Today we did it. We bought my oldest a car. I talked a bit about the contemplation process before.
I am pretty happy with the whole process. We got a one year old car. It is certified prewoned car. We got it for $2500 less than Kelly Blue Book listed when I input all the data. We also got some really good financing.
We made our daughter put 1/3 down. She doesn’t have to make the payments. She doesn’t have to pay insurance. She has to keep the car spotless. She is not allowed to keep anything in the car unless it it fits in the glovebox. We will talk about if/how much she contributes to maintenance and repairs. She has to occasionally be chauffeur for her siblings. We think this is fair. She gets a car she wouldn’t have been able to afford on her own. It’s not free, but we didn’t overwhelm her with costs. Mostly, I don’t want to hand her things. I think it teaches responsibility, appreciation when she has to work for the things she had. She had a moment, when we withdrew the money for the down payment, where she freaked out a bit when she realized that the money represented 2 years of work. That is an important lesson. More people should learn it.
The only part of the buying process that left me unsatisfied is that there is one of those stupid plastic dealership emblems stuck on the car. I told my husband that he needed to make the removal of said emblem part of the deal. He didn’t. It’s fine, I’ll remove it. I found directions here. I refuse to leave it on. It’s one thing for the dealership to put a branded license plate holder on the car. It’s quite another to deface the car. Unless I’m getting some monthly advertising fees out of the deal, the decal is utter bullshit.
That decal is a small thing. I’m thrilled that we could afford to do this for our daughter. How fortunate we are.
The first thing the daughter and I did was drive to my in-laws house. Where my mother in law 1) pointed out every flaw she could find, 2) tried to say that our gift to our daughter was somehow less than my father provided for me as a child (I made a comment that I was much older when I finally owned a car that new. My mother-in-law said that my father had purchased a brand new car for me when I was 16. I bought all my cars myself.), 3) and said we should just return it.
I posted on facebook that my child now had a car and our cousin made some crappy comment about my daughter’s driving.
My daughter had plans to meet her boyfriend at 4 pm today, but we were still at the dealership. Since she was going to be late, her boyfriend gave her all kinds of shit to make her feel guilty and finally told her that he had made other plans.
This is a happy time for me. This is a happy time for my daughter. What the hell is wrong with these people? I’m tired of the negativity.
We cut our visit to my in-laws short, to cut short our exposure to her ridiculous need to piss on, well, everything. Life’s too short to be that bitter.
I deleted the nasty facebook post and unfriended the offending cousin. She can still say stupid thoughtless things in person, but I don’t need to put up with it online too.
The boyfriend. Well, he ended up pulling in the driveway about 5 minutes after we did. He completely ruined her day. When she returned from her test drive, she was floating. One ignorant text from that jerk and she was scowling until we got home. She sat there miserable for almost 2 hours because of that creep. I would have told him that I had made other plans, but she’s young and sometimes stupid herself. She went and hung out with him.
Today was a great day. I want my daughter to enjoy it. I want to enjoy it. What is wrong with these people and all there negativity? Well, I’m not playing that game. I went for a run and made lovely sushi and am sitting here all peaceful with my daughter’s new car out in the garage.
The Incredibly Enthusiastic Girl 