Jeff Billimek’s Journal

I got up early with Jen and we both left at the same time today - what a nice change of pace to get to work earlier than usual.  I had a few meetings and also talked with Alonzo about progress with the promotion effort and things are going well.

Since late October I’ve been doing a ton of research on getting a new car and did a little more research today and found out that a Ford dealership in Union City has two Edge models in stock that has the configuration that I’m most interested in.  I decided to drive down there after work and do a test drive since that’s what I’ve been wanting to do for a while now but never got around to it.

So after work I drove down to Union City and went to the dealership.  A salesman named Paul greeted me and I told him that I wanted to take an Edge on a test drive.  I told him that I was interested in one with the ‘vista roof’.  He said that they didn’t have any of those, so I took another SEL-Plus out for a test drive.

I’ve done so much research on the Ford Edge that I already knew pretty much all there is to know about it.  Test driving let me get a feel for the car and I definitely liked it.  After I got back from the test drive, Paul told me that a car carrier just pulled up with some more Edges on it.  We went over and took a look as they were rolling off of the truck.

To my delight, one of them was the exact same one that I saw online - it had the same VIN number.  I was pretty happy about this and took that one on a test drive too.  I love the vista roof sunroof.  It’s so huge.  So we went back to the office and he showed me the invoice sheet along with the ‘X-Plan’ price.  It was as I expected it to be.  So I wanted to know what I could get for my Explorer trade-in.

We went over to take a look at it and he drove it over to the service center to be checked out.  He came back and told me that they could give me $8,000 for it.  I said that I was actually looking for $10,000 for it.  He had to go talk to his manager and then had me come outside with him where the manager was looking at it.  The manager guy went on and on about some paint stains on the running boards and wheel wells.  He seemed really upset by this and said that it would need to be repainted.  I don’t know about it.

So we went back inside and Paul told me that they could go up to $8,500 - maybe $9,000.  When I checked the trade-in value on Kelly Blue Book, it valued in at about $9,250.  I knew about the paint problem and the cracks on the rear hatch so I expected to get a little less.  So I decided that if I could get $9,000 for it, we would have a deal.

I called Jen and she was excited about it and was on board.  So I made the deal.  After a lot of paperwork, all was completed.  They had to take the new car to get cleaned up since it was fresh off of the truck.  I transferred all of my stuff from the Explorer to the Edge and was on my way!  This deal was nice because I got a brand-new car (purchase) with a $60-less car payment.

When I was leaving I called Jen and she invited me up to Marlow’s Tavern where she was having drinks with Rashmi.  I drove up there and the valet guy asked me what kind of car I was driving because he’s never seen it before.

I had a nice time with Jen and Rashmi.  For being an Indian woman she seems really independent but maybe I just has a poor notion of how Indian women should be.  We hung out there for a couple of hours and then headed home and went to bed.