New car

It's been a while since I've posted. I've been focusing mainly on my WoW blog, and there hasn't been much to update about recently anyway as far as geeky stuff goes.

That being said, I finally went out and got myself a new car. Well, not brand new, but it's new to me at least.

I had a post a while back about hybrid SUVs. I didn't end up getting one. Instead I went for a Subaru Outback Sport. It's smaller, still keeps my gas mileage low, and with all-wheel drive it also does well in snowy weather, which is why I wanted a 4wd SUV in the first place.

The trouble wasn't actually finding a car as I expected. I ran into a huge road block when I went to get a loan to pay for it. Being young I sort of expected to be turned down just applying on my own, but I also had a lot of trouble having my dad there to co-sign for me.

He has great credit, is a home owner, and has been using the same bank for over 30 years. Despite all that, because of the fact that he doesn't have many credit cards, they still didn't want to approve the loan.

We ended up having to threaten to change banks before they finally gave in and approved us, provided we gave them copies of our most recent paystubs to show we actually make what we say we do (which I would have expected to have to do anyway).

I understand the state of the economy, and it is probably a big reason why banks are hesitant to give out loans, even to people with good credit, but just the fact that they don't factor in all the details is what made it so frustrating.

The only information they use to check your eligibility is your credit score, income, and monthly expenses. There is nothing about your history with that bank or anything else that might help turn things in your favor. I was a little disappointed about that.

Either way, I eventually got the loan and made it just in time to buy the car I wanted before the guy sold it someone else who had offered to buy it the very next day.

I'm very happy with it. I paid a lot less than the car was worth with all the extra features it had, but the guy just wanted the base blue book value without those options since he got it at an auction and paid even less than I did.

I'm still getting used to it, but it's a huge step up from what I was driving before, and will last me a long time.