Bullfish
03-11-2007, 08:22 AM
To make a very long story short, I had bought a 2004 Mercury Sable, new, in October 2004 and got royally screwed. I had a lot of negative equity and my payments were $423 a month, not counting insurance. I had to get out, which meant taking a huge financing hit as I have no money for a down payment (because my current car took all my money) so I went to CarMax to see what they could do for me.
I settled on a 2003 Alero GL Coupe, in Gold with tan cloth interior, with the LA1 engine and 62k miles. It had the best combination of features, lowest miles and styling and so far it's been far more satisfying to drive (it feels firmly planted on the road and doesn't exhibit huge amounts of body roll) than the Sable, and even though I lost 30hp I don't feel it, and the exhaust note is way more aggressive, it growls.
I have a few issues, it was a smoker's car so it really needs to air out for a few months, and all the glass needs to be cleaned really well. The passenger side window won't roll up fully so it whistles on the freeway, and the parking brake won't hold the car on a hill, but I have a 30 day bumper-to-bumper warranty so I'll be going right back to CarMax today to have them fix that.
I was wondering how to tell what options I have, I know GM usually puts a sticker on their cars listing option codes or something similar, but I don't know how to read it, I believe it's right under the vehicle information tag on the driver's side door. One of the options listed on the Edmunds Website is "Sport Suspension" and while the ride is much firmer than the Sable I don't know if that's just with the standard suspension, it probably is, the Sable was a whale.
Anyway that's all I've got, I don't even have pics yet because it was dark by the time I signed all the papers and got home...so yeah, that's about all I've got.
I settled on a 2003 Alero GL Coupe, in Gold with tan cloth interior, with the LA1 engine and 62k miles. It had the best combination of features, lowest miles and styling and so far it's been far more satisfying to drive (it feels firmly planted on the road and doesn't exhibit huge amounts of body roll) than the Sable, and even though I lost 30hp I don't feel it, and the exhaust note is way more aggressive, it growls.
I have a few issues, it was a smoker's car so it really needs to air out for a few months, and all the glass needs to be cleaned really well. The passenger side window won't roll up fully so it whistles on the freeway, and the parking brake won't hold the car on a hill, but I have a 30 day bumper-to-bumper warranty so I'll be going right back to CarMax today to have them fix that.
I was wondering how to tell what options I have, I know GM usually puts a sticker on their cars listing option codes or something similar, but I don't know how to read it, I believe it's right under the vehicle information tag on the driver's side door. One of the options listed on the Edmunds Website is "Sport Suspension" and while the ride is much firmer than the Sable I don't know if that's just with the standard suspension, it probably is, the Sable was a whale.
Anyway that's all I've got, I don't even have pics yet because it was dark by the time I signed all the papers and got home...so yeah, that's about all I've got.