The new ride.

After looking thru Craigslist. Scouring cars.com and autotrader.com.  Driving thru many dealer lots, driving many vehicles.  This last Saturday as I was coming home from my son's cross country meet.  I stopped by the somewhat local(75miles away) Mazda dealer.  We drove thru the lot and they had a used Rav4 and a Highlander so I decided to stop and see what they were asking for them.  I talked to a dealer about the Rav4 and the Highlander.  Both were out of my price range for a used car.  I started walking around the lot and there it was.  A dark blue Mazda5 Touring.  The sticker price in the window was 12,999.  Down from 20,000.  That was a huge drop so I looked further.  It was pretty hail dented.  Early in July a big storm rolled thru and caused extensive damage to all there cars.  Some of the cars were fixed others just marked down.  This one had a $7500 mark down and $500 off from Mazda for being a 2010.  It had lots of room in the back, great gas mileage, roomy seating for four people, seating for six people if two of them are "small" people.  I could already see the bike racks on the top, back and a nice mounting board inside.  So I asked the dealer for the keys and took it for a drive.  It had a 2.5 automatic and was pretty zoomy really.  Handled really well.  Took it back and parked it.  Popped the rear hatch and folded down the seats.  I saw that he had another Mazda5 on the lot, also hail dented but with a window sticker of $10,995.  This was a metalic red Sport model.  No sunroof and a five speed manual instead of the automatic.  Other then that, just the same.  So I took it out for a drive.  Wow, what a difference the five speed made.  From a somewhat zoomy to a really zoomy car.  It was such fun to drive.  Even thou it looks like a shrunken mini van it was just a blast to take around corners and pull away from stop signs.  Brought it back to the dealership and told the salesman I really liked it.  I filled out paper work for a loan thru Mazda.  It was closing time and the finance people were all back east and wouldn't be in till Monday.  I had to work Monday and wouldn't be able to pick it up till Tuesday.  So for two days I debated, looked up accessories, looked up mods, read reviews, and waited.  Even with my "just ok" credit I got the 2.9% financing and I opted for the extended warranty of 10years and 100,000 miles.  I could have bought a used car, but for the price I got new.  Bike rack parts are being ordered as we speak.  Many pics to follow.