Suddenly SSR, sticky

So despite Ali’s urging for me to not veer from my Camaro convertible vision I did more snooping around looking at alternatives.  In addition to looking on Auto Trader I was doing some local searches on Craigslist.  As I was looking at the many hits that came up with the “convertible” search term I clicked on a link for a 2005 Chevy SSR.

Hmmm, I totally forgot about these retro monsters.  I remember this epic commercial that I think aired during a Superbowl. I recall thinking, damn that thing (a yellow SSR) is CRAZY. This commercial is even funnier.

The SSR on Craigslist was more money than the 4th gen cars I was looking at but still tons less than a drop top 2012 Camaro.  Well this got the gears turning in my head.

I went on a SSR fact finding mission.  I always liked the retro style although I have only ever seen a handful of SSR’s on the road, most likely because they were a VERY expensive vehicle by 2004/2005 standards.  In total there were only roughly 27,000 of them ever made.

I knew they had a beefy motor but I didn’t know it was a Corvette motor, producing right around 400 HP, within sniffing range of a new Camaro SS.  The CL SSR was an automatic which I had no interest in.  I was excited to discover starting in 2005 they made a manual transmission available.  Oh did I mention the SSR is a convertible with a retractable HARD TOP, yes that is incredibly awesome.  It does even retain some moderate truck functionality with a real covered truck bed in the rear.

When I was a young kid I clearly recall an old Chevy pick up truck my dad had permanently parked in front of the garage.  I believe it was a model from the 50’s.  I spent many an hour sitting behind the wheel of that truck make believing I was driving.  The front end of the SSR is very similar to what I remember of our old Chevy.

The styling of the SSR is guaranteed to elicit an opinion from you either positive or negative.  There is no way you can not take notice.  I happen to like it, a lot.

So my search now focused on SSR’s, I headed to Autotrader and punched in my parameters.  Surprisingly quite a few stick shift models popped up, albeit spread throughout the country.

I did an inquiry on a low mileage (38,000) SSR in Minnesota, chatting to one of the sales reps.  The price of their car was quite reasonable.  He said that it has been on the lot 30 days so either they sell it or it goes to auction at the end of the month.  I was actually trying to draw up scenarios that involved a one way ticket to Minnesota followed by my driving the car back to Florida.  It wasn’t a very reasonable scenario though when I add in the additional expense of doing so along with the time frame work-wise since we are entering our busiest season where I MUST be available.

I looked at numerous SSR’s but came across one on the east coast of the state that seemed more doable.  The price was higher but it had even less miles, only 28k.  It was sitting at a new Jaguar dealer lot.  I looked at the free Carfax report that was included and saw no red flags.  I checked the online guides for used car pricing and surprisingly found the posted online price was around 3K LESS than the going dealer rate.

I sent an electronic inquiry via Auto Trader last evening and was surprised to get a phone call from the dealerships “internet sales manager” around 10 minutes later.  He confirmed the SSR was still available and asked when I wanted to come and see it.  I explained my geography to him and said possibly this weekend but I would get back to him.

I was now getting pretty excited by the prospective SSR purchase.  I anxiously awaited Ali’s return from track practice to run it by her.  When she got home I told her what I was thinking.  I was surprised when she was actually familiar with the SSR, evidently her brother’s neighbor/friend has one that she has seen during her PA visits.  She actually said it was “cool” which surprised me.

Ali did mention one negative, she said that she remembers that the SSR was very loud, she could hear it coming from far away.  I said “perfect”, to which she rolled her eyes.

I showed Ali pictures of the car and she said it looked good, she is more a fan of the silver color than the Hugger Orange I targeted for the Camaro. She isn’t thrilled about it being stick but I told her all along that is what I wanted.  She can drive stick but she only has done so with the shifter attached to a weak 4 cylinder motor.  I don’t know if I would recommend her trying her hand with 400 HP attached to the clutch pedal.

Then we talked about the financial aspect of this which sounds absolutely peachy compared to the hoops we would have had to jump through with a new Camaro.  Not only can we put down much less money, we also will pay significantly less monthly than the Camry payment used to be. The icing on the cake is the incredibly low 2.49% interest rate I can get through the credit union on a used vehicle right now.  I could slide into this vehicle with very minimal financial pain which would make me feel much better.

All of the numbers I was running with were not even considering whatever further discount I may be able to wrangle out of the dealership.  Knowing the vehicle has been on the lot for awhile gives me some leverage.  My search on Autotrader also confirmed that there are other SSR’s in the sea if the dealer proves to be troublesome.

Ali reiterated how she was cool with it IF I didn’t view it as settling for less than I really wanted.  I told her there is no danger of that.

So once the blessing had been granted I sprung into action.  I applied online for the loan via the credit union and called up the insurance company to make sure my rate would not be whacked out disproportionately.  I then replied back to the sales manager that I would be making plans to come see the car.

I got the go ahead to take tomorrow off of work if need be since we are in the calm before the storm that hits next Tuesday.  If I can get all my ducks lined up I will be heading over to the east coast tomorrow.

At our last running club meeting I got the go ahead to order some window stickers for us to give out/sell.  People like to put stickers on their rear windows.  I already had a sticker from the local and national triathlete group we are members of on the back of the Tacoma.

The new running club stickers showed up yesterday.  I didn’t waste anytime adorning both the Tacoma and Camry with one.