On Saturday, we were planning on hitting up a few of the local car dealers to get some information about some of the cars I have been looking at over the past couple of weeks. I had planned on visiting Toyota, Honda and Subaru, then finishing the day at CarMax. Since we planned on visiting CarMax, Chris’s dad suggested that we stop there first. It ended up being the only dealer we needed to visit that day.
Right away, I picked out a 2007 Toyota Camry LE and a 2007 Mazda CX-7 Sport. Both had a good combination of options and low miles. I got myself on the waiting list to talk to a salesman, and then I wandered around the showroom with Chris for a few minutes before heading back out to the lot to take a closer look at the two vehicles of interest. While wandering around, one of the salesmen asked me if I needed help, and I gladly took him up on his offer.
He was able to get us to the front of the line and into the Camry for a test drive. That ended up being a lucky break, as there was an older couple right behind us who was also looking at the very same Camry. We were able to take it around the corporate area behind CarMax before they got a chance to look at the car. My salesman put the car on hold for me while we went to look at the CX-7.
The CX-7 did not ride as smooth as the Camry, but it had more pep, no doubt due to the turbocharger under the hood. The interior felt bigger in the CX-7. The rear storage is deceptively small when viewed from the back seats, but when viewed from the rear hatch, it was a tremendous space. I decided to pass on the Camry and run through the numbers on the CX-7. Chris and I discussed what to do with the C230. We decided that it came down to the appraisal price; if it was high enough, we would trade in the car. The car appraised for a lot more than I thought it would, and we decided to use the trade-in as the down payment. It helped drop our monthly payment by almost $100, plus it reduced our term by a year.
I want to read through all of the documentation for the car to find out more about the stereo, the turbocharger and anything else I should know. I’m also going to check for any accessories that I can get for the car.
I’ll post picture of the car as soon as I find a few minutes and some daylight.
Hilarious. When you said you were going to look at cars, I thought you guys were thinking about buying one in a couple weeks or something while you shopped around.
The “crossover” vehicles have been intriguing to me, so I’m kinda excited about seeing it.
Congrats
*gasp* Me Da has been a spotted on-line?? Whoa.
Hey, I like the car. I already nominated you to drive to Morton Arboretum and Starved Rock. Don’t look at me like that, we might actually get around to going this year!
My name is Chris and I am the social media PR guy at the CarMax home office. Google Alerts notified me of your blog posting mentioning us. I love to read blogs from happy customers! I’m glad you had a great experience at one of our stores. I hope you’ll recommend us to your friends!
huh.
that’s kinda creepy.
Yeaaahh…in full agreement.
Congrats on the car by the way…although I would check it for bugs.
Do you see what happens when you become to conected? This is the electronic equivalent of walking in the mall and some complete stranger walks out of their way to you puts their sweaty hand on you shoulder and say “Hey I noticed you were wearing pants. My eyes let me know you were wearing pants and Id like to congratulate you on that.