The Snuggie has Nothing on Us

Have you ever heard of people who do a little impulse buying late at night while watching reruns? I am sure some of you have been in such a predicament while viewing the ever helpful Snuggie. Now such spending might seem understandable when you are up late and synapses in the brain are misfiring, but 10 am impulse buying is a little out of control.

We have been consistently checking and rechecking the used Odyssey market. We watched many "great" deals be grabbed by other buyers because they were up in Dallas and we were not. So, the other day while I was perusing the internet, I got a genius idea. I would buy a one way ticket to Dallas and drive our dream van back home. The flight was steep for such a short distance ($140) but cheaper then paying the shipping cost ($300-500) and be stuck with a possible dud. I talked it over with Fernando and he offered to go in my stead. After a few phone calls, Fernando got ready for his whirlwind adventure.

Sadly, during his 1 hour flight, 2 of our potential dream cars were sold and others up and disappeared. Never fear. The best one was still available. Unfortunately, when Fernando test drove the vehicle it felt funny. Plus it was equipped with PAX tires which wasn't as phenomenal to us as the dealer would like us to believe. Although they promise to never go flat, eventually the tread goes and you have a hefty bill to replace such tires. Fernando tried to get the dealer to replace the fancy tires with plain old tires, but that required switching out the whole component including the axle and rims.

Finally, after we both realized that used cars were not for us, Fernando decided to try the new car route. By this time it is 7pm and he still has a good 5 hour drive home. He wheeled and dealed as best he could, but the dealer felt confident that Fernando was ready to buy at any cost. This is what he brought home:






The car is beautiful and is loaded with all the things we wanted (a more). I feel so bad that I didn't just buy the car down here. There are plenty of new Odysseys around here. The process did eliminate the "what If" clause of finding a better used car deal then buying new. Still, the moral of the story is. . .wait. It will be ok if you just think things through before you purchase. Because, although we got a pretty good deal for the van, the cost in time, energy, and effort from Fernando who is barely surviving in the land of the living (yeah, he's on night float again) was more then I was willing to pay.