New car. (On paper, anyway)

I got an email this evening about a new benefits program from Ford and GM (Only those 2...) that gave new car discounts. I went on the sites, it appears to be 10% off MSRP. (Their employee discount) All incentives in existance are also included.

We looked at the minivans, being a minivan sized family. (Mazda has a new 'little' minivan that seats 5. I think they should call that a subminivan, or a microvan, or something like that.) Ford has a new minivan, the Freestar. It looks ok, but for the price, it has not features built into it. Maybe I'm cheap, but if it's not the least or second to least expensive model on the market, it should have some bells and whistles on it. Something comparable to what we have was about $26,000. Minus bells and whistles: $24000. (After the $4000 incentive they threw in.)

We looked at the Mazda MPV, they have split the LX model into LX and LX-SV. We really like the car we have, it gets great milage, handles well, is one of the relatively cheaper cars. The LX-SV is the non-bells and whistles model. The LX has nearly all the stuff our 2002 model has.

The LX-SV, with Rear Air, Cassette player (This is for Tara), Roof Rack, and Trailer Hitch was $22475 minus a $2500 Customer cash incentive. ($20000, only $1500 more than what we paid for the one we got 3 years ago, but without the fun stuff in it.)

I priced 2 different specs for the LX, 1 I label "OK.", 1 I label "Now that's nice."

"OK" - Same options, Rear Air, Cassette player, Roof Rack, and Trailer Hitch. Also available for this is Door Guards, Floor & Cargo Mats, and a Rear Bumper Step Plate. (Giving some of the thing our current car has.) Things that the LX model which the LX-SV model lacks, but our current car has: Overhead storage components, bigger tires, Traction Control, undersoilers and underskirts, and more options available. This priced out at $23290 minus the $2500 Customer Cash.

"Now that's nice" had all the options of the "OK" config with Privacy Tinting on all back windows (We have this now. It's nice.), Windshild Shade (Got it), Fog lights (Got it), and a 4-Seasons & Towing Package that included (None of which we currently have): 1.5 ton towing capacity, Heavy Duty Oil Cooler, Heavy Duty Battery, Heated Door Mirrors, Rear Heater, Cold-spec wiper motor, and Large windshield fluid tank. I think the large battery, heated door mirrors, and Rear heater would be worth it. The girls hate to sit in the cold car in the winter, they would love rear heat. This priced out at $24309 minus the $2500 customer cash. At $22000, I think we would be getting a lot of car for the money.

Our car loan is the same amount as what Kelly Blue Book says the trade-in would be. I figure if we got Tom to do a really nice detail on the thing, and reminded the people about the brand new tires, we might be able to get a little out of the car we have. We are seriously concidering looking into this. In addition to the new tires, the car just had 60,000 mile maintainence done to it, it's in good shape, but with this deal and the current incentive on the MPV's, it might we worth it to buy new, get a van just like or a little better than our current one, but then we have the 4 year warrenty on the car. We needed to start looking at some point anyway, we didn't want to necessarily drive it to the point that we couldn't get any trade in for it.

Just a couple of questions: What color do you suggest? I have a hard time finding our silver car sometimes, what do people think about "Strato Blue Mica?" A Remote Start feature is available, does anyone have this? If so, do you like it? Our neighbors have a Mazda 626 with a remote start. It seems to be a nice feature to have for the Winter to get the car warmed up, and nice in the Summer to get the A/C to cool it down before getting in. One of the disadvantages I see is little fingers learning how to remote start the car... We had a remote start rental car 2 years ago in Clearwater Beach, I had fun starting and stopping the car from the 5th floor of the hotel... The Option for Remote Start would be $280, is it worth it?

I plan to make at least 1 visit to the dealership. It's a newly built lot. I plan to walk away at some tactically appropriate time. Then maybe come back the next day and walk away again. Then maybe come back again if we are really serious and think we want to buy a new car. There aren't any car salesmen in the audience, are there?