Merry Christmas!
Another year and another chance to celebrate the birth of Christ. An amazing gift, that grace.
Here are the pictures we've accumulated over the last few days. As some of you know, we're in Oklahoma, right now. Specifically, Altus, Oklahoma. Our good friends Chad and Dana just moved here to start their next 3-4 years in the Air Force. Chad and I met in C-17 initial qualification training in Spring of 2001. We've been to each successive base together until I got out of the Air Force. We thought we'd be here to help them move in and such, but as industrious as they are, they finished the majority of the work before we got here.
We spent 24 hours traveling from door to door with both dogs and our stuff. How did we manage all that stuff? Well, we decided on an early Christmas present to ourselves (easier to justify that way, eh?) and bought ourselves a new truck. A 2008 Nissan Armada SE base model with the towing package (it can handle 9000 lbs).
We put both kennels in the back with the 3rd row folded down, the kids in the middle row with the new portable DVD players (which I ensured could be hooked up to display the movie from either one of the players, or be played independently). The interior is cavernous, which is just what we needed.
On buying the Armada: We set a price range of $25k - $35k, and were looking for larger SUVs with larger towing capacity and interior room. We were planning on buying used. Using Consumer Reports we had narrowed our search to the Toyota 4Runner and the Nissan Pathfinder. We went to look at the local Nissan dealership because they had a Pathfinder in stock for us to look at. While we were there, we noticed an Armada parked next to it and decided to take a look at it before the Pathfinder. That was the true moment of realization that we liked all the extra space. When we looked at the Pathfinder, it seemed to offer very little space over our XTerra. This '07 Armada was priced at $29k, which was shockingly within our price range. This was a pretty good deal since brand new Armadas start at over $40k. However, this had 21k miles on it. Being rather impressed with it's size, we headed over to Toyota and looked at the 4Runner and quickly realized it wasn't big enough for what we wanted either. So we looked at the Sequoia, which was suitably large, but didn't seem as large as the Armada inside. We went home, rather entwined about the Armada, but determined to make a rational and logical decision. Reliability is on the side of the Toyotas, but the Armada had much more power and towing capacity with the towing package. We found another Armada with 15k miles on it, but it was a couple hours away. We called that dealership and they immediately offered $27k. The local dealership met the price. We went home to think about it.
While I was doing more research to make sure that our leaning toward the Armada wasn't an emotionally based decision, I realized that neither of these Armadas had the towing package, which is exactly why we were looking at them! The next morning the local dealership calls and says they just got a new '08 Armada in the lot, it's a base model, and it has the towing package. Further, with incentives the way they were, they were offering to sell it at $35k! We went and looked at it that day and sure enough, it had about 10 miles on it. We both drove it around, kicked the tires, slammed the doors, opened all the interior compartments, folded the seats, listened to the stereo, listened to the roar of that fantastic V-8 (318hp and 384 ft-lbs of torque), and went home to take a step back and think about it. We were quite excited at this point so it seemed wise to take a breather. Really, we were both willing to take it home.
I told their finance folks to see what they could do. Our credit is pretty awesome at this point so I knew we had some leverage. I checked with our bank (USAA, a military customers only type of bank) to see what they could do, and they could give us 5.94%. We have virtually all of our finances, loans, and insurance with them; so it's clear we trust them. The dealership offered us 6.4%, so I told them they could get our business if they can get down to 5.5%. They got down to 5.54% with BB&T, so that worked for us. The list price of the vehicle was $44k, they offered $3500 dealer incentive, and then another $4500 factory incentive, so with everything totaled we walked out with $36k on the sticker, put $15k down, and parked the Armada in the driveway with 25 miles on it. We think it was a great buy so far.
Naturally the mileage sucks. We averaged about 14 mpg on the drive to OK, and that was with a couple big cargo bags on the top. You just can't buy this class and get anything other than the EPA promised 18 mpg. Since this is our road-trip-hauling-our-boat-family-pets-and-crap-vehicle we're not overly concerned about it. The Xterra is our about town vehicle while I have the Mazda on jacks in the carport for some engine bay work (the cold weather moved in way faster than we're used to so I couldn't finish it). We'll likely sell the XTerra within the next year or so since it has over 130k miles on it. We just might pick up some other used smaller more fuel efficient family vehicle, but we're not sure about that yet. We hardly drive where we are now, so we'll likely wait until we move to Ohio to make that decision.
Tomorrow we start the drive back. We're going to swing by Enid, Oklahoma, the home of Vance AFB where I did pilot training to look around a bit, then stop in St Louis to check out the arch. Then on to Dayton to take a look around at the area and the housing in preparation for next year's move (about a year from now already). Then on to PA once again.
On Oklahoma:
We've spent the last near week here in Altus (check google maps to see just how small this town is) while Chad and I reminisce about our training here at Altus AFB and while we manage the three children and three dogs running around. At night when the kids go to bed we play Rock Band (a rhythm based band video game on the Xbox) until it's time to go to sleep. Chad plays the guitar, Michel sings, Dana plays the other guitar, and I play the drums. It's a fun way to pass the time, listen to/play some good music, and enjoy each other's company.
Chrismas day went about how you expect. The kids got up rather early, ran to the gifts (Balen not so much, but he jumped on his new Tonka dump truck in a flash), ate a quick breakfast, and then waited mostly patiently while the adults got everything together and cooked some cinnamon rolls. We then started the rather intensive sorting process (you folks are going to spoil our kids!) and set about opening everything. While we do plan on sending thank you cards (we have a list and everything) I'd just like to say thank you all for all the wonderful gifts and cards you sent.
So on to the Christmas pictures. They are from both of our cameras, and since the filenames don't exactly jive, they are a little jumbled. There are some stellar pictures in there, so watch out.
Love you all!
posted by Jonathan @ 2:15 PM
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