New Car

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
Hmm... maybe that's why the rubber on my tires are wearing out so fast... I'm too heavy.

(actually, I've been told that minivans are notorious for eating tires... my trucks NEVER had that problem... most of them were older than 3 years and the tires were fine)
 
@homer New house already?  That's alot to plan for with the baby coming, focus on the wife, happy wife happy life, healthy baby.  You can always look for a house later.  A 5 pound baby don't need much room.
 
ps9 said:
@homer New house already?  That's alot to plan for with the baby coming, focus on the wife, happy wife happy life, healthy baby.  You can always look for a house later.  A 5 pound baby don't need much room.
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Can you talk to Marge for me? lol

Marge - "Homer, we need atleast 3000 SqFt for the baby and the toys."


Homer - "DOH"
 
Sweet... we can do a TI Open House tour... you, me, PS9, B4L, rkp and akim (I think I named everyone looking for a house).

We'll be car shopping in November too... gonna wait for the OC Auto Show (usually in October right?).  I think that's how we ended up buying our 2nd minivan... looked at all the cars at the show... decided on an Odyssey and went to the dealer the next day to get it.
 
second the autoshow route.  we messed up this time and went dealer to dealer but i did do the autoshow route every other time

if you can pull off house before kid comes, i think it will be better for you and better for wife.  my wife wants to nest and had dreams of painted rooms and all sorts of stuff but we havent found that place and while paint is cheap, their isnt any motivation to make this rental great.  much more importantly, i hope you have an attached garage as i never understood the amazing benefit of attached parking until having a baby.  when my wife is by herself, it literally takes 20-30 minutes to unload a costco trip as she has to hold 1 bag at a time while pushing stroller and walk 5 minutes from parking spot to our front door and do that several times. 

TI Open House Tour Group - i like that...we can help each other.  if one of us likes a house, the other 5 go there and offer some seriously low ball prices and just destroy the sellers dreams and then the one that wants it comes in with the reasonable offer :)
 
homer_simpson said:
ps9 said:
@homer New house already?  That's alot to plan for with the baby coming, focus on the wife, happy wife happy life, healthy baby.  You can always look for a house later.  A 5 pound baby don't need much room.
Click to expand...

Can you talk to Marge for me? lol

Marge - "Homer, we need atleast 3000 SqFt for the baby and the toys."


Homer - "DOH"
Click to expand...

I would focus on your babysitting support staff first.  That is if you and your wife plan to work full time.  Don't assume grandparents will just magically appear to care for the grandchildren, have a sit down and work out the details first.  Also if you don't know, you can split up your FMLA, don't use it all up at once, in the beginning your baby is pretty boring, feeding pooping sleeping rinse repeat for the first few months, you'll want to be there throughout the first year of your kid for each milestone.  Getting a good preschool full time should be your goal, parents/relatives are not always the best choice (conflict, spoilage, etc.), again sign up at the three Montessoris, ICDC, and Good Shephard right away.
 
This is nothing new. Vietnamese are known to pull this kind of crap by offering bogus super low ball offers so their friend's low ball offer looks relatively good.

Some realtors can have phantom offers so can buyers have BS bids.

rkp said:
TI Open House Tour Group - i like that...we can help each other.  if one of us likes a house, the other 5 go there and offer some seriously low ball prices and just destroy the sellers dreams and then the one that wants it comes in with the reasonable offer :)
Click to expand...
 
ps9 said:
homer_simpson said:
ps9 said:
@homer New house already?  That's alot to plan for with the baby coming, focus on the wife, happy wife happy life, healthy baby.  You can always look for a house later.  A 5 pound baby don't need much room.
Click to expand...

Can you talk to Marge for me? lol

Marge - "Homer, we need atleast 3000 SqFt for the baby and the toys."


Homer - "DOH"
Click to expand...

I would focus on your babysitting support staff first.  That is if you and your wife plan to work full time.  Don't assume grandparents will just magically appear to care for the grandchildren, have a sit down and work out the details first.  Also if you don't know, you can split up your FMLA, don't use it all up at once, in the beginning your baby is pretty boring, feeding pooping sleeping rinse repeat for the first few months, you'll want to be there throughout the first year of your kid for each milestone.  Getting a good preschool full time should be your goal, parents/relatives are not always the best choice (conflict, spoilage, etc.), again sign up at the three Montessoris, ICDC, and Good Shephard right away.
Click to expand...

Taking your advice and will be looking into those things you mentioned :)
 
Thread update:

Yesterday, I bought a....

..
...
....
.....
......

'NOTHER Honda CRV!
2012 EX-L

CZ would be so proud. It was a Costco deal. Thank you, Rancho Santa Margarita Honda. God, help me, please. I'm a Costco junkie. I've bought carpet from them, appliances, gym membership, and now a car. The only thing they haven't sold me is a house... but I hear they do mortgages, too!

I looked at everything else out there. Acura, Lexus... everything! Was not excited at the idea of feeding it premium unleaded. I've driven a CRV for 10 years and knew I wouldn't regret it. I've owned 5 makes / 7 different models and it's made the best impression I've ever had. So, here I am. I was REALLY hoping for that midlife crisis car, but I guess it's going to have to wait until my oldest starts driving. Then, I'll pass this off and finally get that 8-cylinder Camaro of my teenage dreams.  :-* Wooooo!
 
For you Costco addicts, here is how it works:

Go to www.costcoauto.com

Enter what you're looking for.

It will come back with a list of referred dealers.

Costco offers a non-negotiable price. To take it, just show the dealer your Costco card. It's that easy. We went on a Sunday night, so I thought I'd have to wait until regular business hours - Monday morning - to get the Costco ball rolling. Nope!

I was a bit skeptical that Costco could offer a deal better than a person could possibly negotiate on their own, so, I tested it. Unlike most, I enjoy negotiating. I started off not mentioning I'm a Costco customer. I wanted to see what I could work out without that "middleman" being involved. The salesman told me straight off the bat there is a $1,700 mark-up from invoice to sticker price. I got him down $700. That would be a $1k profit margin left for them. Then, HE mentioned Costco first. he said it would be $400 above invoice if we are customers. All in all, it would save me an additional $500 below what I had negotiated, so I went with that. Can't beat the volume of business Costco brings to them.
 
An anonymous question received:

"how much did you get for the old car? and did you trade it in at the same place where you bought the new one?"

I traded it in on the spot - at the same dealer where I bought the new car.

Determining my trade-in value was a bit tricky. My old car was a base model upgraded with all of the items you see in the premium model. Plus, I barely put any miles on it despite it being 12 years old. That said, it did need all new tires and brakes. When I checked KBB, I picked "Fair" condition and picked base model as the search criteria to get a conservative estimate. They first offered 66% of that value. I declined without hesitating and also said I would not proceed with filling out my new car paperwork until we got this part ironed out. (They wanted me to go finish that while I waited for what they would offer on my new car. No, thank you!) I showed them the KBB value. They came back with an increase to 85% of that value. We had been there too long by that point. I was beyond exhausted (NOT a good time to negotiate), and took it. Good enough for me. What they do is fix it up, transport it, and auction it off. In the past, I've either drove a car into the ground, given it to family or gone with a private party. Private party -- for me, personally, I'm over it. Been there, done that plenty of times. Not worth it to me. I got them to come up to a value that was alright, so, made it quick and easy after a little friendly haggling.
 
USCTrojanCPA said:
Congrats on the purchase SoCal.  Did you finance it with the PenFed 1.49% car loan? ;)  Btw, what color is the car???
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Big thanks to Martin for helping me with his input via e-mail with a car decision. Most importantly - steering me clear of the hot yellow Lexus I *almost* bought.  :D Martin, you might find it funny that when I went down there to see it in person, the salesmen told me they didn't have any on the lot because it took him 2 YEARS to sell the one they had, while all the others sold without a problem. Haha!

You won! I bought white with beige leather interior.  :) I'll bring it in this week to add a chrome exhaust, spoiler, etc.
 
SoCal78 said:
USCTrojanCPA said:
Congrats on the purchase SoCal.  Did you finance it with the PenFed 1.49% car loan? ;)  Btw, what color is the car???
Click to expand...

Big thanks for Martin for helping me with his input via e-mail with a car decision. Most importantly - steering me clear of the hot yellow Lexus I *almost* bought.  :D Martin, you might find it funny that when I went down there to see it in person, the salesmen told me they didn't have any on the lot because it took him 2 YEARS to sell the one they had, while all the others sold without a problem. Haha!

You won! I bought white with beige leather interior.  :) I'll bring it in this week to add a chrome exhaust, spoiler, etc.
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See, those non-traditional colors don't sell as well.  Sure they look nice and pretty but when it comes time for re-sale they just don't sell well.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
SoCal78 said:
I'll bring it in this week to add a chrome exhaust, spoiler, etc.
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Don't forget the spinners and neon under lights.
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I did name-drop by requesting the "IHO Hooptie Package" with hydraulics, etc. but they looked at me strange when I mentioned a flame paint job. No can do. So, I had to go with this as Plan B.

In all seriousness, I think I'm going to have HID headlights installed. Honda sells these cars with projector headlights everywhere BUT the U.S. I'm going to have to get creative because it's not an accessory. Since mine is the newly restyled model, there are no aftermarket parts. Pretty sure I'll go for it.
 
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