Yo. I just bought a car.

Like a real grown-up car.

One that I had to finance because I don’t have nearly twenty grand in cash lying around.

Let me start that, while I knew this day was coming, I’m not sure I was ready for it. But I jumped in with both feet and had a pretty good time. While full of great memories and

amazing adventure, my old 1994 Camry with nearly 240,000 miles is at the end
of her long career. While not junk yard material yet (c’mon it’s a camry, with a little work she’s got another 100K miles left in her), it’s just not a car that I would trust on a road trip across the US, which is something I’d like to do again.

So this past weekend, knowing mostly what I was looking for, I grabbed my check book, my loan pre-approval, and headed down to Burien Toyota to look at a bright blue (sounder blue, I might add) 2014 Camry LE. Unfortunately, the person who traded it in, had driven with some sort of motorbike on top of it and there were a ton of scratches. A ton. I understand that buying a used car means that it’s not perfect, but it looked awful when you got close – obviously why it was priced so competitively. So then I found a 2014 Camry LE with only 14,000 miles on it. Super low miles and priced to sell at only $17,999. I drove it, my mom drove it and it was a great car.

$17,999 was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but for a great car… it wasn’t a bad price. We got it down to $17,499, but the big boss came over and was so pushy and in a rush to sell. It just wasn’t a comfortable experience. I said that I was looking closer to $17k and waffled a bit, but then I had to get to an appointment. I left and came back, and they said they just couldn’t budge from $17,499. If he had left it at that, I probably would have gone back after a visit to Renton, but rather than just say that $17,499 was their best price, I got this whole talk about how they need to make money for this new building they are building.

Um, what? Last I checked I came to buy a car, not a building. And we’re $500 apart, that’s not even half a fridge for the employee break room.

So I left. The original guy followed me out to my car, offered to look at some older cars, and then offered to call me if the boss changed his mind. Whatever.

I went to Renton and test drove a car, but upon closer inspection, there was a crack around the headlight. There was no carfax info on it, so it looked like someone had fixed it and repainted it themselves. No thanks.

Sunday morning I headed up to Rodland Toyota in Everett. It’s where my dad bought his highlander in 2014 and if the same guy had been working there still, I would’ve gone there first.

What a difference between Rodland and Burien. I mean, night and day. I enjoyed the time I spent at Rodland. I never felt pressured, there was no rush and when I wanted a minute to talk to my parents to get their view on the deal we had semi-settled on, he was happy to walk away and give us some quiet time.

I ended up paying a little more than what I wanted, but for the car I got, I’m not concerned. It was a great experience and other than the fact that I’m not broke AF and committed to a legit loan, I have zero negative comments about the deal.

That said, while I was waiting to sign the finance papers, the guy from Burien called to ‘chat’. “Too bad buddy, I’m already signing papers up north.” He hung up.

So if you need a car, go see Russell Pyles and tell him Hanne sent you. Unless you’re interested in a 1994 Camry needing a little work, let me know.