Things that are White

my Macbook laptop... the plastic shelves next to my desk... clouds... my car...

My car? yeah. Feels weird saying it. But yes, I bought a car today! It's a 2007 Ford Focus 4 Dr Sedan. 5-spd manual of course. ;) I've been on the lookout for good deals on cars for a week or two, but never really considered buying a new one 'cos the depreciation is crazy high. But this weekend was Memorial Day weekend (i.e. long weekend, cos today, Monday, was a public holiday) so several dealerships were having pretty good deals. I chanced upon a really fantastic deal on a 3-door Focus hatchback yesterday but didn't want to decide so quickly and today the unit had been sold. But I did find another deal on a 4 door Sedan that wasn't as good a deal as yesterday's but it was still pretty darn good. The basic premise of my decision is that the discounts offered by the dealer are good enough to offset most, if not all, of the additional depreciation incurred by buying a new car. =)

It's a long story how I got to it, but it was pretty divine. I called several other dealerships after learning that the unit I was originally considering (i.e. yesterday's one) was gone; I wanted to see if any were offering similar deals. Yesterday's deal was basically a 3-door Focus for about $8995 or so, which is ridiculously cheap considering it usually retails at about $14,000 to $15,000. Ai Lin brought me to two dealerships; the first one was at Half Moon Bay, and the salesman was really friendly and optimistic about matching the $8995 deal, but in the end they couldn't 'cos they said they would lose money. So we went to check out the second dealer in San Mateo which offered $10,988 for a 4-door Sedan, which was better than anything the Half Moon Bay guy could offer. We arrived just as they were about to close so they stayed open for us, and basically that unit was the only unit at that price, was advertised throughout the weekend and was still unsold. Usual price is about $15,000. So I might incur a slightly higher depreciation, but it'll be great to have a new car and not worry about maintenance and stuff like that.

So we spent the entire afternoon out, and Ai Lin did all the driving which is quite a feat 'cos the traffic at Half Moon Bay was terrible (today was a public holiday so I guess a ton of people were heading to the beach there). She's such a blessing...

I'll post pictures when I have them. Econ midterm tomorrow. Must sleep now. :P