Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A Wood Family First...

Last week, Andy & I purchased our first vehicle as a married couple. The last car I bought was my freshmen year of college and we still own it. It's probably worth about $10 now, but it's lasted me 12 years and was 3 years old when I got it. Andy's last purchase was our senior year of college...a Chrysler Lebaron. It was a beauty...

The entire inside of the car was red leather. 
Valentine's Day year round, Baby!

We replaced that car with a car given to us by my grandparents, for which we were oh so thankful! Well, our poor cars have increasingly become the butt of everyone's jokes. Needless to say, it was high time to find something a little more reliable. 

So, we searched Craig's List, found a used minivan Swagger Wagon for a good price, and started negotiations. We were able to talk the seller down $1300 of his original asking price because we had two secret weapons: 1) an envelope full of cash (thank you, Dave Ramsey), and 2) Renan Santos. 

Renan is on our staff at South Bay and the man changes out cars like you change your pants. It's unbelievable. When he was in college, he literally bought and sold THIRTY (3-0) cars in 2 years...all for profit. So, with Renan at the negotiation table, the seller didn't really have a chance. 

We are happy to join the ranks of families pimping that phat ride of a minivan. You may have already seen this video, but it is worth another viewing. (Double click the video to get it to go to full screen.)



And here's my best Swagger Wagon pose:

2 comments:

Cristine said...

Congrats Stacie!! I'm glad you had my Dad's help. My whole life he has done things I never understood how...he's gifted with that!! God bless your new car!

Kerri said...

I love this, Stacie! Matt uses a company car, and he gets to choose between a truck, car, and "Swagger Wagon". He has the truck now, but as I'm sure you understand, it is NOT practical with 2 kids. We have decided to go with a van. When I was reading this, I was thinking, I've got to send her that Swagger Wagon video! Glad you've already seen it...we can keep watching it, and remind ourselves of how cool we are!:)