See part 5 here: Car Hunting

Well, things are certainly moving along fast now.

What ended up happening was I found a somewhat local dealership that had a Nissan LEAF SV Plus available and it only had 17k miles on it. For $15,998 I felt it was a good deal. After the regular fees, I was quoted $17,422.19 and a separate charge for delivery of $149 (75mi).

Last week, we went to the dealership to take the car for a test drive. It was a long trip and it was my mother’s birthday, so we stopped at the H-Mart in Cary to procure some choice pastries and on the way home we swung by the Red Robin for her free birthday burger and the Starbucks for her free birthday coffee. Plenty of sweet freebies including a cake from the Publix grocery store.

The car took some getting used to but I found the drive very smooth. The only issue was a loud buzzing sound, however, I found it to be a bug stuck in my dreadlocks. Some weird cross between a moth and a carpenter bee I’d say. It managed to free itself while I was pulled to the side of the road searching Google for “buzzing sounds” and the Nissan Leaf.

Cutting ahead now to the present, I have scheduled delivery and I am expecting a cashier’s check ($10k) in the mail for my down payment. I will be financing the remainder of the balance ($7422). I’ve got another check for $4,000 coming soon and then I can probably put the rest on my US Bank Altitude card which has a 0% promotion running.

The next hurdle was getting a “binder” from the insurance company. I initially spoke to the insurer for the house and my relatives’ vehicles but was told I was too old to be on their policy without being a joint owner.

I was directed to start my own policy, however, the quote was $533 per month which was too much given my small income. I tried Progressive, but their website was down, I called the General and was quoted $1,538 per month.

Finally, I used a generic website which led to a phone call with an insurance agent from Direct Auto Insurance. This ended up being the ticket. I received a quote of $224 per month, which is still a bit much, but better than the others.

The binder was handled smoothly and I should have the details sent over to the credit union that will handle the financing and the lien. I’ll have a few more calls to make tomorrow with the dealership and possibly the insurance agent, but otherwise, I think I am pretty much set.

At some point down the road, I want to get a custom license plate with my name on it. That’ll cost $33 with fees. I also want a DashCam, I have been looking at the Vantrue Element 1 for $71 on Amazon. I may make a post about that later.

Thanks for reading. Be safe and be happy.

See part 1 here: Licensed!