Last March post and the winner is...

The Altima! But there's more to it.
By the way, this is the 6th post for March, so I kept my promise to post more than 5 times. Whee.

We decided we liked the Altima best, however, by Saturday we figured we would keep the Outback because we didn't get the deal we wanted locally.

On Sunday, Tim checked out some competing dealers (Albany, Utica, Binghamton) and noticed a couple of interesting specials on Serafini's (Binghamton) site.

On Monday morning Tim called them and decided it was worth a drive down that evening. Sam and I stayed home - since I'd test driven one and knew the specs, I was fine with letting Tim deal with all the blah blah. I knew he wouldn't be talked into anything out of his pre-determined math.

Initially they offered a better deal on the 2009 Altima than our local dealer's "best", however, it still wasn't what Tim wanted to pay...and regardless, the real reason for the trip was this one car in particular - a certified pre-owned program 2007 Altima with 8100 miles. Hybrid! We did the homework on the Altima hybrids, and they are top notch. No worries. Even the base model Hybrid brand new is out of our range, so with a healthy trade and a workable deal on the pre-owned, it would have been a major bonus to negotiate it...and after some haggling, they came in at slightly better than what Tim had hoped for!

We essentially have the same payment, but a nearly new car with a 5 year/100K/bumper to bumper warranty (under the certified program with the additional "wrap" warranty available on certified program cars) which was added in to close the deal. The hybrid engine (and battery) is also covered under a 10 year guarantee! We had no warranty left on the Outback whatsoever.

So this thing has some very fun features, nicely loaded, but I won't bore you with all that. You'll just have to ride with me. The basics are that it gets about 35mpg city, and has the capacity to go 700 miles on one tank. It's navy blue. And alloy wheels. Of course.

We pick it up tomorrow afternoon. Here's more info if you're bored or geeky about cars.