Our New Addition

For those of you who thought we were getting a new dog, sorry to disappoint you!! Our homeowner's association won't allow us to have more than one dog so unless we decide to move on base, which is a possibility, we're staying a one-dog family. Though we hope to get Oso a brother or sister eventually.

No, the new addition to our family is a 2011 Nissan Rogue SV. We've been doing our research over the last few months and I was going back and forth between the Altima and the Rogue and Brandon had always been leaning towards the Rogue so that's what we settled on (though I must clarify that this car is my car...and Brandon is insanely jealous at the moment).

Our car buying experience couldn't have been more enjoyable, though we did have a few goofs. We decided to use USAA's Car Buying Service. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, you can go on to USAA, pick out the make and model you want and all the option packages and stuff as well. Then USAA lists a good price for you. If you choose to go forward, you release your contact info to 3 dealers and print out a "certificate" which states that those dealers agree to sell it for a certain price. It pretty much takes out all the haggling you have to do to buy a car. This particular dealership agreed to sell us the Rogue for $1,000 under invoice (not to be mistaken with MSRP which is much higher). We settled on $2,642 for my trade-in, a 2004 Chevy Venture van (yes, I drove a van for 6 years with no kids. One of my more stupid mistakes back when I thought it would be easy getting pregnant). With taxes and fees and all that other junk added in, we drove away in a brand new Rogue that only cost $22,008, over $2,000 less than what I paid for my new van 6 years ago.

I'm so in love. This car has everything I wanted without having to buy any extra packages. It has the steering wheel audio controls, Bluetooth and iPod connections, a back-up camera so I don't run into anything, and even comes with XM radio which is free for the first 3 months. I'm not a fan of leather seating so we steered clear of that. We considered getting the GPS navigation system but it only comes as part of a ($1,500) package that also includes a moonroof and other junk I don't care about. So we decided to skip the navigation system and keep our little $100 Magellan.

Like I said, we did have a few goofs along the way. Up until a few days ago I had been planning on getting a car with FWD (front wheel drive). Little did I know that in the Northeast they don't sell FWD cars, only AWD (all wheel drive). I think it has something to do with the snow. So we had to re-budget for an extra $1,500 to account for the more expensive AWD car. Then I had settled on a dealer and his dealership. He seemed like a nice guy over the phone, though they were an hour away. Still, I was determined to buy from this guy (his name was Mike and he worked at Bal.ise Nissan). So yesterday afternoon Brandon got off work early and we head to Mike's dealership. We get halfway there and realize we forgot the blank check for our car loan. We turn around and head back to get the check. When we finally get to Mike's dealership we ask for him and get shown into his office.

He had no clue who we were.

Turns out Mike didn't work at Bal.ise Nissan, he worked at Bar.ry Nissan in another town! Both dealerships were on my USAA certificate and I had mixed things up. No worries, this Mike turned out to be the finance manager and he introduced us to a salesman named Chris who eventually sold us the car. Brandon joked and said that we went to the right dealership, we just didn't know it at the time. I however felt pretty bad buying from Bal.ise when I had been telling Mike all week I would stop by and see him. But I have my car now so I suppose it shouldn't matter. I knew there was no way I was going to drive another 45 minutes to the right dealership for a car I could have easily gotten at Bal.ise.

So without further ado, here is our new car!!


Oh and for those who asked in my last post, my dog is a Schipperke (pronounced skip-er-key). Their name means "Little Captain" or "Little Skipper". They originate from Belgium, bred as boating dogs, used to catch rats on barges. Though apparently Oso didn't get that memo because he's not a fan of boats. He's not a "mouthy" little dog, in fact he rarely barks at all, only when he feels threatened or thinks there is an intruder. He's doesn't have the "Small Dog" syndrome either and is one of the most friendly little dogs I've ever met. Many people have told us that they are considering getting a Schipperke after they've met Oso. I mean, who wouldn't love that face? He's the best dog in the world!