New (to us) Car

This is quite the story, so buckle up. Katie and I have been considering selling her 97 Audi A4 for a few months now due to the high mileage (134,000) and the expensive repair costs, which were getting extravagant. Lately, the car was making noises so we brought it into the shop that Katie has always gone to and trusts completely (Family Auto, you Bountifulians should consider this place, amazing!). The bearings were shot in one wheel ($500), the water pump was making noise and leaking ($700), the timing belt was old and needed a new one ($100), etc., etc. The car is maybe worth $3,000 (more like $2k if you ask katie) so this got us thinking that maybe we should look for a new used car within the week and not fix the car, but trade it in...

After much consideration, we decided that we wanted a car that was newer with lower miles on it for about $10-12k. We also wanted 4 door with front or all wheel drive. We decided to hit Larry H. Miller Honda on 46th south and state before we called it a night. We let the dealer know our terms and we headed out. The first car he showed us was a 05 Mercedes Benz in excellent condition, never in an accident, with only one previous owner and with 55,000 miles. We were in shock. There is no way this was in our price range. We looked at a few other cars, but we by far loved the MB most.

Back inside the dealer drew up an estimate price which was way higher then we were expecting and we had to go back and forth for hours. The price seemed reasonable and was outside the cost we were hoping to pay, but inside our budget. We talked them down a few thousands, had them raise the trade in value for the car, and add a 4 year/100,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty (which for a foreign car we thought was essential). So we got the car for about $16k and are glad we got a smoking deal!

So here is the car (05 Mercedes Benz C230 Kompressor Sport):