Odyssey Pictures
I took a few pictures of our new minivan yesterday. Can you figure out why I call it "Lou?"
Freebie Update
I'm obsessed with this freebie thing now. I've done 2 $500 gift card offers, and the first one has now been confirmed, all I'm waiting on is for it to be shipped (which I hear takes quite a while). (Update: I've actually been confirmed on both gift cards as of today, so I've got $1000 in cards waiting to be shipped. Rock. I should also mention that it's been very easy to cancel everything that I didn't like so far, but I may just be lucky on that front.) And adding to my great scheme, I've got another offer lined up for a "free" iPod touch, which coincides nicely with my plan to sign up for a free one month trial of Blockbuster online, which we are going to use to get some DVDs for our drive up to Michigan at the end of the month. Funny how things work out like that sometimes.
Now, does anyone need any kitty litter? Because I have a box of it that I'm not using....
Friends and Family Discounts
Just ran across a list of "friends and family" discounts for various stores that are coming up this holiday season. Of particular interest to some would probably be the Toys R Us 15% discount code (orders over $150). I'm eying the $60 portable DVD player from Radio Shack this Saturday myself.
Car Buying Tips
Since we just finished the process of buying a new car (and I still haven't had the chance to take any pictures), I thought I would share some tips about how I went about trying to get the best deal.
First, I had some things set up in advance of making any contact. I have a GrandCentral phone number which makes it very easy to avoid phone calls until you are ready to talk to them. When someone calls that number, I can set it to ring my phone at work, home, or cell, or none of them (straight to voicemail). Even once I pick up the phone, I can choose to listen in as they leave a message instead of talking to them, and if I want, I can even connect to them while they are leaving the message. This was a definite sanity saver.
I'd also recommend either setting up a special Gmail address to control the flow of emails, or to be very diligent about monitoring your inbox. The emails came in fast and furious, but I set up a good labeling system and used the Folders4Gmail Greasemonkey script to keep everything well organized into subfolders. Creating filters to label messages as they come in is also recommended, but you'll probably need to get few emails first in order to set them up properly.
Now, on to the process. I should also mention that we did a little bit of used minivan window shopping at CarMax and AutoTrader.com and found that the prices on used Odysseys (without negotiation) were really not that much lower than new ones. So, we knew we wanted a Honda Odyssey EX-L. Luckily, Honda doesn't really have the multitude of options packages that other makers do, so it was easy to inform everyone of exactly what we wanted. I went to the Honda website, and put my zip code into the dealer locator. I got back a list of fifteen dealers in the DC area and went about contacting each through their website (pretty much all of them put you through a website form, as they didn't list email addresses on the site). For those that had a comment field, I used FiveCentNickel's form letter and told them exactly what was going on. For those that didn't have comments, I quickly followed up after they sent me an email with the same form letter.
After gathering all the initial quotes, I was able to weed out some of the higher offers, as I knew they were probably not going to be able to compete. I selected a few of the mid-range offers, and emailed them back with the lowest price quote. This is where things got a bit difficult. As you'll see below, some dealers dropped out, which scared me into wondering if I wasn't near the bottom of the market already. Others simply wrote back and said they would match, or beat it by $100. Not exactly what I was looking for, but it got me started in the right direction.
After haggling a bit with them, I went to my next tier of quotes, which were slightly above the lowest, to see if they would go below my new low quote. At this point, I was $200 below my initial low offer. Then suddenly, one of these dealers came back and said that Honda had raised the dealer incentive by $500, and my new low quote was $400 under the first round. At this point, I wasn't too worried about hitting the bottom of the market, and just wanted to either get someone close to me to get a reasonable low bid, or get down to the very bottom with one of the further dealers. I used a variety of email strategies at this point, griping about the distance I'd have to travel, or the colors remaining, anything to try to spur activity. I knew I was close to the end when one dealer not only dropped out of the bidding but actually said, "I can't do that price, and I don't think that other dealer can either." I did a little more research and found this FatWallet thread about negotiating with dealers. My target price ended up being $26389, and since my low offer was $26400, I knew I was close. I finally emailed the two dealers I had been saving for last. One was a nice guy, but far away, and the other was my nice local guy. The distant guy reluctantly came down to $26200, but said, of course, that he'd be losing money if he made the deal. I went home early on Friday and gave my local guy a call and asked if he could do $26200, and he quickly checked and said yes, with no guilt trip about losing money. We packed our stuff in the car and headed over to pick up our new minivan.
A couple of things I would do differently. First, I would wait until 2-3 days before we were ready to buy, and I wouldn't have started on a Friday like I did. Dealers work on weekends, and I wasn't ready to do anything that first weekend. Your best leverage is when you can say, "Get me this price, and I will be in today." I had to keep delaying the decision, which frustrated me and the people with whom I was trying to negotiate. Second, I wouldn't bother with any of the "buying services." The only thing that got me was an extra quote that was right around the starting point for negotiations, and way higher than where I ended up. Maybe different situations would work differently, so don't let me scare you off. Just know that if you put in a little effort, you can probably get a better deal than their "convenient" service. I also might have tried to buy a little bit earlier in the year. I know a couple of dealers were completely out of 2007s by the time I got to them, and one or two more were down to their last 2 or 3 and weren't as willing to deal (I know, seems paradoxical). So for us, late November was a bit late for buying an Odyssey. Other models may differ (I know they had a LOT of Accords left), so if you're looking at using the changeover from one model year to the next to your advantage, start checking dealer stock in September so that you can be prepared to start looking early if they are running low.
I hope that this walkthrough helped you in some way. If nothing else, I hoped I proved that you don't need to be scared of the car buying process
Busy Holiday Weekend
Wow, a lot of stuff happened this weekend. Quick summary: Thanksgiving dinner, ate too much; Ellie's first sleepover; Ellie doesn't want to come home the next day, which is fine since we need to buy our new Honda Odyssey EX-L; ran a bunch of errands on Saturday, so much room in this minivan!; raked and cleaned the gutters; put up Christmas decorations; hit the Kennedy Center to see Sandra Boynton (author of many children's books) and Davy Jones (yes, THAT Davy Jones, click here to watch the performance from the comfort of your own home rather than having to stand for an hour holding a toddler on your shoulders)!
Whew! I'm still sorting through all the crap I need to take care of as part of trading in our old car and buying the new minivan, but I'm finally getting there. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to put up some pictures of our sweet new ride. And yes, I am serious, it is sweet! Leather, heated seats, power sliding passenger doors, totally configurable seating, including the fold-into-floor third row, moonroof, individual climate controls (Lisa can set hers to be warmer than mine), 6 disc CD player, etc, etc. I will also have a followup post on the buying process, which will explain how I worked the price down to $26200 out the door, and got it from the most conveniently located dealer, and in the color we wanted! Now to take care of all the work that's been stacking up on me.
Black Friday Shopping
I have a couple of things that I have been looking for that I was hoping would be on sale during the holiday season: portable DVD player(s) for the minivan and new cordless phones for the house. We didn't find any particularly great deals on DVD players, but a couple of places had these Panasonic DECT phones on sale for $50. I had actually planned on trying to go in to Sears this morning, figuring it would be less crowded than Circuit City, and buying the phones. But lucky me! Sears put them on sale yesterday on their website. Yes, their Black Friday deal was released on Thursday, on their website so I didn't have to fight the crowds. I almost biffed though by checking "store pickup" instead of using their free shipping. Store pickup would have involved actually going in to the crowded store! So instead, we'll wait a couple of extra days to get them shipped to us. And then hopefully the battery will last more than 30 minutes, and we won't get crazy static all the time.
Now, to see about that DVD player. We're going to need it if the 8-10 hour drive up to Michigan for Christmas is going to be tolerable...
Freebie Update
I mentioned a while back that I caught the freebie bug again, but that this time, it wouldn't involve selling out my family. Not too long afterward, I tried out a couple of the offers: a $500 Best Buy gift card for 3 offers, and a $500 Visa card for 3. The cat got out of the bag last week, literally, when the kitty litter trial I signed up for showed up at our door. Did I mention we don't have cats? Needless to say, Lisa was a bit confused. At any rate, it's going really well so far. All my offers have been credited, and I sent in my confirmation forms. Now I just have to wait, and also make sure that I cancel the trials before they charge me again. So far, even that has gone well. The kitty litter people canceled my trial when I really only asked them how long the stuff was going to take to get to my house. I was also able to cancel the "Grant Consultant" trial over email, and the "Rising Star" deal was easily canceled over the phone with no hassle (I just need to return their CDs now). I also received $20 in gas cards from signing up for "Great Fun." So far, I've spent $16.93 on one gift card, and $10.74 on the other, and gotten that $20 in gas back, so net, I'm out $7.67 at this point, and while I still have to spend a small amount shipping CDs back, I'll be just over $10 to potentially get $1000 in gift cards. Not bad for a couple of hours of my time. Now the most frustrating part, the waiting, begins.
I know it's going to take a while to get the gift cards, butt I do really wish I had the Best Buy one right now, because they have a nice deal on this 26" LCD HDTV that I might have been using the card on. Oh well, I knew I was going to have to be patient, so hopefully I'll get something in time for maybe the Super Bowl, otherwise, I'll settle for my birthday (yes, 5 months from now).
Potomac Curling Club on YouTube
A couple of folks filmed us for a project last week. You can sorta see me at various points during the video. When the guy in the Orioles hat is sliding, you see my hand as I'm walking next to him. I'm also in the distance in a couple of shots, wearing long white sleeves with a green vest. Way, way off in the background.
Anyway, it's worth watching if you're interested, if only to hear Fred yelling at the beginning. He's loud.
Car Stuff Getting Interesting
Well, after a couple of days of haggling, I've managed to get the price of our new Odyssey down about $400. The interesting thing is that one of the dealers actually mentioned that there was a manufacturer-to-dealer incentive going on. I already knew this, thanks to Edmunds.com's latest incentives page, but what I didn't realize is that a couple of days ago, the incentive went from $2000 to $2500! Hopefully this gives me a little bit more wiggle room to work with. I'm hoping that today will be the last day of haggling, and that we should have a new car by the weekend!
Slam
Slam by Nick Hornby
My review
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Continuing with my "young adult" book reading, I decided to check out the latest from Nick Hornby. "Slam" is definitely for the more mature side of "young adult," since it deals with teenage pregnancy almost exclusively (I feel a ban coming on from the religious right!). Hornby, as usual, brings his characters to life in a compelling way. Sam, the 16 year old son of a 32 year old mom, is obsessed with Tony Hawk. He even talks to his "TH" poster in his room, and sometimes, the poster talks back, albeit in quote snippets from Tony Hawk's book. When Sam meets and gets Alicia pregnant, Tony whizzes Sam to the future to give him a glimpse of his life. Sam may not be the role model for teenage parenting, but he learns a lot along the way, and provides a unique look at a world that most people would just as soon ignore.
Next up is Spook Country by William Gibson.
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