Cash for Clunkers
Karen & I decided to capitalize off the CARS program before it shuts down next Monday and buy a new car. It was hard to pass up an opportunity to trade in our 1997 Nissan Pathfinder worth nothing for $4500. Especially since everyone else in the U.S. seemed to be taking advantage of the program and I am going to end up paying for it anyway via taxes. Here is a little walk through of my whole experience. Enjoy.
Karen & I decided to look into taking advantage of the CASS program while in Maryland two weeks ago. After visiting the CARS program webpage we found out that the Pathfinder did qualify and that to get $4500 out of the program we had to improve the Combined MPG (average of highway & city MPG) by at least 5 MPG. This was not hard to do since our Pathfinder averaged 15MPG. There was a lot of options.
I started by querying the internet masses (Facebook, umdphidelt.com) and found a few recommendations. Melissa Barrick had recommended a few quality Jeeps but after one phonecall I learned that Jeep was not acknowledging the CARS program anymore as the government already owed them too much money. Looks like we were running out of time. I started looking online and found a great resource @ HybridCars.com. They have a great list of cars that have excellent gas millage and allow you to sort on average price. After surfing around for a bit I decided I wanted to stick with an SUV if possible. My father had recommended looking into a Chevy Equinox as he had done a little research and believed it was the most bang for your buck. I also liked the Saturn Vue as an alternative. It was time to go shopping.
After doing a little research on cars.gov I found that I needed to bring proof of insurance and registration for a year to the day as well as the title. I grabbed my entire “Car” folder in my file cabinet and Karen and went to Rick Hendrick’s Chevrolet dealership to get started.
Now this was my first experience ever going to shop for a new car. I had expectations on what I would be confronted with. A slick, fast talking guy who wanted to push me for as possible. To prepare myself I figured out a price range I could afford (including an estimate for taxes, title, tag fees) accumulating the $4500 rebate into the equation. After arriving to the dealership a friendly Sales Rep named CJ took Karen and I greeted us and after a few words about our objective he took us for a ride in the Chevy Equinox. To be honest I was not impressed. It definitely did not have the wow effect I was hoping to get out of my first car. At some point I told CJ that I was also looking into the Vue. This was a mistake. He began to smear Saturn stating it had no backing of a large company like GM and would soon be bankrupt. This was a bad move on his part as it made me think “hey now, your in the same boat buddy”. CJ also pointed out that the Vue was little more then the same car with a different badge. After test driving the Equinox CJ saw a Vue on the lot and he showed it to us. Turns out he was right. It was pretty much the same truck. Crap!
Eventually we started looking at Cars. We looked around at a few. We looked at Chevy Malibu. It looked good compared to the trucks I had just driven. Soon Karen had to leave to pick up a friend from the Airport for a bachelorette party this weekend and left me with CJ. I eventually went inside and started to build a Malibu configuration that I might like but after 10 mins Karen called and confirmed that she did not like the car. I was thankful that she called because in reality I did not like the prices he was quoting and was not thrilled with the car. I shook CJ’s hand and decided to leave and head to Saturn to see what they had. I was pretty down by this point.
On the way towards the Saturn dealership I saw a Nissan dealership. Now Nissan has a good reputation with the Perry family. All together over the last 20 years my family has purchased 3 Maxima’s (Mom & Dad) & two Pathfinders (LP & I). Each vehicle had lasted us a very long time so I know they made quality vehicles. I was not happy to be shopping Japan but figured I had given the U.S. a chance. Lets compare.
I was greeted by Jose (pronounced Jo-say) who was a very educated black man with a foreign accent. Jose was dressed in a very expensive looking outfit and was friendly as hell. He walked me into the lot and showed me a few cars. None of the SUV’s could meet the combined 20MPG level I had to meet so I went straight to the cars. After reviewing the cars I checked out the Altima. This car is Badass. After walking through the features and taking it for a test drive I was sold. The 2009 Nissan Altima was JD Powers Highest ranked mid size car in initial quality. It is very classy and fun to drive. Eventually after 4 hours of negotiation we made a deal.
Apparently the car is too fun to drive. After owning it for 3 mins I got a ticket going 49MPH in a 40MPH zone. I tried to explain to the cop that I just bought the car and was not use to the sensitivity of the gas pedal and was focusing more on the features then my speed (which was true). Believe it or not I was not testing out the power out when I got pulled over. Here is a map I made showing the location of the experiance. To say the least it is a quick way to kill the buzz of buying a new car. Hopefully the judge will have mercy. I am not trying to start off with two points on my record.
When I got home I found that Karen was very happy with the purchase. I met her monthly payment quota and she loves the car. She even had a house full of friends in town to show it off to. I was still a little peeved about the ticket but was happy to be done with the process and was happy with the final output.
Today during lunch I took the car to get detailed and took some pictures of the old Pathfinder and the new car. Say hello to my 2009 Pearl White Nissan Maxima 2.5 S! 
Death Mark
Goodbye 1997 Pathfinder 
Hello 2009 Altima 2.5S
New Cockpit
Push Button Ignition!
by Zane Perry
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