Oscar and Junior, a bit too much snow for the day. They’re getting tired:

Junior and Oscar

We loved our room, and the kitchen was definitely on the small side:

Poor Lisa, though, had a few mishaps. On night one, she fell on the street and received a minor road rash:

And on our way out of town, in Ironton to be exact, she fell in a mud puddle:

She survived, though, which means we’ll be back in Ouray soon. It was our 3rd time there in the past 2 years, so obviously we love it there. We are really thinking it will be nice to retire there someday, if at all possible. I’d love to take Lisa back this December or January, just so she can get a feel for what Winters there will be like…

We stopped in Riley to check out the school ruins and Santa Rita church. Lisa had to go potty. Fortunately for her, there were facilities:

A couple of hours before Riley, we drove through Torreon. I had totally forgotten there was a fire last year, talk about scorched earth:

Anyhow, it was a nice day out. And since it’s likely we might lose the warranty should Chrysler go bankrupt (unfortunately, the government warranty protection announced March 29th only covers vehicles purchased on that day or after, so anyone who bought a car two days earlier are screwed) we wanted to get all the kinks worked out before then.

The Riley, NM loop:

I wanted to get a picture in before 100 miles, because I can’t guarantee it will look anything like this at 10,000 or even 1,000 miles.

I’d been talking about getting another Wrangler for as long as Lisa and the girls have been living with me. I’m sure they’ve been getting sick of me getting all doe-eyed every time a Jeep rolls by. That’s all changed, fortunately.

Thanks to the crappy economy and Chrysler on the brink of collapse, they’re giving the house away trying to sell vehicles, even popular Jeeps. Lisa convinced me it was time to go looking. I did my homework and research, contacted dealerships around New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas, and when all was said and done, employee pricing + credit union finance rebate + loyalty rebate for Scratchy + random $500 Southwest customer cash rebate + smooth negotiating skillz, resulted in a more than $4600 discount off sticker price.

Even in an uneven economy like this, you have to pull the trigger on that kind of deal.

Yesterday, we took the boys out for a drive up the mountain, and they agree it was a good buy, too.

What exactly did we buy? A flame red, 2009 JK, X S package, 6-speed, soft top, which also came with Trac-Lok limited slip rear differential and bonus wheel locks. It’s the base model, with a bit of attitude. Edmunds, KBB, Cars.com, CarsDirect.com all claim the purchase price is currently around $21,800 on the bottom end, and the buyer’s offer spreadsheet computing actual dealer invoice, agreed. We picked it up for under $20k out-the-door, so I think we likely got a very good deal.

Overall, the buying process was a pleasure*. As Lisa mentioned, I didn’t have to scream this time like I did with Scratchy. A few observations: Sales people were claiming that Jeeps were flying off the shelf in our region. The dealerships we visited had sales people milling around waiting for customers to show up, but we didn’t see many, and we car shopped on a Friday and Saturday when my guess is most people are looking. At another dealer, the “big board” showing the sales people and their monthly goals and current progress, looked more like the beginning of the month rather than the end of the month. Yikes, not very good.

So here’s hoping Lisa and I did our part in helping the economy recover. It was our pleasure.

* I leave you with this bit of advice: Always check the numbers, and take a financial calculator or laptop with you so you can perform simple loan calculations, never take the dealers word for it!

Why? In our case, the F&I guy originally quoted a $352 a month payment when it should have been $332. What gives? To have reached $352 a month, given the rate and terms, F&I guy would have had to adjust the vehicle sale price. To do so, these highly-compensated salesman will have to sell you unnecessary or expensive add-ons like extended warranties, GAP insurance, or vehicle maintenance contracts, to name a few that were offered us.

Since it would be pretty obvious and unnerving to see a payment increase, the sleight-of-hand here is to leave payment, rate and loan length alone, and increase the vehicle cost. Should the buyer notice, the F&I guy would probably just poo-poo it as simply making the numbers “work” to get the extras for the same monthly payment.

Of course, the scam here is, the F&I guy never quoted the correct payment to begin with. If I had taken out my laptop when first presented the quotes, I’d have known the actual payment should have been $332, not $352. Furthermore, had I agreed to purchase GAP and accepted the ‘free’ maintenance contract (how nice of him to offer that), and if the original $352 payment had stuck, how much would that insurance and maintenance contract cost us? A whopping $1284! A complete and total rip-off.

Needless to say, everything thrown at us was declined, leaving the F&I guy much less friendlier than he was when we started, and leaving us a contract with accurate numbers, fully verified by my trusty Ubuntu calculator set to finance mode.

(Some may claim F&I guy made a simple mistake. If he did, then he made a mistake with the $399 payment he quoted, too, since it should have been $383.)

Shame on you, slimeball finance manager, you suck.

Lisa, you rock! I love you doll, and can’t wait to drive up to Ouray with you soon to break the Jeep in.

I must admit Jeeps are not what I thought they were. Michael’s new baby is so much fun!! I love driving it! Most of all, I had lots of fun watching Michael study up on new car buying and going into the dealership and coming out with a beautiful new car and he still had his dignity too. He did wonderful on dealing with the dealership and not letting them get the best of him and most importantly, he did not scream this time.

Congratulations Michael! I love you!