Let me tell you a little bit about my old civic. I got it in 2002 after I got home off my mission. It was cheap and in good condition; I got it from a bank auction (it had been repossessed). Things were great until about eight months down the road, when I got in a little fender-bender (my fault). The front passenger side fender, light, and bumper needed to be replaced. At this time, I had a friend from Seal Beach who was really into souping up cars (he drove around a souped-up truck), so he convinced me to buy my replacement parts off E-BAY of all places (stupidest car-related decision I've ever made). Never buy car parts off e-bay (in case you're as stupid as I was back then). The "cool" fenders with these "fancy" little grooves in them were fine. They're just chunks of metal, after all. The bargain bumper fit fine, but the screws that attach it to the fender fell off and were lost shortly after installation, so for a while I tried to secure it with wires or makeshift screws. Eventually I just left it alone and it kind of hung off on the sides, attached to the car only up in the center under the hood. The lights were just a nightmare. They were these "hot" projector lights with these "halos" that lit up separately around the lights. They were like Infinity/BMW rip-offs, and it showed. Two of the halos never lit up. The bulbs for the normal beams constantly burned out. To make it worse, in order to change the bulbs, I couldn't just reach in there and swap them out. I had to take off the ENTIRE bumper and unscrew each headlight assembly just to have enough room to get the new bulbs in and out. In the last year and a half or so I just stopped trying and started running on my high-beams all the time. This makes people hate me, but hey at least I wasn't having to change my lights all the time. My parents were right about those lights. I will give them that much. Oh and he also convinced me to get this ridiculous spoiler while I was at it. The screws on it needed to be constantly tightened (a couple of them fell out while driving) and ultimately I just got sick of it, took it off, and threw it away. The holes for the screws are still back on the trunk exterior--I just didn't care. Oh and we can't forget the "stylish" altezza tail lights! Gosh I was so stupid. Ah well, lessons learned, right?
I've always wanted a Passat. Not sure why--they just always seemed like solid cars. Not too flashy, but also not ghetto. So yesterday I finally got one. I looked at a lot of used Passats for sale online and found one that looked good.
It had just come off lease, 2004, 45k miles, clean carfax--for only $12k list price. I went down to the dealership, took it for a little test drive, it felt good and looked good. So we get back to the dealership and the sales guy puts an invoice in front of me with it listed as $12.9k. "Actually, this was advertised online for $11.9k." He didn't believe me. He looked it up. Sure enough, 11.9k. So he calls to someone upstairs about it and it sounds like they're yelling at him and he's saying "I don't know! I don't touch this stuff!" Was it an act? I don't know. I doubt it--this burly Hawaiian guy really didn't strike me as the "acting" type. To tell you the truth I felt like the 11.9k pricetag was unusually low--other comparable cars were significantly more expensive. KBB value for the car was like 16k. He gets off the phone and says "Well you better buy this car now. $12k is a full thousand dollars below wholesale value." I bought it. I got some extra warranty/repair packages and so all in all it came out to $15k. I'm feeling good about it. No buyer's remorse...yet.
Perhaps as confirmation of my choice to get a new car, after I drove my civic home (I initially had to leave the Passat at the dealership because I went alone), I turned off the engine and could hear this bubbling/popping sound coming from the engine--almost as if something was boiling. Now I'm no expert, but I'm gonna go with that NOT being a good thing. Perfect timing, in my opinion.
I'll give the civic to my sister (the dealership didn't even want it as a trade-in--it was that bad) for her to drive until it's dead. Now until then...anyone know a place where I can park it for a few weeks until she comes to get it? Thanks!
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