New Car Experience Part 2

So she came to pick me up in a white Chevy Cobalt. It had about 30,000 miles and it was $12,000. It was okay, but 30,000 miles in a 2010 car was a bit much. So I saw a black Elantra. I bought a silver Elantra when I graduated from college 10 years ago. My grandmother gave me the down payment. I like that little car and then my brother totaled it. It was nice. There were about 11,000 miles on it and they were asking $13,000. Since Steph was new to the car selling game, she had them walk her through the process--we did a blind trade value on my car and they wanted to give me $3000. I still owe $5000 on it. That would lower the cost to about $11,000 for the car, tax, title and everything else. As she was talking to her manager, her trainer was coming back and forth to ask me questions. I told them that my bank would finance me because that's who finances me now. So, they asked if they could get me a lower interest rate would I go with their financing. I asked the guy if he could get me below 3%. He said went to his boss and came back. When he came back he wanted to know if he could run my credit. I told him that I didn't want him to run my credit until I could talk to my bank. He tried to push and when he found out that I wouldn't budge, he went back to his office. Because my car is broken, there was nothing we could do. So we left.

When we got into the car, Steph told me that they were so excited when I said 3% interest rate. The guy thought I had a credit score over 800. I told Steph that Ididn't tell him that my car is financed at 5%. I know for sure my credit score is no where near 800. It's probably well under 600 now since I've paid late for 3 months and I owe my previous landlord. I used to work hard to get my credit good and at one point my score was about 650 and my bank pre-approved me for a home loan--this was in 2004. But since then I'm sure it has plummeted. Steph said she was glad that I took them through that experience because they don't teach them anything in the training.

When I got home, I was a little sad. I was just looking back at how much I've screwed myself up. Had I not been in this situation, I could have probably easily walked off that lot with a car. Oh, well. There is nothing I can do about it now. I just have to rebuild and repair my life.