My Other New Baby!

Well, it took nearly a month and a half of sticking to my guns and playing hard-to-get, but I am now the proud owner of a 2008 Nissan Rogue!

Glen and I first took it for a test drive the last weekend of July, but the dealership wouldn't come down on the price, nor would they come up on the trade-in for my 2003 Cavalier coupe.  It was a shame, since the Rogue was nearly new (it was previously a lease vehicle and only had 29,500 miles on it!) and drove soooo nicely, but I had a very specific threshold of what I was willing to put down and what I was willing to pay each month and how long the loan term could be, and they weren't willing to work with us.

So we walked.  And waited.  And ignored phone calls and emails for about a month.

And then the price came down about $800.  At which point I finally decided to return the dealership's calls.  I said that the drop in price brought us closer to our goal, but they still had to work with me on the trade-in.  And they came up $500 on the trade.  This turned out to be one area where being cheap and stubborn paid off big time!

I still kind of hate that we had to take out a loan to pay for this car, but between the fact that the interest rate is super low and there's no prepayment penalty, I suppose I can't complain too much.  We were able to put down a hefty downpayment (more than 1/3 of purchase price minus the trade-in) and keep the payments under $150/month.  Our back-end debt to income ratio, even with this new payment, is right around 30%, well below the 36% threshold that indicates a "healthy" ratio, with room to spare should we need to take out a loan to replace Glen's '99 Kia Sephia before something else is paid off. 

Oh, and I sort of hate the fact that I'm one of those people who got pregnant and then immediately switched to an SUV.  But the oddest part is that it had less to do with the impending baby than with Elvis.  I knew I'd have to switch to a 4-door once a baby came along, but after considering a sedan, I realized that a sedan would likely force us to choose between taking little Stormageddon places with us and taking Elvis places.  And seriously, who could bear to leave this handsome guy behind??