a nice (F)it

Today, I test drove a 2008 Honda Fit with only 38,000 miles on it. The interior looked spanking new, the A/C worked fine, it performed well on the highway, had good lines of sight and almost nothing in the way of blind spots, and was equipped with startlingly responsive brakes: merely tapping them was enough to slow one down significantly.

The Fit's also got automatic transmission, a tape(!) and CD player in the console (no MP3 port/jack, but that's OK), all manual door locks, plenty of hatchback space for groceries, and folding rear seats for carrying large items. In all, it looks like a pretty good deal, but the asking price is $13,800, not including the title, taxes, etc. My brother David has advised me to bargain hard for a firm "out-the-door" price, i.e., let the dealer figure out how to calculate the costs, then give me a set figure that includes everything, and allows me to do the easy work of dividing the total by 72, to reflect a 72-month debt structure.

So my hope is to go into negotiations tomorrow to get the following deal: $13,500 as the out-the-door price, with 72-month financing at 2.5%. According to the various online car finance calculators, that works out to a series of seventy-two $202 payments.

Does this mean I'm now committed to staying in the States? Not necessarily, but it does make returning to Korea a bit harder, and I'm not getting any younger. Were I to go back to Korea only after the car's been paid off, I'd be 48.


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