brad garland

This is a vanity private post. Thought about posting up pics publicly of my new car but Jenny convinced me otherwise.

I GOT A NEW CAR! I have been considering getting rid of my 03 Dodge Ram truck for a while now but since it hit the 100K mark I was ready for something new. I knew I wanted something more car like instead of a truck because the functionality of a truck was only getting used maybe two or three times a year really. So I went luxury vehicle and got a 2006 Infiniti M35 from Carmax.

Tangent: The Carmax experience was really pretty good. They gave me $5K for my truck (which was lower than I could’ve sold it for privately but considering the hail damage work I would’ve had to do AND the bad economy we are in, the stress would’ve outweighed the additional money I would’ve gotten. Their ‘no haggle’ concept is great and I went into one knowing what I wanted to look at and we didn’t beat around the bush. The car ended up costing $25,998 and was going to finance through Carmax (at 7.75%) but made a call to Employees Credit Union where I financed my truck and they gave me a %5.5 (gotta love the CUs) so I switched to them. This is a first for me but I also got the ‘gap insurance’ and extended warranty through the CU as well (it was cheaper too) so we’ll see if it is like Dad says, “Those are about as good as the paper they’re written on.” To be continued.

Had it a week now and I really love it. It feels good to ride and really nice interior. Has cool features like bluetooth speakersphone for my iPhone 3G and a 6 disc CD changer which I figured I wouldn’t really use but once I heard the difference between the FM wireless transmitter I have and a CD with that Bose system, I was sold. So the CD player plays MP3 CD and so I’m setting up some CD’s to just stay in the car that will pretty much cover my entire library of songs.

Now, Jenny and I are ready to take it out on the town together since it isn’t a family car (no carseats in it……..yet)

Here’s some pics I took a couple days after I got it.