Well, today was the day. FWIW, I had perused the crap out of Craigslist and our paper's classified ads. I checked out every car that I saw with a 'For Sale' sign on it and kept coming up short. The low mileage well priced Hondas and Toyotas were either scams or clowns. The better priced ones had a ton of miles or smelled funny, or had a check engine light, or a savaged title. A couple were upwards of $300/month to ensure because they were either too new, too fast, or just expensive to fix. The trucks were just way too much, but that's typical for this area. Gotta go to AZ or TX for good truck prices.
I was tired of looking but figured I had to be serious. For some reason I decided to just look at used car web sites and I found a cool little car on Auto Trader. Something I had never even considered. I forgot they were ever even made.
I found a 2002 Mercury Cougar XR. V6 5-speed with 91k. It was at a dealership that deals with pretty expensive modified used cars. Tons of lifted diesel trucks, tricked-out Jeeps. Challengers, Chargers, Mercedes AMG, and at least 4 Cadillac CT-Vs, or whatever they are. Someone came in and upgraded and traded this little bad boy in.
I called, they still had it, so I called State Farm before I ever left the house. $140/month for full coverage and like $80 for Liability only. Perfect. I got on the internet and researched the crap out of it. Seems the V6 is the preferred motor and the Ford motor is super reliable. People were running them up over 200 and 250k without issues, and maintenance doesn't seem bad. The engine is a TIGHT fit, so that may be a small issue. Lol. Anyway, after finding what I could, my pocket full of cash and I went to the dealership.
Now, this is a relatively little car, and I'm not a little guy. My first salesman was some skinny kid who was sick. When I mentioned test drive he said he was going to get me another salesman because he didn't want to get me sick. That was super cool of him. A few minutes later my new sales guy walks up. About 6'3" and 400lbs. The first thing I told him was he was gonna have a harder time getting in and out of that car than me. He sort of laughed, but we had just met.
He had to drive the car around to the front before we could do some paperwork and drive it. When we finally stuffed our big ***** in the car, I told him, "If anyone comes towards us with a camera, we're gonna get out and kick their ***." THAT made him laugh. He said, "I'll hold them down." Test drive went great, so we got back and did the numbers thing. It was a cash deal, so we settled on $4200 and I'd pay my own TT&L, so no dealer fees. TT&L should be less than $200, so I'm happy with that deal. I got it for just a hair over book but from a dealer, I'm ok with that.
So, went and got my wife, so she could drive it home. Thank goodness she liked it. She wasn't a fan of the red leather seats in the pictures but she liked them in person. The car is not super fast, but it is definately NOT a pig. It's got great torque, so modulating the clutch is easy. Once the wife liked it I knew I was golden.
The kid was thrilled:
The little hatch is HUGE and the seats fold forward for more space. Perfect for softball bags, her violin, backpack, and whatever sisters are toting around. Not much room in the back seat, so that limits friends, but is good for sisters. It has a sun roof, which is cool. It has warning indicators when the temperature gets low enough for frost and ice. One of my favorite things: it has a pretty basic Ford 6-disk CD player. No fancy gadgets, no touch screens to play with, no distracting BS. She can bluetooth her phone to it and we're good. AAAAAND the 5 speed. Lately only like 1 in every hundred kids can drive a stick, so that will keep her friends out of the driver's seat.
I took her out to drive it. It's been since right before Christmas since she's driven a stick, so she was a little rough, but she's getting it. My plan is to have her drive the **** out of it this weekend and drive it to school on Monday. Insurance is cheap, so she's got that covered and she really likes it. I think it will be a great 1st car. Man, I hope I didn't **** this up...Lol.
