So back in November I posted my thoughts about my next car. I was hyped about getting a lease and finally getting into smaller payments for a better car. Well yesterday morning I finally took that leap. The decision making processes to get here was tough though as I have had two leading drives for my cars; fun vs goodness. And I just kept sliding between those two drives.
Up until Fiona I had such a small budget for cars that I really just had to take what was available at that time. When I got the Black Shadow of Death and Bellulah I wasn't looking for a fun car. When I got Belinda and Lita I wasn't looking for a good car. Those were just the best cars available when I was stuck looking for new cars. But in 2013 when I had the opportunity to get a much newer car with a much bigger budget, I consciously made the decision to get a fun car. I was considering the Hyundai Veloster, the Chevy Sonic, the Ford Fiesta, and of course what I ended up with, the Ford Focus.
Now, like any spectrum it wasn't JUST about fun. With that purchase I was looking at two hours of driving a day so gas mileage was really important as was basic creature comforts. A good stereo, comfortable seat, and techy toys. But the reason I got Fiona was that gorgeous Yellow Blaze paint job. For a year and a half I had a mile wide grin every time I walked out to see Fiona there waiting for me.
But after that year and a half I realized I could afford a lot more car. Reason started to take over and I wanted a more 'mature' car. Something that would look all adult and proper if I drove up to a job interview or meeting. As I didn't want to lose out on the gas mileage and most small cars are on the fun size, I went with a Fusion Hybrid. Ginger. So long as I was driving that long every day, Ginger made the most sense. Seriously, there wasn't another car that could do what she did without soaring costs in fuel. Then the local job came up.
At the time I got the local job I had Ginger for nine months and had put twenty thousand miles on her. In the year and a half since I've put another ten thousand miles on. That leads me to the lease and that leads me back here where I'm looking at cars. Since I've had the serious car for awhile I just kept thinking that fun would rule the day. That's why I was looking at Mustangs, Camaros, Fusion Sports, Mini Coopers, and even little sporty Cadillacs. Yeah, I was still giving lip service and thought to another Hybrid and in the back of my head I was also considering a Chevy Malibu. But whenever I thought about getting into a 300+ horsepower orange Mustang with a digital dashboard I just got that goofy happy grin that Fiona gave me so much of the time.
Last December I had to take Ginger into the shop. I had the windshield replaced due to a chip and that meant getting the front camera re-calibrated. While there I walked over to the new car lot to take a look at the Mustangs. Sadly my local dealerships don't often carry the higher end of any cars so they had just some basic 'stangs. Then I saw the Fusion. Not just any Fusion, but a Fusion Platinum. That's something new for the 2017 model year and is the ultimate version of the Fusion. I'd read up on it and knew that it had every option available on the Titanium trim as standard and also included a brilliantly beautiful exclusive interior.
I wasn't near that car for more than a couple minutes before the sales guy came out. He asked if I was interested in taking that beauty for a spin. Several thoughts went through my head quickly; I was looking forward to a drive down to Texas in about a week and doing so in a brand new car would be sweet. I had just learned that they couldn't get the camera replaced (did I mention that they couldn't re-calibrate the camera so they had to order a new one?) in time, so I would be without my lane keep assist or my auto high beams. And the last thought was basically the post I made here in November... I could lease this car and actually save money over Ginger. So I smiled and told him to get the keys.
The drive was odd. For a year and a half I've been driving a Hybrid, so hitting the start button and having the engine rumble to life was a little odd. Having the car shift while driving took a bit to get used to. And then there was the long straightway where I gave it the beans... my Hybrid does NOT accelerate like that. Outside of the drive, the interior was REALLY nice. A lot more soft touch lether than I have in Ginger, the new Ford Sync 3 system, and just a beautiful color scheme of cocoa brown and cream vs Ginger's black and ceramic grey.
I decided to buy it. My salesman and I stepped into the showroom and sat down to start talking numbers. He had my car assessed and they offered me more or less what kelly blue book said the car was worth. BUT... I still owed a lot more than that on her. We went back and forth a bit but honestly I was just too upside down on my car to make it worth while. Hell, his first offer for a three year lease that encompassed what I still owed over Ginger's trade in would have cost me MORE every month.
A lease is supposed to save me money, and as much as I thought that Platinum was a great car, it didn't even check that box. Plus... it wasn't fun. I might have entertained the idea if it was the perfect 'stang... but I had no desire to pay a similar amount, let alone more, for an upgraded version of my adult car. The sales guy and I talked a bit and got the price down some, but it still didn't make financial sense. Naturally he brought 'The Manager' over to help close the deal and... well frankly The Manager was a dick. He didn't even try to budge on the price, he just tried to convince me that it was worth it without knowing what was driving me to get a new car. At one point I mentioned that I was just looking to save some money on car payments and that the Platinum was just going to be too expensive. I said that I might consider going back 'down' to a Focus as the price would be far better and that I had had one before.
He laughed.
He said some offhand comment about going 'down' to a Focus and how it would be stupid. I was immediately angry. I know he's just trying to make a sale, but he was laughing at a car that not only was he selling (they have like 30 Foci on the lot) but that I actually enjoyed. The negotiation ended there and The Manager stalked off. The salesman was cool and we chatted a bit longer. I told him I'd reconsider in about 6 months when I had more of Ginger paid off. He shook my hand and I gave up on the idea of getting a new car at that time.
About a month later was when I saw the new 2018 Mustang. Um... WOW! Just about everything that made me hesitate on getting a 'stang as a daily driver was addressed without taking away from any of the fun. They added features that were missing like a heated steering wheel (hey... it's Michigan and our winters are COLD), full LED headlights, lane departure warning, rain sensing windshield wipers, pedestrian detection, and adaptive cruise with stop and go. Plus they made it look better, offered it in a great orange color, and gave it a fully digital guage cluster that you can move around and customize.
My car search was over. I would wait until Autumn and get a 2018 Mustang Ecoboost. If the prices didn't skyrocket from the 2017s I could easily afford it and still save money.
Seriously... I was done. Whenever the itch hit me to look at other car options I couldn't get anything close to the new Mustang. It would be both fun AND have all the good car features I could want. So when the salesman called me back early last week to check in and left me a voicemail, I immediately called him back and told him what I wanted. I told him to call me back once the 2018 Mustangs were on the lot. My respect for the salesman went up a notch as I've learned recently that getting good service was NOT a given and he remembered to call me back six months after our previous conversation.
But his call got me thinking. Between around September and December of 2016 the value of Ginger dropped like a rock. I was keeping track of it and I was actually losing ground on payments... each month the cars value was going down MORE than my payments were paying off. Ouch. In December Ginger was worth about $17,500 and that was confirmed by both Kelly Blue Book and the offer I got from the dealership back then. What was she worth now? What would she be worth in November when I was looking to trade her in on a 'stang. Yeah, I'd paid quite a bit more since December but had I actually gained any ground? And if so, would I continue to hold that ground until Autumn and the 2018 cars rolled around?
So I checked and was really happy to see that Ginger had only lost about $800 in value while I had paid off a little over $4000 more. I was in a MUCH better position to get a new car. A much better position now. What would happen when my 2015 was no longer 2 years old and became 3 years old? And while I was inputting the data into KBB, I realized just how close I was on the warranty. I now had 30,000 miles on her. The warranty was going to expire in only 6000 more miles. Sure, that might still take a year but would the value drop significantly as I grew closer?
As I was considering just how tenuous the value of my car was, I also started to think about the availability of the new Mustang. Every new car is sought after when it hits the market, but Mustangs have a cult like following. And let me tell you, this new 'stang looks GOOD. I could easily see it being hard to find. Add in the fact that I wanted the Ecoboost model but with all the bells and whistles that put it's price up over many of the V8 models, and add in the fact that I didn't want the performance upgrades. And finally put in the fact that I live in a town where the dealerships just don't carry the high end models of cars all that often.... yeah, I might be looking for that perfect Mustang and not finding it until April or May of 2018. When that rolls around I'd most certainly be out of warranty and Ginger would most certainly lose a lot more value.
If I waited for the Mustang I very well may end up in the same situation where I owe to much on the car when compared to what it's worth. So I went ahead and looked at the dealer's website to see what they had on the lot... and there she was. It was almost the exact same car I had driven in December. A Fusion Platinum. Again, I can't emphasize just how rare it is for my local dealer to get a 'high end' model of a car. I was surprised to see it in December and I'm even more surprised to see another one in June.
The value proposition was the same... the Platinum had all the options I wanted and still had that gorgeous interior. The price certainly hadn't gone up and I might even have more wiggle room since, just like Ginger, that car was going to lose value once the 2018s hit the lot. The dealer should be just as eager to get it off the lot as I was eager to take it off the lot. So when the salesman called back to let me know he got my message and was going to call me as soon as he had some 2018 Mustangs on the lot... I told him I was interested in the Fusion Platinum he had on the lot. I set up an appointment for Saturday to talk about a deal.
I'm glad I took the time as instead of going in without really knowing the value of the car, the value of my car, and without having a purchase decision in mind, I could go in with some research.
First thing I did was prep on the car I was interested in. I went to Ford's website to spec out the car and find out what the sticker price was. And more importantly what all current offers were. The last time I negotiated he came at me with deal after deal that were all offers already available. I didn't hold that against the salesman as that's his job... get me to pay as much as I can on the car. It's my fault that I didn't know they were running several offers at the time. This time I saw that they were offering $3500 off the top and that as the car sat on the lot, I should be able to get it for $469 a month if I didn't roll any of Ginger's upside down value in. With what I had paid off on Ginger and her blue book value, I would have to roll over about $121 a month. That put the price at $590 a month without any negotiation. I figured I could easily get them down some more on the price and get a new monthly payment at $550. That would save me $100 a month!!!
Now going in ready to negotiate is one thing. But once I get geared up for doing something, I want to get it DONE. If the dealer wasn't ready to move on the price I didn't want to just go home and sulk. I'm ready to get out of Ginger and into a new car and God damn it I was GOING to do that. So I looked at other cars and found 4 that I could not only negotiate on, but also show the dealer so that he understood I was going to buy a car today... whether or not HE was going to sell it to me. I found a new Cadillac ATS that was SWEET. It's sticker price was $47,000 but they had it marked down to $40,000. It didn't have all the same options as the Fusion Platinum, but it's a Caddy at a really good price. I found Fusion Sport with all the bells and whistles at the same dealership where I bought Ginger. I found another Fusion Platinum at another dealership. And then my saving grace... the "Damn it, if no one deals I can at least get this one" option. A Chevy Cruze Hatchback Premium with all the bells and whistles in Orange Burst Metallic. All the other cars I was looking at were right around $40,000.... the Cruze was ten grand less. Sure, it wouldn't be as 'adult' as any of the other cars, but it would hit right on the Fiona fun spot that I wanted nearly as much.
The day before the appointment I clean out Ginger and remove all of my personal belongings so that when I sit down I can honestly tell the salesman that my car is not coming back home and I'm ready to leave her there on the lot. He actually met me as I pulled up and I got to show him my empty car. I further showed him my readiness to get a deal by not even wanting to look at the car (I had come by after hours the day before to check her out!) and telling him three things as soon as we sat back at his desk.
1) I was going to buy a car today. If I said no to an offer and left, it wasn't a negotiation tactic. I wouldn't be coming back or calling back on Monday... I'd already be home with my new car. I also laid out the printouts on the other cars I was looking at.
2) With nothing against him, the dealer was starting behind the 8 ball as the service department STILL hadn't fixed my car (Ginger was still sans-frontcamera).
3) If that same manager (The Manager from December) stepped over to 'finish' a deal, the deal was going to be off. He'd insulted me and I didn't want him anywhere near this negotiation.
To his credit, the salesman rose up to the occasion. He didn't laugh off my concerns or brush them aside. He told me that he intended for me to drive away in the Platinum. He told me that if I had any future need for service that I should call HIM and he'd set it up and manage the service call for me. And finally he told me that he'd keep the manager away from me. We then got down to business and I realized very quickly... I'd screwed up a bit.
You see, I speced out the Platinum as I THOUGHT it was. As it was in December. I didn't think there was much difference in there being 'premium floor mats'... but I didn't realize that the Platinum I drove in December was front wheel drive where the one currently on the lot was All Wheel Drive. The drive wheels isn't all that important to me and I wouldn't have hesitated if it was only front wheel drive... but All Wheel Drive is a $2000 option that I hadn't put into my price consideration. And then came the value of Ginger. I went to Kelly Blue Book and got the value on May 31st.... by June 3rd her value had dropped $800.
My prices were now $3000 out of whack. So when he came to me with the price options, depending on how much I wanted to put down, they were all higher than what I wanted. I considered backing off... going home and thinking about it. I could always come back later that day. But it hit me.... all the prices he was showing me, including the $0 down price, was less than my current monthly payment. If I took it as is and got no deal at all, I'd still have a newer car with more options and toys than my Ginger and be saving money.
So I nodded, pointed at the monthly lease price that included me putting $2000 down and told him that if he could get me that price without me putting anything down, I'd drive away a happy man. He balked a bit but when he saw I wasn't going to move he told me he'd have to ok it with his manager. I knew right then and there this was already it. If he came back with the manager, I'd just walk out. If he came back with a higher price, I'd walk out. If he did anything other than come back with that price and me putting no money down, I'd drive away.
I heard him approach the manager behind me. They were far enough away that I couldn't make out all the conversation but I distinctly heard "Well let me come over and deal with him a bit". I got ready to leave but heard them still talking for a bit... then the salesman came back withOUT The Manager and put out his hand saying "Deal".
I got the price.
I got the car.
My monthly payment only dropped, technically, by $40. But considering that I was always paying more than my monthly payment (often paying $700 a month!) and there is no reason at all to pay more than the monthly price on a lease, I'll be saving closer to $80 a month. So without further ado (yeah yeah yeah... that was a lot of ado there), let my introduce you to my new car. She's a 2017 Ford Fusion Platinum with All Wheel Drive in White Platinum Metallic Tri-Coat paint and her name is Isabella.
Isabella is fully loaded as any Platinum trim level is. She includes:
- 2.0L Turbo Charged Ecoboost Engine that produces 245 horsepower and 275 lb-ft of torque.
- A 6 speed automatic transmission with sport mode and paddle shifters
- All Wheel Drive
- Heated and cooled front seats
- SYNC 3 entertainment system including voice controlled navigation, Android Auto, HD Radio, SiriusXM, and 12 speakers including 2 sub woofers
- SYNC Connect, which means I can check in on my car using my phone (see how much gas it has, how long until it needs it's next service or oil change, where it is...), and can remote start it, lock, or unlock it with the phone.
- Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection (it will actually prep the brakes then brake for you!)
- Premium leather trimmed seats, door panels, steering wheel, and dashboard (and it's a NICE leather!)
- Dual Zone automatic temperature control with a cabin air filter
- Dual 4.2" color customizable LCD displays in the instrument cluster
- Rotary Gear Shift dial (seriously... no gear lever, just a rotary dial that will automatically put it in park if I turn it off while still in drive or reverse!!)
- Rain Sensing Wipers
- Capless Fuel Filter
- Power heated exterior mirrors that auto dim and have approach lamps and turn signals
- LED fog lamps
- LED signature daytime running lamps (the LED 'eyebrows' in the lighting assembly)
- ALL LED exterior lights!
- Auto high beams
- Reverse sensing system and reverse camera
- 19 inch polished aluminum wheels
- Blind Spot information system with cross traffic alert
- Heated Steering Wheel
- Lane Keeping System
- Active Park Assist (it can both park itself parallel and perpendicular!)
- Moonroof with Universal Garage Door Opener
- Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop and Go
- Push Button Start
- Intelligent Access (leave the keys in the pocket and just grab the door handle to unlock it!)
Now between Fiona and Ginger, I've had a lot of toys to play with, but Isabella brings even more new toys. I've bolded the new things I get to experience. I included the horsepower since this will be the most powerful car I've ever owned. It's my first AWD car, but I've driven them in the past and know it will just be a good peace of mind during the snowy months. Android Auto is great... but with the built in navigation and most of my music entertainment coming from an iPod that lives in the car all the time, I don't see a big reason to play with it. Plus to take advantage of Andoid Auto you have to physically plug the phone in and I'd just rather leave the phone in my pocket and/or on my holster. The LED DRLs are just awesome and is a feature I've wanted since getting Fiona. I was really disapointed that Ginger didn't have them, even though she had all LED taillamps. I've only driven Isabella once at night, but DAMN those lights are BRIGHT!!!! And I got the chance to play with the Adaptive Cruise Control... that's a damned nice feature. I set my cruise for 75 mph on a 30 minute highway trip (speedlimit was 70). I came up upon 2 cars going slower than me and Isabella just backed off enough and let me cruise at their 72mph. When I got tired of it, I simply put my turn signal on, got into the next lane, and she sped right back up to 75. I never had to tap the gas or brake or fiddle with the cruise settings for that entire drive.
The one feature that's nice to talk about, but that I'll probably never use is the Active Park Assist. I think I'd be embarrassed to use it for perpendicular parking and I haven't HAD to parallel park in like 20 years. The few times that I chose to parallel park, I did it just fine on my own. Maybe if I lived in a big city where parallel parking was a daily hassle and I really wanted to get into those smaller spots, I'd use it. But honestly, beyond bragging about it I'll probably never touch it.
Here are some image to show her off a bit!
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