OT--New Car!!
 

I'm so excited--just bought a brand new car! My old one was 9 years old, and although it runs well, it was starting to feel kind of outdated and was looking its age.

I've been mulling buying a new one, debating whether to wait until next year when the rest of my credit cards will be paid off, but there were some awesome deals to be had, and I didn't feel like waiting till this time next year to do it. I did a good job of bargaining, I think--I didn't fall for the "we'll give you $7,000 for your trade-in"--I could MAYBE sell my car for close to that on my own, but of course they jack the price way up on the new one at the same time. And I did my research and gave them some numbers from other dealerships.

Now, here's the REALLY cool part--it's RED. I never owned a red car--I had a burgundy one for a few months before it was totaled in a chain collision on an icy road--but this is a rich, semi-dark RED (it's an Altima, so the color is Cayenne Red). And there's all this cool tech stuff in it--it will be a month before I get the hang of how everything works, but it is super comfy to drive, and I hope to have it as long as the last one. :)

Congratulations!!! There is nothing like buying a brand new car! I bought mine last June and it's the first brand new one I've bought since 1976! :tongue:

What did you get?

Ooops, just read it's an Altima. My daughter has one of those and they are sooo nice.

Nothing beats the smell of a new car!

Congratulations on your new baby, Lexie. I love red cars. The first car that was mine all mine was a sweet little fire engine red Toyota Tercel. Remember those? Maybe not, but believe me the streets of San Francisco will never forget!

Vrooooooooom!

My car (Rosie) is red. My dad had it picked out for all the important things, like mpg, engine, safety, blah blah blah. But it was RED. Its a Ford, so its called Race Red. I think of it as HOLY SH!T! Red.

I didn't like it at first. My previous car was white, and I like blending in.

I then had a dream it was painted purple (my favorite color) and I about had a heart attack, so I guess I do like it afterall!

After my grandpa died a few years ago, my grandma went to buy a new car. He had always told her the widows buy red cars, so she wasn't going to, dangit! Well.... She did. She got herself a red car.

Guess it runs in the family?

My first husband and I had only one car while I was in law school, and then, when I started working in Trenton (an hour away), we had to buy a second. Since I had the long commute, I had the "good" car ('80 Chevy Citation--another oldie), and he bought a Tercel that was apparently custom painted--I'm sure it didn't come off the assembly line in Orchid. Of course, I called it "pink" and he insisted it was "purple." Poor guy drove it for a couple of years until I got pregnant and we needed a sedan for the baby seat. I got the NEW Chevy Nova (my very first NEW car) and poor guy had to step up to the old Citation.

I still think it was more pink than purple, lol.

And you will love driving a Nissan. I promise you. I am so overwhelmingly happy with my Nissan that I will drive it until it coughs and dies. Never been happier with a car in my life!!!

Congrats on the car, Lexie! It sounds really great. Happy driving!

I'm going thru a sad time w/my 17-year-old Saturn wagon. It was the first new-new car that I ever had. I've had it nearly as long as AH and I were married. It has a lot of memories--has carried 3 of our dogs on their last ride ever and countless bags of groceries over the years. It's the same car w/the magic radio that has played me such appropriate songs in the last several months--"Won't Get Fooled Again" on the day I filed for divorce, "I Won't Back Down" when I was seriously considering stopping the proceedings (altho I did end up legally separating rather than divorcing). It has been remarkably reliable and has never left me stranded anywhere. It has a manual transmission, crank windows, non-power locks and a key that I can get replaced for $1.29 at any hardware store. I love my Saturn.

But I fear it's near the end of its life--this week I need to take it to my mechanic for an assessment of whether the growing number of issues it has are worth fixing or whether this is the end. And that bums me out. A lot. For several different reasons.

But this thread helps me realize that there's another car out there for me, and maybe I can even learn to be happy with it, altho that seems so unlikely right now...

Gosh, Lexie, I'm not so sure this thread was OT at all, at least not for me!

Congrats on ur new RED Altima...!!!!! Im
jealous...lol Red is my favorite color and
have lots of it in my house and yard, but
no red car. :(

I absolutely loved my Altima I had a
few yrs back until we decided to down
size to one car because we are both
retired, so we sold that car and bought
a Nissan Murano.

This car is another AWESOME Nissan
car and has enough room in the back
to bring home lots of bags of soil, bricks,
lumber, kinda doubles as a truck for
hauling. :)

I know you will have yrs of enjoyment
in ur new Altima like I had. :)

Good going!!!! So happy for you! My new car is a Nissan Versa in silver. I wanted blue, but this was nicer and cheaper than the blue that I saw. Driving has always been therapeutic to me. I just drive and think and sing and listen to books on CD. It's like my little sanctuary on wheels

I know what you mean--I've had cars I felt that way about. I loved my Sonata, but it didn't have a lot of emotional hold on me. And the last time I sold a car (on Craigslist), it was purchased by a young medical student who was moving out of state and needed a good, inexpensive, reliable car. it was perfect for him, so it could be that your car will still find a good home. Or, if its days really are numbered, you could consider donating it.

One of the great things about the Altima is that you get a lot of "bang" and "bling" for your buck. I paid about 5k less for this than I did for my Sonata 9 years ago, and this car has navigation, backup camera, blind spot detection, and a Bose stereo. And I got 0 percent financing for six years. Now isn't a bad time to be shopping, either, because the new models will be coming out soon and the dealers are trying to whittle down their inventory.

If this is the end (and I think it is, more likely than not), definitely I will be donating it. I don't think I could ever part w/it if I had to picture it sitting in a junkyard somewhere, all sad and abandoned (and that says way more about me than about the car, doesn't it...). There are any number of places in my area that will take donations, and since the body is still in really good shape, I'm fairly sure they'd be happy to have it.

Thanks for the info on your car buying experience--every little bit helps!

Lexie, congrats on your new car! :) I just got a new Toyota last month so know the excitement of driving a new car. :)

Have fun cruising in your new wheels! :)

Hey, I got an new (to me) 2013 Altima last year too! I had a 10 year old Jeep with 100K miles on it that was looking pretty bad. It ran okay, but I wanted better gas mileage and was tired of paying for regular repairs.

I wanted a little tiny subcompact, until I tried to cram DD3 and DS15 into a Fiat and realized the little one could drape her feet over the backseat and diddle the big one's ears with her toes. It was NOT going to work out. :D So much fun to drive, but not with two kids and an antique habit.

The Altima has been good to me.

Yay for you! Sniff every time you get in and enjoy the new car smell too! Enjoy your new ride Lexie!

so cool, I always wanted a red car :) BTW all my family is from south Jersey . we were just reminiscing the other night. Palmyra :)

:) Congratulations, Lexie! Enjoy!

That's exciting! You deserve it
Congratulations

Congrats Lexie and I hope you enjoy your new ride for many years to come.

I've started to do some research on cars because I'll likely be buying another one in the next month and the Altima has made it to my short list so it was nice to read about the positive feedback here from real world owners. Since it will be primarily driven by my son I'm not looking at brandy new, but model year 2012 certified pre owned with low mileage.

Awesome for you! how exciting. And, all of that fun stuff to figure out to boot!

Enjoy Lexie!
:Sportrac:

Congrats on the new car! I hope it's as amazing as it sounds and that you have lots of fun with it! You deserve it!

Nice!!

SO. The icing on the cake. I had just bought all this touchup paint and upholstery repair stuff, expecting to spend hours and hours getting my old car in shape to sell (and expecting to spend another couple hundred or so for detailing to get as much as I could for it). I was outside fixing a broken side mirror (I've gotten good at using welding epoxy for stuff like that) when a couple of guys on my street came over and started chatting with me. The one guy said his son, who just graduated from college, might be interested. The other guy said if the son didn't want it, HE might want it. They asked what I planned to sell it for, and I said I was planning to ASK for 7500. The one guy asked what I'd take for it right now if he bought it. I said 6k. The next day the son came over to check out the car, he took it to have a mechanic look at it (some minor repairs and a fairly pricy maintenance item coming due soon), and he offered me 5k. I counter-offered 5500, on the theory that would pay for the repair needed now, and give him a couple hundred toward the timing belt replacement coming due. We have a deal! And this is the kid's first car, and his dad tells me he is in LOVE with it.

LOL, so now I can still see it every day--at least until he moves out. So really, the warm fuzzy feeling of making them happy, and knowing *I* don't have to go through all the hassle of getting it in great shape and then listing and selling it online, makes it the PERFECT deal.

I almost feel like crying with joy. :)