Honk.

I'm happy to report that the car search was a success. Well, perhaps I shouldn't call it that. I think I'd better wait until we clear the first monthly payment without dipping into savings before I can totally call it a success.

What did we get? I'll leave it to you to figure it out. I'm planting subtle clues in this blog entry....

When shopping for a car I wish I were like Ralphie's father in A Christmas Story: "The old man loved bargaining as much as an Arab trader, and he was twice as shrewd." That's not me. However, I have two traits going for me when I go to buy a new car: desperation and cheapness.

When I bought my first new car, as a callow youth, the salesman asked me what I hoped to spend on a monthly payment. I thought about it and -- as I had no idea what it could work out to be -- I named a preposterously low sum that literally made him blanch. It also made him work hard to get me a payment I could live with.

This time, the salesman told us that the 0% financing offer we'd seen advertised was not actually available on all models, including the one we'd taken out for a drive, but the financing was very low, better than we'd find anywhere else and... I said we'd go home and think about it. I was serious; I figured we'd ultimately agree, but I wanted to go home and play with the numbers. Sensing that a fish was about to escape just when he had it netted, the salesman dashed off and -- mirabile dictu! -- they managed to bring the interest rate down to zero. And gave us more for the old car than I thought they probably should.

My wife is really digging her new wheels. I got a lower-end model from the same outfit just a few years back, and compared to the technology in her car, I'm driving a Studebaker. I got a CD player, no backup camera, no Bluetooth link, no all sorts of other things she got. I mean, I'm fine with that, having grown up in the "just another damn thing to go wrong" school of tech-skepticism, but I'm glad she has this groovy bells-and-whistles mobile.

Although I guess a car with actual bells and whistles would be an ice cream truck. Never mind.

So that's the story, and I'm glad it worked out. The old car served us faithfully, but had a lot of issues from the get-go, like the exceptionally touchy theft alarm that was dealer-installed and ate batteries. More recently it needed new tires, brake pads, maybe shocks, and then the fuel tank developed a problem that, as the mechanic told me, "Won't leave you stranded but you'll never pass inspection." That meant the clock was ticking, with New York State Inspection due this fall.

Now, all those worries are gone! Replaced by the one worry of paying for the new car.

Good thing I'm a desperate skinflint and therefore drive a hard bargain by accident!