Miss Independent

On Friday I bought a car.  By myself.  I went and bought a car.  But let me back up.

If you have been reading me for a while you may have picked up that my car has been struggling.  For the past year it has been in the shop every month. And every month we have put money into it. And by we I mean Doug because at least a year ago I was ready to call it, but Doug kept saying NO, NO we can't afford a car payment and once we fix THIS ONE THING it will be good.  Volkswagens are supposed to last forever.

(We are not going to discuss how THIS ONE THING became ten things and it became a major source of contention for Doug and I.  Because if we could afford to keep fixing the car we could afford a car payment because it was the same money and it had to come from somewhere.  But moving on.)

Two weeks ago the malfunction indicator light came on again and I may have had a break down.  And I came home and told Doug that was it.  I was done.  I don't care how much money he has funneled into this car, I don't care he just put tires onto this car, it had gotten to the point where I was not sleeping because I was afraid my car wouldn't start in the morning and I would have to be in court.  It wasn't fair. He was making all the decisions.  So we compromised.  We took the car back in to determine what the issue was and my "turbo" was out.  Which is very expensive.  I was putting no more money in my 80,000 miles 9 year old car.  I didn't care that VWs were supposed to last forever.  Mine did not.

On Friday, my day off from work, I drove somewhere and had them turn the check engine light off. Because the dealer would not do it.  (OH FINE.  WE CAN DISCUSS THE DISHONESTY IN THAT LATER.) And then I hightailed it to a Ford dealership to check out the Fusion.  From my EXTENSIVE research into cars that was what I had decided I wanted.  (My extensive research entirely consisted of asking twitter and facebook. No, I'm not kidding.)  But my experience at the dealership was awful.  They did not take me seriously.  They gave me a salesperson who knew nothing.  I told the manager I was going to buy a car today if someone could just answer my questions.  He did not change salespeople.  I kept trying to buy the Fusion but they would not work with me.  And as terrified as I was about the check engine light coming back on, I realized I was buying a car I didn't want.

I drove to Toyota.  I drove the Prius.  My salesperson rocked.  The finance guy NEGOTIATED FOR ME.  I bought the car.  I came home and kept telling Doug how much I loved the finance guy.  In fact, I'm still talking about it.

I got married at 24, pretty much straight at of law school.  Before that, my parents paid for everything. I don't make big financial decisions on my own.  But I did this time.  (Well, there was that one time I bought a house while Doug was traveling for work but that didn't count because that house sale fell through.)

Michael named the car Pri. 

I love this car so much it hurts.

(This post has been sponsored by no one.  And I have the car payment to prove it.)