Day 44: Truck Buying!

I wake up around 10. Oh no! I need to get up. I only have two hours before I told the dealer I would come in to buy the truck. I don't want to be late and lose the deal or something...! I hop up and shower. When I am done, I check my phone. The Toyota dealer had called wondering what I thought about their offer on the new truck. Well, I don't want to close any doors yet... I will just ignore that for now. I feel a little bit better about Matt's pestering yesterday though. My initial reaction to his calls was "Why does he want to get rid of that truck so badly." From a private selling viewpoint, that is kind of a red flag. I guess that is just how they roll at dealers. I don't like that at all it's just annoying and not convincing me to buy the truck. Oh well, I feel better anyway.

I continue getting ready. Hanna comes looking for me. Apparently Matt had called her wanting to confirm the appointment at noon. He has her phone number because the first time I tried to call him yesterday, my phone stopped working. It did the whole I can hear you but you can't hear me thing. Ugh. So I had called on her phone. And now he keeps calling her. Sorry Hanna. :(. Anyway, the appointment is confirmed.

I go downstairs and start making coffee and cooking breakfast and my phone rings. It is Pickle, from yesterday. He says that he missed a 4wd Tacoma yesterday when I called asking about them yesterday if I still want to look at it. I tell him I have found one I am interested but thank you. I go back to making breakfast. I am trying to melt butter in a pan to fry eggs when Hanna comes downstairs. "Matt called again."  She has hit redial and handed me the phone. At the same instant I had shoved a giant strawberry in my mouth. I gesture frantically. She figure out that my gesturing means my mouth is full and I can't talk. She hangs up the phone "Anna you need to call him back." I am so sorry he keeps calling you!

I call him back. He wants to push the appointment back to 12:30. Ok, that works for me. At this point I have melted the butter and started cooking eggs. Which I accidentally left on high. The eggs are beginning to burn. Shittttt. I turn them down but it is a little too late. Oh well. I finish making breakfast burritos. They turn out ok. We talk for a while until it is time to head out to buy a truck. Hanna is unusually talkative today. Right before we leave the Toyota dealer guy calls again. I answer. "Hi, have you thought about that truck any more?" I didn't mean to answer if he called back until after the new truck is bought. Uhhh I still don't know yet. I will let you know in a few hours. I want to keep all possibilities open until everything is done.

I get to the dealership and find Matt. He asks if I want to look at the truck again. "Yes, yes I sure do!". I go outside and spend a long time crawling around under it and checking out the interior and the engine. I get road dirt all over my pants from brushing up against the bottom of the truck. Ugh. It has a little less clearance than T Rex. Still enough for me to get under it, just not enough to maneuver easily. I can't find anything wrong. I had read the night before that some early Tacomas had frame issues. So I thoroughly inspect the frame. And checked the rear axle one last time. Ok Matt, let's go sign some papers.

We go inside and he starts handing me papers. I read them all and can't find much to complain about. At one point I get two different Carfax reports, with different total mileages on them. Hey, uh, what is going on here? One is just an old copy that they ran before the truck had been traded in. Oh. Ok. Everything else goes smoothly. $19000 out the door price. I really can't complain. I probably couldn't get it much, if any, cheaper buying it privately. And it is without doubt the best deal I could get on a 4wd in town. And it is a manual. A 6 speed at that. That is exciting.

He sends the paperwork off to financing. As I wait, a random lady asks if I just bought the Tacoma. Yes, yes I did! She says her husband is going to be disappointed. I tell her it is going to a good home at least, even if it isn't theirs.

Matt comes back and gives me the keys. Yesss!!! We chat about trucks for a while. Actually, a really long time. Every single truck (or 4wd) either of us have ever owned and the exciting places we have taken them. I explain what happened to my last truck. He says with all the miles on it, I probably got 3 or 4 times for it that I would have as a trade in. That is nice to hear.

After a while, Matt sends me back to financing and says something about getting my truck detailed. More papers to sign. More decisions to make. Yuck. I have made enough big ones in the last few days. Do I want to purchase a warranty? Um, yes. But I don't want to spend $5000 on it. I highly doubt I will have that much in repair costs in the next 3 years. I ask him a million questions about what the warranty does and does not cover. He says something about breaking my axle in half. Huh, funny, that is what happened to my last truck. Well, kinda. Apparently no one has told him and that was pure chance that he said that. Weird.

I end up with a cheaper warranty that just covers repairs and not stolen vehicle recovery or flat tires and some other stuff. I am mostly just worried about it breaking. Eventually, I finish signing papers and they want my down payment. I pull $1100 in cash out of my pocket. The finance guy seems amused that I have been wandering around with that much cash in my pocket. I run the rest of my $2000 down payment on my debit card. Once that is done, I get sent out to my new truck!

I look at it. Where is the antenna? I know it had one the last time I saw it. Matt asks if he can take a picture/video of me with my truck for advertising. Sure. Why not? He takes a shot and a short video. Ok, now where is my antenna?  He disappears with my truck back to detailing. He is gone for 20 minutes before finally returning with my truck, which now has its antenna attached. Yayy!!! It's mine now and I get to drive it away! I drive it around the parking lot to where Hanna parked. I don't have my GPS with me and don't know how to get back. I think I just drive down the highway. I am not quite well oriented enough with the area to try to make it without guidance though. It drives nice. Yayyy! It's not T Rex but I think it might just do! :D

I follow her back to her house and take lots of truck pictures. Wanna go for a ride? Yes she does. We go to Lowes. She buys some plants, pots, and some soil. I load stuff into my bed for the first time. Sweet!! It looks like a real truck now! Look at all of the hard work it is doing! We go back to her house with the flowers. Alright, it is all unloaded now. Time for more truck pictures! I did a horrible job parking....Well, I double parked. On purpose. Since that is what you do when you get a sweet new truck. Or at least that is what my dad did the last time my family got a new truck :)

Me and my truck! :D

Yayyy!!!

She asks if I am hungry. Ummm yes. Let's go to McDonalds. Ok! Back to the truck! I drive the whole .7 miles to McDonalds. I order just fine. I then pull forward to the window. And pass right by the first window. It is oddly located on the corner of the building and I totally miss it. "Uhhh, Anna, where are you going?" Oh Shit. I put the truck in reverse, errr 6th. I finally find reverse and back up to the window. This is going to take some getting used to. The lady is laughing. Yes, I am awesome and can't find the window or figure out how to drive my truck. We get our food and leave without further ado.

I spend the next few hours transferring all of my stuff that I usually keep in my truck into the new one. I talk to my mom and my dad about my pretty new truck! It has so many storage areas! Super exciting! Then it's dinner and TV watching time!

Well, I think everything turned out pretty well overall.