acquisitions update, #10

(An indigo ink blue Corolla, albeit not an S series. Add a spoiler and a little more jaunty underbody design and you have it.)

I have bought a car. A "Indigo Ink Blue" Toyota Corolla S. I may pick it up as early as Monday, although a couple of things need to be done to it. I have the option then of accepting a $100 trade-in on my decrepit '93 Saturn. Received opinion varies on whether I should do this.

I believe that I did not get an awful deal. The only negotiating tactic I used was to not to ever look at all at a sticker price and to have the first thing I said after the test drive be, "So, what's the invoice price on this?" This resulted in the quoted price being about 3% over invoice and closer to invoice than MSRP.

I did have a strictly comparable color choice between indigo-ink-blue and black. I decided that blue seemed like more fun. I'm less sure about that choice, however, than the ultimate decision to go with the Corolla.

Key advice leading to the Corolla was given to my by my friend from Beauxbaton, who, while wording it more kindly than this, made the astute point that I seem to be sufficiently oblivious most of the time while I am driving that a substantial amount of the marginal increase in fun-of-driving between, say, the Corolla and Passat would be lost on me. So, I thought, even though I could afford the Passat, the difference in price could still probably be applied to something I would more mindfully enjoy. I did splurge on a couple of add-ons for the Corolla.

Click here to take a 360-degree tour of the interior of a 2004 Corolla.