Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Green and Frugal: Know What You Want & Don't Settle for Less

We recently went car shopping. Our Honda CRV was just turning 110,000 miles and we felt that we wanted to get at least one car with low mileage (our Honda Odyssey has over 120,000 miles). From scouring the newspapers and car websites to visiting car dealerships, the search was on for a 2-3 year old Honda Pilot.

I jokingly said to my mom, "I'm not picky. I want a black Honda Pilot with a moon roof and I don't want to spend more than $15k-$16k out of pocket (which includes trading in the CRV)." She laughed and said, "Oh no, that's not picky at all. Don't you think that you're limiting yourself just a little?"

About two months later my husband and I drove home a 2006 full loaded Honda Pilot with 35,000 miles. It's black with a moon roof, heated leather seats, heated mirrors with three rows of seats. Our total cost out of pocket was $15,600.

The bottom line is -- don't settle. Whether it's a new job, a car, a house or even a new outfit, plan and know in advance what you want. Have a price and your wish list of attributes in your head. Then, start shopping and keep looking until you find exactly what you want.

Plus, when you get what you want, there isn't as much buyer's remorse because you don't feel like you compromised or spent more than you intended.

Have any examples of a time when you knew exactly what you wanted and didn't settle?




Bookmark and Share

2 comments:

  1. i did pretty much the exact same thing when buying my car though i did settle a little bit on the color (silver instead of gray but it was pretty close)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carrie,

    That's great! I agree, I would be flexible on the color, too. If you have you to give up something, that's probably the only area I would bend on.

    ReplyDelete