Wow. That’s all I am still feeling after a long long 24 hours yesterday.
It started off with lots of car searching. I tried very hard to scour as much of the internet as I knew how. I worked very hard and found some pretty good deals. But that was not really good enough. That was not what we were looking for actually… We wanted to find a vehicle that was so much beyond what we could do that we knew God was behind it.
Well… here’s the story….
From about 1am-3am on Monday night I searched the web for car deals. Found some good ones… printed those up and Jen & I talked about it the next morning (I was up at 8am looking for more). I also began calling insurance and all that – many, many, MANY phone calls. And, found some good honest, helpful, genuine folks who were willing to help us. Good stuff. But nothing stood out as spectacular.
We were looking for a van similar to the one we had – room for lots of kids (and extended room for lots of stuff, too) and able to tow our trailer and also had to have some sort of entertainment system for those 1000 mile days. 🙂 So… we found several options, including buying a more basic vehicle and putting in an after-market system. All of these were coming up to around $15-$16K. And, that’s about what we figured we could do. But again, that was the problem… it was what WE could do… nothing spectacular from God, as we were asking for from Him.
So, we called a couple more local dealers and thought we’d look around a bit before going down to PA for the one we thought we liked most. (A loaded van with TV system for $15000) We got to meet Mike at Heritage Motors… very nice guy – turns out he lives right next to Crosswinds!!! Ha! That was great! Anyway – he was the most genuine dude we had met so far, and he offered us a loaded (better than the PA one – minus the TV) Chevy Venture for $13,800… but by the time we added the TV system and Warranty and Taxes etc… was going to be around $17K. So… we really wanted that one, but it was a stretch…
Still… no amazing deal from God.
Well, we went to one more place – Mike Barnard Chevy/Olds/Cadillac in Newark. Had driven by there many times – that’s how we knew to check there. They said they had some vans one the lot… come check it out! We did.
When we arrived, they began to try to sell us an Astro Van – we did not want that. 🙂 AND, it was $15,000 list. Too much. They had some Ventures and Silhouettes… much to pricy. WAY out of our price range. So we were just trying to leave ASAP. 🙂 BUT, the sales guy wouldn’t let us. He kept trying to "make us a deal tonight". AND, the funny thing was, he was NOT. They were not deals – well, they may have been – but we still could not afford them. So, he kept asking, what can I do to send you home in this vehicle tonight?
Jen said, "Sell it to us for thousands less?" (Which I thought was pretty humourous…)
He looked kinda stumped… but he said, "Wait right here.." and left to go check on that for us. When he returned, they offered to get us a loan for the rest (after what we could pay from insurance) that would have payments very very close to what we wanted to pay! That was amazing. They came down on a vehicle listed for $21,000 to $15,000… this is an Oldsmobile Silhouette Premiere!!!
That was great… but then I said, hey… what would really sell me is if you would put on the trailer hitch and electrical hook up for this same price. They said.. you got it. We’ll even put a new one on for you!
SO… in summary… we got a vehicle listed at $21,000 – with MORE than we had on our last vehicle, with 100,000 LESS miles, with a 100,000 mile warranty, AND trailer hookups… for payments of LESS than what we were paying on the old van!?!?! WOW…
We were willing to settle for way less… but were still hanging on to be amazed by God, and He did it at a car dealer in Newark last night! Awesome!!!
We are amazed. Hope this story helps you be amazed with us. It might be lacking in cohesiveness as I really need to be doing other things right now, but wanted to share. 🙂
God is awesome. Again and Again. Forever and Ever.
