Uncategorized 02 Sep 2007 09:34 am
New Car - Nissan Altima 2007
So last month I got a new car. It all started with an advertisement I saw on TV for the Nissan Altima 2008 Coupe. The ad featured their Navigation system and bluetooth phone capability. I’d never seen such use of technology in a car, and was very intrigued. I went to a dealer soon after and checked one out, but decided that I wanted to stick with a four door — and the 2008 Nissan Altimas weren’t out yet. I drove a 2007 Nissan Altima Sedan, and was quite impressed, even with the 2.5L engine model. I did a ton of followup research on how to negotiate with a dealer, checked out the invoice price for the car at CarsDirect and decide on what feature set I’d like. I was immediately disappointed when I applied for credit online through Nissan USA and was rejected.
As July was coming to a close, I still really wanted the car, and went to a nearby dealer whose inventory showed two cars configured to my liking. Upon running my credit there, I was accepted without problem, and we eventually chalked up the error to the online credit check not asking for my previous address (I’d just moved a little over a month prior). Unfortunately they’d already sold the two Nissan Altimas with the Technology package — pretty much THE reason I was getting the car. The dealer was able to track one down for me, and I drove away with a new car the following week, after returning from a business trip to Vegas.
The only pitfall I’ve experienced thus far is that the navigation system does not allow certain operations while the car is in motion — It does however allow many operations to be performed using voice command — I’ve just not yet taken the time to program voice tags for my most common destinations and callers.
Overall I’m quite pleased with my decision to lease the car for two years. I don’t make many long commitments in my life, and I’ve blown through about 6 cars in my 8 years of driving, so choosing the shortest lease time possible seemed the most responsible thing to do for this — my first new car ever!
I’m also selling my old 2003 Dodge Intrepid, with after market audio.
on 11 Oct 2007 at 3:02 pm 1.Aunt Shirley said …
I was also car shopping and looked at the Nissan Altima and decided not to trade up. Waiting for next year.
Happy driving - also enjoying this site I came across.