I've never owned a car before. Ever!! But now, I am the proud owner of a 2015 Black Toyota Prius 3. Skylar and I knew that we wanted a Prius, actually we've known for quite a while. But being broke college students, we were not able to purchase one. That all changed on April 1st, 2015 when we went to the Toyota dealership "just to look."
The only vehicles I've ever driven were owned by my parents, and I am grateful that they let me drive them. When I got to college I didn't have anything to drive. However, Skylar owned a car, so I was able to get around using his old rickety red Stratus.
And let me tell you, Sky's thing was a clunker... the driver's side back door didn't open, the passenger window didn't roll down, there were three hub caps missing, and, because the shocks were so bad, every time we hit even the slightest bump that thing would squeak so loud that I couldn't stand it. But, it got us around just fine.
Just looking.
We had went to the Toyota dealership in Bloomington multiple times to just look, so this time seemed no different. The only change was that I had just recently received confirmation that I would be working with Cerner and was pumped that I would actually be able to afford a car soon.
When we got to the dealership we instantly went to hunt down the used Prius. We were thinking that we wanted a 2012 or something with not too many miles, and we knew that we wanted some techy amenities like a dashboard computer, bluetooth capabilities, etc. I really wanted a black car (Skylar wasn't a fan of that), but I knew that if we bought used then we wouldn't necessarily get exactly what we wanted with color.
Eventually, a salesman found us. He asked about what we were looking for, and helped us find a few used cars that had everything that we wanted. I was happy with a red 2013 Prius that had about 60,000 miles on it--actually, I was really content with it and wanted to buy it right that second. But, true to the nature of a salesman, he wanted to make sure that we took a look at the new models, too.
We went inside to look at the sleek new 2016 Prius that they had on their show floor. It was really sporty looking, and Skylar and I liked it a lot; but, a brand new car wasn't exactly what we had thought about, and we were a little skeptical about the idea. So, the salesman sat us down at his desk to talk prices.
As that was happening, a really nice looking black Prius drove by. Jokingly, I said to Skylar, "That looks like exactly what I want." And the salesman said, "Let's go look at it." We went outside, opened it up, took a seat, turned it on. I loved EVERYTHING about it. It had built in technology like maps, bluetooth, satellite radio, etc. It had a sunroof for pleasure and solar panels for extra energy efficiency. And it was black!! It looked high class and just what I wanted.
The salesman told us that this was a brand new 2015, but that it was the last 2015 on the lot. Bloomington is actually the second highest retailer of Priuses (Prii? Priuples? English is hard.); therefore, this particular car had been sent from another dealership to Bloomington in order to try to sell it. That meant that the dealership might be able to give us a good deal on it.
Okay! I was in. We decided that we would check our credit and see if we could find a loan that could suit our budget, then come back in a few days after we had some time to think about it. We weren't going to rush... but, things change.
Driving it home.
We got approved for a loan, but the monthly payment was a little higher than what we wanted. Nah, not today we decided. But our salesman wasn't done--he said, "If I can get it down to XX price, will you buy it today?"
This made Skylar and I nervous. Hell yeah we wanted a car, and we knew we wanted a Prius. There was no doubt in our mind that we wanted this car right now. But were we ready to take on that bill? We did some quick number crunching, and YES! we could totally afford that.
So, we got insurance set up, signed LOTS of papers, and drove it home that night. We actually bought the car after closing time; therefore, we were told to come back tomorrow to do some final things like learn to work the computer, set up bluetooth, and learn some details about driving a hybrid.
That night I was so amped up. I mean, I JUST BOUGHT A CAR!!!!!!!!!! I dropped Skylar off at the gym and then drove around for 2 hours. It was so novel to be driving something so brand new; I had never done it before! While I was in the car I called my Mom, Dad, and sisters. I could call through my car--how cool!! I was seriously in heaven. I set up everything on my own (I'm an Informatics major... I got this) and was playing with all of the amenities for hours.
A month later.
Its still super awesome to drive this brand new baby. I love her so much. We spoil her, keep her clean, and even gave her a good detail. Every day that we drive our new Prius I am thankful that we jumped right into buying it, because I couldn't be happier.
We love that we rarely have to fill her tiny tank up, and we often have competitions to see who can get the best gas milage. We took our first road trip with her when we drove to Kansas City to tour some apartments, and she handled so great.
Being an adult is so scary and so fun. We dove right into the car owner world and won't ever look back.
