Car Shopping from the Comfort of Home

2020 has been a rough year for a lot of people, families, and businesses. While each and every one of us had to overcome some challenges life as it was in 2019 isn’t the same. One of the biggest challenges for myself at the beginning of the Pandemic was slowing down. While I enjoy going with the best of them, I think that one of the biggest advantages of society slowing down is that we bring back things that matter the most.

Advantages of 2020

Examples include more quality family time, not constantly being on the go, and allowing ourselves some downtime each and every day of the week. We are bringing back some important things, but also taking time to enjoy life instead of our lives running us. While there are some things I miss like not shopping with a mask on at my local grocery store, spending time with friends, and traveling to name a few.

There are some perks to our new way of life, an example I LOVE ordering my groceries online, and picking them up without having to get out of my car. I love that we are slowing down and enjoying the moments and making more memories. But one of the things that I’ve enjoyed the most is the ability to do more and more shopping online. Which also includes shopping for a new to us used vehicle.

While we are in the beginning stages right now, we have been doing our research and deciding on what is best for us as we finish out 2020. Car shopping can really be a time, energy, and money waster if you aren’t careful. It requires time in the dealerships, lots of math, the right credit score, and a whole host of other things I’m sure I’m missing.

Car Shopping from the Comfort of Home

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen is the ability to really check out vehicles online. You can virtually shop from the comfort of your home and get an idea of just what you want without stepping foot into the dealership.

One of the dealerships that I’ve been checking out is The Main Street of Lansing. All you have to do is click the Get Started button on their website and you will be amazed.

Once I hit, get started I was brought to the New Car Selection which is a great feature because it weeds out the other options. There were 92 vehicles in stock under the new car selection with just the click of the mouse. I, however, sorted Pre-Owned (as that is usually how we purchase our vehicles.) Maybe one day we will purchase new, but for now, we are sticking with the Pre-Owned vehicles.

There were 92 cars in just that one switch. Next, up to decide what our budget is, agreed to go to $5,550 to $11,500. Which narrowed our choices to 8 but included trailers, which wasn’t what we were shopping for. So, I upped our top price to $21,500, which resulted in 35 used car choices which is a great way to start shopping.

Next, we talked about what we wanted our new vehicle to have. It must have 4 doors, and we know we wanted an SUV Style. So, that quickly got us to 19 SUV’s to choose from. Which is what we wanted.

Then, we decided to take it a little further and clicked that we wanted Dual Climate Control. One of us is always hot, and the other cold, so this was the perfect solution for us. That narrowed it down to 7 options, which is totally do able.

Then, we added that it must have rear AC because here in Missouri it gets HOTT in the summertime. So that narrowed our search down to two vehicles.

Now that we have it narrowed down to two, we feel like we should be able to make a decision based on what we have learned so far. We haven’t went into the dealership, we have done the pros and cons of both vehicles, and both have features that we love.

I personally am leaning towards the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder SL because it has leather seats, a hands-free liftgate, leather/memory seats, Bluetooth and all-wheel drive. Which are all great qualities to have in a vehicle.

Brady on the other hand is leaning toward the 2018 Dodge Journey GT because he loves the Push Button Start our daughter has in her car. As well as being a Dodge fan as well as having Bluetooth, all-wheel drive, and leather seats.

Next step? For us, we will head into the dealership to look at and test drive the vehicles before we commit to buying online. But they have a feature that allows you to save vehicles in your Garage and compare those vehicles online which I LOVED. So for now we will keep discussing our options, and when the COVID-19 Pandemic is over, we will head into the dealership for a new to us vehicle. In the meantime, we will continue to do our research and fill our garage with what will soon be the perfect vehicle.