some newness

So I had finally convinced Mick that getting the truck was a bad idea.. especially with having 3 dogs and wanting a baby in the near future, there's just not enough room.. and we travel a lot, so it's kinda necessary. we knew if we traded it in, we were gonna take a hit with money, with the economy being so bad and still owing so much on it (we just bought it brand new 2 months ago). We went to a few different dealerships to see what they'd say and the most they would give us was $23,000. WTF?! Are you kidding me!? We just bought it 2 months ago for $38,000 after taxes and you mean to tell me we're takin a $15,000 hit?? NO EFFIN WAY! so we started wondering what the heck we were gonna do. We wanted to get a nice big SUV instead of the truck and then keep the jetta for it's great gas mileage, but it was either get rid of the jetta, or always have to drive seperate when we travel.

Well we started looking at some other, smaller SUVs and I've always had a thing for the Hyundai Santa Fe's, so we checked some out. We found one at carmax... a 2007, hunter green santa fe with 26,000 miles on it for $19,000. It gets 26 mpg and it had low mileage, so we figured that was pretty good. I wasnt diggin the hunter green, but I defintely liked the size and style of it. Keep in mind the whole day, as we were drivin around, I kept seeing this ice blue color and everytime I saw it, I told MIck how much i was beginning to love that color! haha Well, just for fun, we drove to a Hyundai dealership to take a look. I had no idea they made the Santa Fe's in this blue color, but wouldnt ya know it.. they had one sittin right in front?! It was brand spankin new (well, it was an 07, but had never been owned, so... it's new, just not as new as an 08) Well, the sticker price said $25,000 and that was out of our range, because we wanted to keep our monthly payments at the same as we were payin for the jetta. So I gave Mick my famous "sad face" and we headin towards the car to leave. Before we could get outta there, though, one of the salesmen came over and started tellin us how he could work with numbers and get us in that car and blah blah blah. they annoy me, but we figured, what the heck. it cant hurt just to see, right?

so we told him we need to stay aound 300 a month cuz that's what we're payin for the jetta. He kept comin back with numbers like $450, $385, $350. and we kept telling him "NO. not good enough. we dont NEED this vehicle today, so if you cant get it down to 3, that's fine, we have no problem leaving and saving up some money for a later date" So after about 2 1/2 hours of wheelin' and dealin' and Mick stickin to his guns, the guy comes back with a number of 310. Mick says.. I dont know.. i just really cant afford more than 3. and the guy leaves one last time and comes back with $305 a month. haha "We'll TAKE IT!" haha We owed $14,200 on the jetta and they ended up giving us $15,000, so we were ahead right there. We ended up walking out of the Hyundai dealership with a brand new Santa Fe with only 37 miles on it, for $18,000. That's $7,000 cheaper than the ticket price, AND $1000 cheaper than what we woulda paid for a used one with 26,000 miles on it!

Today must have been our lucky day and I'm especially excited, because this is my first NEW Car that I got to pick out and everything. BEfore this car, it was always just what i could afford payments on and my most expensive car was 6,000 dollars haha. Then I got the hand-me-down jetta from Mick when he got his truck. (dont get me wrong, I absolutely LOVED that jetta and it's less than a year old, but... it wasnt MY car) so it's nice to know that this one is ALL ME! haha. I got to pick out the style, the color... everything! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!! and although Mick's not completely thrilled with my "girly ice blue" color.. he does think it's a VERY nice car for us and will be perfect when we start a family!!!

ok... enough with the story.. now onto the pics!