Been a LONG 3 weeks. Never owned a Caddy before, never driven one till 3 weeks ago. I always thought they were floaty land yachts and had no interest.
Been driving a....Ford fusion :lame: for the last few years, it was a econobox long commute purchase... My commute is now 20miles round trip. Not been happy with it for years and realized I was finally right side up on the loan. I Started looking around for a new fun ride. Had to be 4door, V8 and RWD. I 1st went for Chrysler 300c, drove 1 didn't like it, same with the Charger, drive a few MB E500 didn't care for them.
Then a co-worker bought a G8 GT. Loved it but it was out of my price range. Then that same co-worker drove in his buddies CTS-V with work done to it, . The sound and resonance that thing gave off were mesmerizing and touched me in all the right places. Again WAY out of range, but it planted a seed. He mentioned looking at the sts and my caddy infatuation began. I have spent the last 3 weeks thinking researching and dreaming STS. The very 1st week I had one 5 miles from home, the nav was broken but I test drove it and was hooked!! I waited for the nav to get fixed so I could test everything and made an offer but the dealer would not negotiate. I had a number I needed to meet and he would not even meet half way so I walked. Car sold the next day. :banghead: Meanwhile I had test driven a AWD version, they wanted more $ but it had a bad drivers mirror, broken seat bezel(no know easy fix) and URPA sensors looked pushed in. I held off a few days and after the 1st one vanished I called and let the dealer know I would be up the next day. Next day I got a call, someone else sold the car. :cursin:
So hard lesson learned. Bought a carfax 1 month as well as compnine subscription so I could research quickly. Since then I have looked at every 1SF car within a 50 mile radius. OMG, what is wrong with people? Every one of them was hammered! broken seats, mirrors, heated seats, check engine lights, suspension failures, you name it and they all wanted $12k! I realized up here I was going to have to spend more so I increased the budget and also started expanding the search area.
Saw a few sts-v that were in reach, and started expanding search area bigtime. Each time I sent a contact out on one it was gone. These cars in std or -v form do not stay on market long if they are not beat up! NYE was quiet at work so I skimmed craigslist in cities within 200miles of me. I stumbled on a just listed 06 sts-v in Vancouver Canada. Dealing with Canada often I knew the exchange rate was good, so I impatiently waited till I got off work and called the dealer. Yes the add was Canadian $, yes the mileage was actually Kilometers. Quick $ crunching and I saw the car might be within reach with a trade in. But no trades across the border. I was talking with the sales guy and about to put a deposit on it when another guy at the dealership put $ on it. :gah: SOO close yet so far, the car was off the market 6hrs after it hit craigslist.
New years day I realized I just needed to get rid of the fusion as it had slowed me down and complicated making deals out of the area. I put it on craigslist. Within 2 hrs I had 3 hits and the second one followed thru. Met her on the 3rd for a test drive and she took the car, and I made 1500 more than I would have trading to a dealer! I called my credit union to update them on the sale and also got set-up to use the CU website to look at my accounts. Not 30min after I got home from that test drive I get a TXT from the dealer in Canada. The other buyer could not make a deal with them, wanted to much for trade in etc so it fell thru, the car was on the market! I had no idea how I could afford the car, but this time I put a deposit on it instantly and good thing too! Right after he took the deposit another sales guy was trying to take the car out on a test drive, but my rep had the key in his pocket!!wned2: I got to listen to my sales guy telling the other saleguy to get away from the car, it was sold, not available, get out of it... :histeric: Hung up with him after scheduling to head up the next day for a test drive.
That afternoon looking at the credit union accounts I realized that the profit from my fusion sale would pay off all but $200 of my other vehicle loan!! That means rather than 300 and eating PB&J for a few years I had $450/month and no penny pinching! Drove up the next day in my mustang, (V8, convertible, 5spd, posi rear diff), not 10 miles from border right into a snow storm. DOH! Went from cloudy and wet roads to slushed over fastlane in <1/4mile. Of course the "tools" driving in front of me hit brakes, then cut infront of semi to get into clear lane. Meanwhile I am thinking GREAT here I am in a rwd sportscar in the snow, going to drive a supercharged RWD car in possible snow.:bonkers: Thankfully it was just a small little storm and by the time I hit the border it was 10* warmer and light rain.
Made it to the dealer, took us 5min to get to the car as he had hidden it way down in the bowels of their multi story garage just to keep people from messing with it. He fired it up with the remote start as we approached and it stole my heart. Body is laser straight, Cold air intake, magnaflow exhaust that just rounded great, just a little rumble but still all classy. EVERYTHING WORKED, except the heater steering but hoping that is a fuse. I could find nothing else wrong with the car, the only bad thing was that due to the weather I could not lay into the car and see how the engine did WOT or even 3/4 throttle. The times I goosed it she jumped though and I went manual mode and got her revving past 5k with no bad sounds or missing. Had a good conversation with the dealer and headed home with plan to have my CU arrange payment the beginning of the week. I needed my fusion transaction to close before I made full payment.
Fusion transaction does not clear until late Monday night, to late to start deal for the STS-v. Tues Morning I get a call from the CU, they cannot perform loans on non US titled vehicles. My head about exploded at work. Went into panic mode. Home equity from house? Nope, not ready yet, Dealer financing?, not option out of country. That left CC as only option to get the car. I negotiated a bit with the dealer, talking him down given all the fees I was getting hit with and he worked with me a bit. We put it on the CC and paid the fee just to get it stateside, then the CU will repay us back with a refinance on the car. Man what a GOAT ROPE!!
:ride:
That said the dealer has been awesome, seriously he worked and made everything easy, also no playing shell games or changing numbers on the paperwork they hand you to sign. Class act, and sticks to his word. Buying a car in Canada is a breeze compared to the US.
:canuck:I signed 2 pieces of paper! And the dealer was able to secure customs brokerage and handled all that for me and bundled it into the price of the vehicle!! Then he filled the tank with premium fuel before handing it off to the importer!
I got the call today from the importer that the car will be delivered Mon or Tues, right to my driveway! Only coming with one Key Fob (#1) and key, so soon as the payment went thru I ordered a#2 FOB off ebay, stumbled on one for $40. That landed today!
2006 STS-V, 53K miles, Spectre Intake, Magnaflow Exhaust.
EDIT: typo fixes
Been driving a....Ford fusion :lame: for the last few years, it was a econobox long commute purchase... My commute is now 20miles round trip. Not been happy with it for years and realized I was finally right side up on the loan. I Started looking around for a new fun ride. Had to be 4door, V8 and RWD. I 1st went for Chrysler 300c, drove 1 didn't like it, same with the Charger, drive a few MB E500 didn't care for them.
Then a co-worker bought a G8 GT. Loved it but it was out of my price range. Then that same co-worker drove in his buddies CTS-V with work done to it, . The sound and resonance that thing gave off were mesmerizing and touched me in all the right places. Again WAY out of range, but it planted a seed. He mentioned looking at the sts and my caddy infatuation began. I have spent the last 3 weeks thinking researching and dreaming STS. The very 1st week I had one 5 miles from home, the nav was broken but I test drove it and was hooked!! I waited for the nav to get fixed so I could test everything and made an offer but the dealer would not negotiate. I had a number I needed to meet and he would not even meet half way so I walked. Car sold the next day. :banghead: Meanwhile I had test driven a AWD version, they wanted more $ but it had a bad drivers mirror, broken seat bezel(no know easy fix) and URPA sensors looked pushed in. I held off a few days and after the 1st one vanished I called and let the dealer know I would be up the next day. Next day I got a call, someone else sold the car. :cursin:
So hard lesson learned. Bought a carfax 1 month as well as compnine subscription so I could research quickly. Since then I have looked at every 1SF car within a 50 mile radius. OMG, what is wrong with people? Every one of them was hammered! broken seats, mirrors, heated seats, check engine lights, suspension failures, you name it and they all wanted $12k! I realized up here I was going to have to spend more so I increased the budget and also started expanding the search area.
Saw a few sts-v that were in reach, and started expanding search area bigtime. Each time I sent a contact out on one it was gone. These cars in std or -v form do not stay on market long if they are not beat up! NYE was quiet at work so I skimmed craigslist in cities within 200miles of me. I stumbled on a just listed 06 sts-v in Vancouver Canada. Dealing with Canada often I knew the exchange rate was good, so I impatiently waited till I got off work and called the dealer. Yes the add was Canadian $, yes the mileage was actually Kilometers. Quick $ crunching and I saw the car might be within reach with a trade in. But no trades across the border. I was talking with the sales guy and about to put a deposit on it when another guy at the dealership put $ on it. :gah: SOO close yet so far, the car was off the market 6hrs after it hit craigslist.
New years day I realized I just needed to get rid of the fusion as it had slowed me down and complicated making deals out of the area. I put it on craigslist. Within 2 hrs I had 3 hits and the second one followed thru. Met her on the 3rd for a test drive and she took the car, and I made 1500 more than I would have trading to a dealer! I called my credit union to update them on the sale and also got set-up to use the CU website to look at my accounts. Not 30min after I got home from that test drive I get a TXT from the dealer in Canada. The other buyer could not make a deal with them, wanted to much for trade in etc so it fell thru, the car was on the market! I had no idea how I could afford the car, but this time I put a deposit on it instantly and good thing too! Right after he took the deposit another sales guy was trying to take the car out on a test drive, but my rep had the key in his pocket!!wned2: I got to listen to my sales guy telling the other saleguy to get away from the car, it was sold, not available, get out of it... :histeric: Hung up with him after scheduling to head up the next day for a test drive.
That afternoon looking at the credit union accounts I realized that the profit from my fusion sale would pay off all but $200 of my other vehicle loan!! That means rather than 300 and eating PB&J for a few years I had $450/month and no penny pinching! Drove up the next day in my mustang, (V8, convertible, 5spd, posi rear diff), not 10 miles from border right into a snow storm. DOH! Went from cloudy and wet roads to slushed over fastlane in <1/4mile. Of course the "tools" driving in front of me hit brakes, then cut infront of semi to get into clear lane. Meanwhile I am thinking GREAT here I am in a rwd sportscar in the snow, going to drive a supercharged RWD car in possible snow.:bonkers: Thankfully it was just a small little storm and by the time I hit the border it was 10* warmer and light rain.
Made it to the dealer, took us 5min to get to the car as he had hidden it way down in the bowels of their multi story garage just to keep people from messing with it. He fired it up with the remote start as we approached and it stole my heart. Body is laser straight, Cold air intake, magnaflow exhaust that just rounded great, just a little rumble but still all classy. EVERYTHING WORKED, except the heater steering but hoping that is a fuse. I could find nothing else wrong with the car, the only bad thing was that due to the weather I could not lay into the car and see how the engine did WOT or even 3/4 throttle. The times I goosed it she jumped though and I went manual mode and got her revving past 5k with no bad sounds or missing. Had a good conversation with the dealer and headed home with plan to have my CU arrange payment the beginning of the week. I needed my fusion transaction to close before I made full payment.
Fusion transaction does not clear until late Monday night, to late to start deal for the STS-v. Tues Morning I get a call from the CU, they cannot perform loans on non US titled vehicles. My head about exploded at work. Went into panic mode. Home equity from house? Nope, not ready yet, Dealer financing?, not option out of country. That left CC as only option to get the car. I negotiated a bit with the dealer, talking him down given all the fees I was getting hit with and he worked with me a bit. We put it on the CC and paid the fee just to get it stateside, then the CU will repay us back with a refinance on the car. Man what a GOAT ROPE!!
:ride:
That said the dealer has been awesome, seriously he worked and made everything easy, also no playing shell games or changing numbers on the paperwork they hand you to sign. Class act, and sticks to his word. Buying a car in Canada is a breeze compared to the US.
:canuck:I signed 2 pieces of paper! And the dealer was able to secure customs brokerage and handled all that for me and bundled it into the price of the vehicle!! Then he filled the tank with premium fuel before handing it off to the importer!
I got the call today from the importer that the car will be delivered Mon or Tues, right to my driveway! Only coming with one Key Fob (#1) and key, so soon as the payment went thru I ordered a#2 FOB off ebay, stumbled on one for $40. That landed today!
2006 STS-V, 53K miles, Spectre Intake, Magnaflow Exhaust.
EDIT: typo fixes