Almost!

We almost purchased a used car today.  Almost.

We have a friend who owns a dealership.  So, they said they would help us out and take us to these car auctions.  We get to log in using this friend's ID and password and see what cars will be available at the auction.  Then on Tuesday we have the opportunity to go up to where the auctions are (I can't remember where they are, somewhere up north), and test drive the car or cars that we are interested in.  Then the auctions are on Wednesday.

Last week, we weren't sure about the whole process, so we went to dealerships in the Utah County area and shopped around.  Not finding anything good in our budget (which is pretty low, $10K), we decided to give the auction a try this week.

We had it narrowed down to two cars, a 2007 Jeep Compass and a 2007 Kia Sorento.  They both have under 100K miles on them, and both are in good condition.  We decided that we liked the Kia better because it has upgraded options (leather interior, sun roof, etc.).  Then we found out the the 2007 Jeep Compass would be auctioned off before the 2007 Kia Sorento.

That stinks.  That really stinks.  The car you want most should be auctioned off first, so you can see if you can get it in your price range.  Then, if not, you have that other car you can still bid on.

But no.  Jeep was auctioned off first and went for $7K.  Well within our budget, but we didn't bid because we wanted the Kia.  The Kia went for $11K.  Barely over budget.  Lame!!  And then we didn't have another car to bid on after that.

So here's hoping for next week's auction to go a little better, and here's to hoping that we get a second car soon!

I'd rather not increase our budget.  Even though we could afford to, who knows where we'll be financially after I start working from home.  Those details aren't completely smoothed out yet.  I don't know if I'll still be full time and salaried, or if I'll go to 35 hours/week.  That tiny 5 hour difference... can I do it?  I'm not sure.

Also, this $10K is through our awesome credit union, and we're getting an interst rate of 2.9%.  Awesome!