Nightmare of buying a new car

Our van is a 1997 and we thought we would like to replace it before our vacation. We have been searching the web for cars and decided this month to go out and test drive cars. We went over to Enterprise - they have a "No Haggle" policy and they don't work on commission. They left out - "we won't let you leave" policy on their list! All we wanted to do was test drive the car and leave - figuring since they don't haggle - should not be a problem - WRONG!

My wonderful husband HATES to car shop - due to the fact that you have to end up being mean or rude to the salesman to get away - two things he does not do. So it took me a week to get him to test drive again

Second test drive: We headed over to a local use car lot in South Park. Compared to Enterprise -it was a wonderful experience. They let us go out on the test drive on our own, offered more than what we had thought on our trade in and let us leave without even asking for a name or phone number!! I fell in love with the Pacifica. We decided to take it over to our mechanic - things went down hill from there - the report was bad - DO NOT BUY THIS CAR!!!!

Third test drive(s): One Saturday we headed over to the local Dodge dealer to test drive several cars. Nothing seemed to be right for us. I had to laugh when the salesman said - well we came in "close" to your monthly payment - NOT! So again we came back home and started the long search again.

Fourth test drive: AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This might have been the worse experience yet. The salesman had no clue about what he was selling and came no where close to were we wanted. Then when he came close and we still said no - he acted worse than my 7 year old. He stood up and stomped off - which was kind of funny considering the buyer usually is the one that gets up and walks out.

Car shopping can be torturous! And that is what our past month has been like. We have been at over 10 dealerships and test drove over 15 cars.

This past Saturday we decided to make one final stop at our local KIA dealer. Not really thinking we would find anything. We meet a salesman - that was very nice and told him we would be back on Monday with my dad to look over the car.

We returned last night and test drove three more cars. We decided to have him run the numbers on the "demo" car in the show room and three hours later it was sitting in my driveway!

We have really spent the past few months praying over this purchase. I started to pray a few months ago that God would provide a car for us and to make the decision clear and give us the peace about it. Each test drive - I would walk away knowing that this was not the car - at times I would get frustrated but then I would go back to God seeking Him. It is so amazing what you learn through pray. I have been reading - "Let Prayer Change Your Life" - and prayer has. God has become so real to me the past few months and seeing Him lead us through this decision has been awesome.