Plenty of time to decide on a car purchase

We have plenty of time to make a decision about buying a car. I mean, we need to do it in the next month or so, and we've been looking around since March 20th, but we've got time. Plus, we've honed in on the car we want, and the dealership we want to buy it from.

So, tonight we headed to the dealership so they could check out my sweetie's 1997 Honda Civic, get the VIN and give us a trade-in value on it.

Now, I know what I want in order to buy a classy new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. I also know it's patently ridiculous & there's no freakin' way anyone's going to meet my wishes. What do I want?

(1) A model that has just the basic options, what they refer to as the 500A package. No special bells & whistles. I don't need leather, a sunroof, a fabulous sound system, a full screen navigation system or anything of it's ilk. I'll be happy with air conditioning, power windows, and a CD player. Oh, and that ambient lighting is cool, too, but I'm not paying extra for it.

(2) The color needs to be not-white and not-black. Other than that, my honey can decide. The color's more of a big deal for him than it is for me. Same thing with the interior. I just don't care enough to make this a big issue.

(3) I'm happy to take something right off the lot if it meets our criteria, but I don't want it to be something they've managed to wrack up a thousand miles on. A couple hundred maybe, but not 1k. I KNOW the MSRP ($27,950), and if it's substantially higher than that, there's no way I'll take it.

(4) I want to feel like they're cutting us some kind of a deal. So, although my spouse said he'd like $1,000 trade-in value for his 1997 Honda Civic, I really want $2,000. (Yes, I'm insane.)

(5) I do not want to have to monkey around with complex financing. I want to do some simple math, for me to ask you to plug in some numbers for 60 months/72 months & for me to give you a few numbers for down payments & I want you to tell me what my options are. That's it.

So, yes, we have loads and loads of time, because I know what it will take for me to drive off the lot with a brand-new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid tonight ... and I know damned well the dealership isn't going to meet it. We'll be done in plenty of time to get to the grocery store & cook tomorrow night's dinner in advance. LOADS of time. HEAPS of time.

As I mentioned, we drove my husband's car so they could get the VIN and try to talk us into getting a car tonight. But I am not GETTING a car tonight, because it is virtually impossible for them to meet my completely insane terms. Right.

Except ... they had a silver (acceptable color) model with a 500A package (yup) with a mere 166 miles on it. And ... are you ready for the mind-numbing part? ... they knocked the price down such that it worked out to a $2,000 trade in for the Civic. And they crunched numbers & fed them into a computer & came up with a financing package that was doable, but their finance dude, Kevin, is pretty sure he can get us a better interest rate if he speaks with a live human being in the morning, so they'll just have us sign everything except the financing and you can get all of your personal items out of the Civic and here are the keys and we hope you enjoy your car and we'll see you tomorrow to iron out the details and you really truly can take your car home and put it in your garage and it's your very own.

Holy freaking cow. We have a new car. And they met all of our terms. Inconceivable!

P.S. and the ambient lighting is really cool!!