I hate car shopping!

I was planning on buying a new car. But because I wanted to, not because I HAD to. This makes the stress of car buying a little easier and who lot funner to walk away from a salesman because they don't want to give you the price you are looking for...only to have them call you a few days later finally relenting to that price.

I brought my car to the shop to have some spark plugs changed because the engine was misfiring. No big deal. He called me and told me it would be $75 to change those plugs, rotate the tires and change my oil. So he proceeded to rotate the tires and change the oil. An hour later I get a call, "I have some bad news about your car. Give me a call." Uh-oh. So I called....there was water in the spark plug area. Which means, I had a busted head gasket. $2500 to fix it. The car is not WORTH $2500. So I asked him if he could fix it and make the lights go off long enough for me to take it to the dealership and trade it in. Absolutely he says. So I left work early on Friday and went car shopping.

Now, I know I'm young. But I let a car dealer get over on me once before and I am never letting that happen again. I'm not buying a 2005 model car with 30K miles on it for $18K....I don't CARE what the original price was. I don't care that it's a Buick and that it's gorgeous and that I fell in love with it the minute I opened the door. I don't care that THIS is the car that I want. I'm not paying that much money. So the games begin. Now...we went drive by the dealership yesterday to look at it again to make sure that's the one I wanted, and it was nowhere to be found. As late as Saturday afternoon we were still wheeling and dealing on it so maybe they relocated it inside to get detailed or something....I just don't know.

I'm waiting on them to call be "before noon" today for their FINAL price. If that car is gone it's not really a big deal b/c there are 2 other ones there that I really liked and honestly are probably more practical. But I hate HAVING to buy something rather than being able to just walk away and start over. The credit is already pulled, the financing is in place, and price is the only deal breaker (well, unless they sold it out from under me of course).

For now I'm driving my grandma's car. They appraised mine and only offered me $1000, but I'm not negotiating on that point. I can't morally sell it to someone knowing what's wrong with it, and I don't want them to look at my car any harder...especially since once I drove it off after they appraised it the damn thing started misfiring again and driving all stupid. although I know it's worth at least $1500, that's not an issue I care to fight. So I'll fight price, but boy do I HATE it.

Especially since I LOVE this car! http://www.autobase.com/cgi/info.exe?bc=3625675&dealer=astarflm