drive stick. I am a strong believer that everyone should be able to drive everything.
I have two times I don’t want to drive. One, when I am feeling lazy and just don’t wanna and I can’t justify making someone drive something they are uncomfortable with for that reason. The other is when I am not feeling well and that is an other time it isn’t all that good to make someone else drive something they would prefer not driving.
Everyone seems to be able to drive an automatic just fine. There are those that prefer them, those that don’t care and those of us that are snobs and are willing to drive them.
If I may ask, how much is the insurance on the Mazda? I mean, roughly, since obviously your insurance rate != mine. I might be interested in buying it in February….
I have USAA, which I love and I think gives me a great deal. I pay just under $80 a month for 4 months out of 6 for my car and renters insurance. This month, that is $62 for the car alone. I think they told me my current is $245/6 months. How’s that for a bunch of numbers?
Other places seem to want to charge me over half again as much. I would recommend talking to your insurance provider to get a better idea of actual cost.
It is a 91 Mazda 323 hatchback. I think it is just a base model.
Drove Stick…
…it wasn’t difficult, just precise to my feel; you couldn’t slap the stick and have it land in the correct gear, but it wasn’t that bad. The clutch was a little grippy, but hey, the box only had 18 miles on it.
I like the fact that you can get stock a cool sound system AND EL wire. But if you want the EL wire, I’ll help you with that. As a matter of fact, I’ll help you with the little “f” things to put on the back supports. But it may take a while…
Re: Drove Stick…
Aha, figured it out. Took me a moment and some researching but I got the LJ linked to the person. So this is your LJ. I forgot to ask you that at New Years and knew I would be able to find it by searching.
I don’t get what you are talking about with the EL wire. I like EL wire but don’t know how your are relating it to the car. I would love ideas on the “f” things in the back. I am also currently thinking I need to be working on the lit candelabras that are going on the interior. I am thinking of building them out of craft foam so they don’t hurt (much) when someone bangs their head on them. But I am not sure what to do for the flame/light and how to power it. I am looking for ideas. I do lighting but that at the design level, not construction so I am missing a few skills.
Re: Drove Stick…
Yes, the computers connect us…but keep us in our safe little boxes!
I had seen an EL wire installation that would be tacked underside the car, lighting up as you drive, but I can’t find it right now. Ah well, not what HEARSE needs anyway.
For the candelabras, easiest would be to make them battery operated rather than wired into the car’s electronics–then you can just stick them in. Or, you could run power from the rear dome light (or rear light) to the candelabras. You could use “flame” bulbs if you wanted that. Electronics wouldn’t be hard at all…
Here’s a nice way, perhaps:
http://www.ccrane.com/electric_candle_in_home_lighting.asp
and, as a digression: http://www.fairylampclub.com/
The hearse stuff: http://www.angelfire.com/zine/TheHearseEnthusiast/links1.html
The bars are apparently called Landau bars, and some nice ones are here;
http://www.hearseparts.com/products.html
Wow. Lotsa cool stuff. Have you got the wheels already?
Re: Drove Stick…
I like the electric candle but it is pricey. I wonder where I can get just the light and skip all the glass things. And what does the charger do?
The carriage lights at hearseparts are nice too. I love this link I found to a motorcycle hearse.
I need to start a list on what I want to put into this thing. I need that cling film that you see in the back of some trucks that you can see out of but not in. I plan to make the curtains out of that because the windows are tinted and if it curtains aren’t attached to the windows, they would never be seen from the outside.
I figure battery would be easier and I can always replace it later. I would like “flame” lights, but I don’t know what type of power requirement they need, what type of housing to make/buy/find, what type of switching to give it. Last time I tried to fabricate something I got a battery housing and a switch from Radio Shack and ended up just taping the whole thing together. It didn’t work very well. Attaching the interior lighting to the dome light sounds like a neat idea.
I was planning on ordering the car this weekend but due to fluctuations in my situation, I have decided to wait until next weekend.
Were you the one interested in the Lois McMasters Bujold mailing list?