2014 Chevrolet Camaro - Pull The Trigger. Or Not.



Over the past two weeks or so my aging Monte Carlo's directional signals stopped working again and the passenger side window stopped going back up by the driver's side switch. That along with non working air conditioning and defogger, a check engine that won't go off (I think it's a bad O2 sensor) brakes front and back that both needing replacing, a leaky power steering pump and what I believe to be a leaky water pump and I'm looking at repair estimates in excess of $4000 if not closer to $5000 after taxes and the bull shit shop fees nonsense allowed up here in the state of Ohio. With 143,000 miles on it my car is worth only what it's worth to me; it's otherwise worthless despite it being a "Dale Earnhardt".

 

Last weekend, on a whim, I dragged my wife down to a used car lot attached to a Chrysler Jeep dealership just south of where we live to look at a 2014 Chevrolet Camaro RS with just under 9,000 miles on it. Internet price $18,900. Sweet. Much to my surprise my wife fell in love with the not so little black beauty saying emphatically, "I want that"! To make things even better, or worse depending on how you look at it, it had a six speed manual transmission; a liability for most people but another reason for us to fall in love with it. My wife in particular.

The test drive was pleasant. It still smelled new inside and the exterior was flawless. Although the car didn't have leather seats and there was no sun roof, it had literally every modern feature that any one could ask for. It had a backup camera and I'll be darned, it even had blue tooth. Blue. Tooth! Still, I found the car to be a lacking a certain specialness that I want my "new car" purchases but I'm that way with about every newer car on the market today.

These are not pictures of the car we test drove.

Our only serious noodle about the car was the six speed itself - as "notchy" as it is, reverse is obscenely difficult to shift into; my wife and I both lurched the car forward when attempting to back up. Clutch travel is absurdly long too. All stuff to get used to although I can't imagine our 19 and 20 year old sons who've never driven a manual getting used to it.

After the test drive my wife and I expressed interest in the car and we agreed that if "the numbers" made sense on it we'd seriously think about buying it.

Doing as much off line "Charley Math" as possible, I deduced that trading in my Monte Carlo and one of our 1996 Camaros for maybe $3000 combined could get us a monthly payment for sixty months under $350 a month. Not bad. Not bad especially considering what I know some people are paying each month for a car.

Our very charming sales person sat us down at his desk and he got to work going back and forth to his sales manager and pulling up comps on his computer. I knew what a great deal the car was at that price and with the mileage it had on it but it didn't have leather or a sunroof and it had a manual transmission. We braced for impact nonetheless.



First off, they wouldn't even consider a trade for cars as old as what we had to offer and the internet price of $18,900 was the lowest they'd go on it. The bottom line was out the door for $406 a month for sixty months and we had the balance of the GM factory warranty. In service date of July 4, 2014. Wow. A car with a warranty. What's that like?

My wife was all about it; I on the other hand hemmed and hawed and refused to pull the trigger. Perhaps it was my ambivalence towards the car in general, my fondness still for my Monte Carlo, my innate frugality or my inability to allow myself to have any fun but I wanted out of that dealership faster than I wanted to test the car in the first place. In those situations I feel like a girl who flirts and dates but plays hard to get with no intention of playing for keeps in the first place. If you think I'm exhausting to live with you're right. My wife is a saint.

What sealed the deal for us not to pull the trigger on the Camaro was reviewing the deal with our 20 year old finance major son. He's as much a car wonk as any young man his age is these days and was over the moon ecstatic at the prospect of us getting a car like a late model Camaro let alone seriously shopping for one. He became slack jawed when we told him of the financial commitment of $406 a month for sixty months. That's a lot of money and it's not a lot of money for a vehicle the age of that Camaro and in the condition that it is in; to a college student with a minimum wage job, though, that's all the money in the world.

 

We passed on the Camaro and I will attempt to keep the Monte running as long as I can as cost effectively as possible. If and when something "fatal" happens to it that changes our dynamic from a "want" to a "need", we'll make the jump and get something like that Camaro. In the meantime, well continue to bank that $406 a month.

The dealership never called me to followup on our buying that Camaro. I can't find the car on cars.com any more so that probably means it's been sold. Just as well. That's our now 20 year old son the day I brought "The Dale" home back in 2010.