Truck shopping

[Crappie Reaper]

I've been shopping online, offline, inline, and going out of my mind looking at new and used extended cab chevys. The Tundra that I rented was not for me. I guess my rear is just too used to a GM seat.

Anyway, after countless searching, talking to sales managers, car lots, craigslist, I was coming to the conclusion that I was going to have to spend more if I wanted the options I normally get. Nothing real fancy, but here is a list of what I had on the wish list of options.

Bar none, it had to be an Extended Cab, Regular Cab= no room for kids or dry storage, Crew Cab=too short of cargo space. Extended Cab is only choice. Now for the niceites...

Power Windows
Power Mirrors
Power Locks
Keyless Entry
Leather seats (after market acceptable)
Tow Package w Receiver Hitch
Carpet
4.8 or 5.3 V-8



Like Steve Martin in the movie, "The Jerk"....."That's all I need". These options were available in a truck for less than 25k in '07 if you did your homework shopping new trucks.

I was begining to feel like the only way I was going to get these simple options was to bite the bullet for about 26k. I could get most for a little under 25k, but, not all of them.

Ready to give into less options, I stopped in at a dealer to discuss a truck at their sister lot across town that I saw online. The Sales manager there hooked me up with a used car salesman that took me out to look at a brand new, '09 Ext. Cab Sliverado, LT1, which by rights should have been an LT2. It had a whopping 2 miles on it.

Here's what it had,

Had the Power Windows, Mirrors, Locks, Keyless entry, Pwr Drivers seat, 6 disc CD w XM Sattelite wMP3 connection. Power FOLD IN MIRRORS! That's right, I can fold my mirrors in from hitting a button.
Factory Leather, Cruise, Stereo controls on the steering wheel, cruise and blue tooth on the steering wheel, two center console storage w/ seating too. Storage above the glove box. Back doors with power windows. Back doors that open dang near flat against the bed of the truck.
Carpet. Back fold down seat is 60/40 split. They added the receiver hitch and bed liner for $547 and then discounted the accessories $500 just by proving my business. So the hitch and liner totaled $47. One year of OnStar subscription, and probably some crap I haven't discovered yet.

The sticker was $31,555.00. Take off the 4k rebate. Then the other $$$ the sales manager discounted, brought it to just over 25k. Then, toss in that GAP insurance I had on my last bank note for the wrecked truck, and the fact that they are allowing a 1k discount to refinance ANY vehilce through them again, and now I have the truck gross amount down to about $24, 299! I couldn't find a used vehicle close to the same thing for around that price. I am completely satisfied and can now get back to work and fishing. I think I came out with one heck of a deal. The back pain is still up in the air and hopefully will be shortlived. The pain of buying a replacement truck was not as bad as expected.

Oh, one last item that came with it.....Remote Start! I can start the thing with my key FOBs. If it's 20 degrees outside, it knows to turn the heater and defroster on. If it's 80 outside, it will turn on the AC. It's automatic. What a sweet truck!

WHEW, what a week!