Chevy Acquired by Momoko

Momoko used a third party web site to search the area for cars. She found what seemed like a gem of a Chevy Trailblazer. It had remote start and heated mirrors. All Chevy's have Apple CarPlay. It did not have all wheel drive. The price seemed pretty good at $2200+ under MSRP.

I called the dealership. There was some accounting tricks of double billing freight. However the actual discount off MSRP was over $2200. It was late in the day. We decided to go to the dealership the next day, even though the salesman we talked to was not going to be in the office.

Before heading over, I called the dealership again. Confirmed the pricing. Later asked if Momoko could qualify for a $500 educator discount. She could. She could also qualify for 3.9% 36-month financing. Momoko test drove the car without a license plate. We spent a long time trying to sign up to get the educator discount.

We also spent forever waiting for the lone finance person to see us. Once we got in, finance took all of 10 minutes. I talked Momoko into taking the 3.9% 36-month special financing. I had transferred a sizable down payment amount to our joint checking account. Momoko had sold her car. So she would be in for a windfall soon. I just floated her a loan.

They had trouble getting wireless Apple CarPlay to work. I brought over my USB cord, and CarPlay worked whether the phone was physically connected. We spent 30 minutes in the new car waiting for the insurance company to pick up the phone to confirm we were covered in the new car. Momoko took the back road home in her new car.

Car Hunt for Momoko

Momoko started having problems with her Honda HRV. The brakes did not stop the car properly a few times. The trunk hatch would not open. Our mechanic could not figure those problems out. Time to sell. CarMax opened at 9:00am. We got there by 9:30. It was already crowded.

The CarMax people detected the paint job from a prior accident. Estimates for the trade in were between $13k and $16k. They offered us $15k. Momoko decided to sell. I had to drive the car into their service bay. I could not get the car to reverse. Eventually I restarted the car and it worked. Sold just in time.

We went to a local Chevy dealer. It was a ghost town. Momoko wanted to look at the Trax and Trailblazer. The Trax door frames were too small for me to get in. The Trailblazer had good head room in the front and back. Both had a 3 cylinder engine with turbo. I felt the engine working hard pulling out of the lot. The car sat high. The MSRP was at the top of Momoko's budget. 

This dealer added a dent package and appearance package, both at $699. So we will probably not buy from this dealer. The car was only front wheel drive. Remote start was an extra $599. They could not add heated mirrors. Most other SUV options were more expensive. We might be stuck for a new car.