Now it just so happened that I was initially planning on ordering a personally customized base model of Subaru's 2010 Impreza today after work, but when I walked back onto the dealership's lot late yesterday afternoon to get some questions answered about various things, I ended up buying this hot piece of modern auto engineering. It was a hatchback that was already on the lot, a car of the model above base with lots of added stuff that I wasn't planning on ordering for my custom car. That said, because it was the very last day of the month and they knew I was very close to buying a car from them anyway, they gave me an insanely good deal simply because they really wanted cars to move off the lot so they could reach their sales quotas as individual salesmen and as a dealership for the month of April. Instead of me negotiating a desirable price with them, they were negotiating a desirable price for me! If I'd held off, turned them down, and waited until today, they certainly would not have been able to offer me such outstanding deal offers.

So it turned out, that for just $600 more than the invoice price of the base model customized car that I was looking to order, I got tons more. Here's a list of everything extra I wasn't planning on getting but have now: aluminum wheels, leather-wrapped steering wheel, audio controls on said steering wheel, a ten speaker system (rather than four), six-CD disc changer (as opposed to single-CD), cargo tray in the trunk, bumper cover, splash guards, all-weather floor mats, heated front seats, heated side mirrors, windshield wiper de-icer, auxilary audio jack, fog lamps, and a power sunroof. I was going to order a roof carrier base kit (for my bike), but decided against it - I can just take the front wheel off my bike and lay it in the trunk after laying the back passenger seats forward. I also wanted body-side molding so the doors wouldn't get dinged up by neighboring, aggressive car door openers or rogue shopping carts, but I'm gonna wait a little on that. So now you see that the deal was just too good to be true. They'd cut the price down so much that I'd have been a total idiot to pass it up. Why pay more for a lot less when you can pay less for a lot more?

The stereo's just fine so far and I'm waiting on an aux. cable that I ordered off Amazon to hook my iPod up in the car (the thieves had stolen my iTrip cable along with the stereo). I'm eager to hear how my iPod sounds; maybe, I won't have to upgrade the speakers after all. What's neat about the stereo as it stands is it tells me the name and artist of the song currently playing. I've never had a stereo that does that.

Then again, I've never owned a car with power doors and windows, let alone a stereo that tells me song titles.

By the way, that picture does not do the car justice. If you've ever seen a blue Impreza or Forester out on the road, you know what I mean. It also doesn't help that unfortunately, the battery in my digital camera was dead, so I had to take the pictures with my old digital camera, which has five less megapixels and is remarkably good at taking very discolored, frequently blurry pics. But you get the idea.

I'm just so excited! Yes, it sucks that my Honda Civic was stolen. Yes, it does kinda suck that I'll be making monthly car payments for the next six years unless I can pay more off every once in a while. But you know what? When I was shopping for that Civic's replacement, I wasn't thinking as a 24-year-old that just needed a new car and wanted to try to get the coolest car I could find within my budget. I thought as a 24-year-old guy who's looking to be married and have at least one kid within the next ten years. This is the car that I hope someday to drive my family around in, knowing that they're safe, comfortable, and not embarassed to be riding around in said car. I'm sure it's not exactly the first type of car you would think a guy my age would go for (I mean, just look at the Impreza's competition, the Honda Fit and the Mazda3. Those are way sportier looking and in most cases, faster.), but that doesn't matter to me. All I was really going for was "blue" and "hatchback". It just so happened that the day I mentioned at work that I had to start car shopping, one of my co-worker friends mentioned Subaru because of their standard AWD and consistently high safety and crash test ratings and that really turned me on to the brand (my parents have only ever owned Dodge and Mercury vehicles). At the least, it made for a good starting point in my search.

And here's where I've got to give props to the dealership. It's a relatively small dealership, located right on the outskirts of the city portion of my town and the campus of my collegiate alma mater. Its size, I think, actually helps it because let me tell you, I didn't think it was possible to encounter honest car salesmen, but there certainly are at least a couple at this place. Sure, they turned their mental "salesman" dials all the way to "unabashedly aggressive" yesterday, but truth be told, it was a completely different atmosphere exactly a week prior when I'd gone there for the first time and ended up taking a test drive. Yesterday was like they cast a Berserk spell on all the salesmen or they'd entered a timed bonus level or made contact with a shiny Invincibility Star, compared to how it was a week ago, calm, chill, and low-key. But it was the end of the month and that's just how dealerships are. It might have been a bad situation if I'd walked in unprepared for typical dealership "end of the month" mode (my boss had actually brought it up yesterday morning!) or if yesterday had been my first visit to the place, but that's not what it was and I digress. My point is, I was very impressed with how I was treated and how they served me. They gave me time to think without hovering when I asked them to, the salesman walked into the dealership to get real, truthful answers to my questions when he couldn't readily provide one on the fly, and they were cool with the fact that I was dead-set on certain characteristics, such as blue car color (even though they were really trying to move cars off the lot yesterday). I bet I would have even gotten some kind of good deal if I'd had to order the car. I was just really impressed, and as such, I don't mind that I've got their dealership sticker on my trunk. Can't say a bad thing about any part of the experience...other than the fact I don't remember any of the negotiating because I kept trying to keep my head on straight as they were trying to get me to accept a deal! Also, when final selling prices and monthly payments and interest percentages began to get thrown around - I hate to admit it - even as a math teacher, I got overwhelmed quickly, trying to keep all the numbers straight. But it was all good; they didn't mind clarifying or repeating things for me. :)

This is the first car that I have ever officially owned (the other two cars I've driven, while "technically mine", were given to my family for free from very generous family members. This car is the first one I've ever had to pay even a single cent for, and I'm the only one who will ever pay even a single cent on this car. It's mine. And I love it.

As you can see, the Jagster's very happy to have found a home off the lot, lol. :)