In March this year, I wrote about the Ioniq 5 by Hyundai: Blog link
I've still kept reading about them, taking pix of them in the wild, looking at how I can afford one or get one. I figured I'd wait until next year. As of now, I'm about 5-6 payments away from paying off the Alltrack, doubling down after paying off Haley and Riley's cars in the past few months. After that, I have approximately $700 freed up to save, put towards more debt, whatever.
I visited a website for a small local used car lot in DT Bellevue. They always have nice cars and earlier this year, I struck up a text convo with a guy there about an Ioniq 6, which I also liked. It was an EV, cheaper than the I5, and quite fetching. But, I already have a sedan and I really wanted to get something a little bigger than the AT. Anyway, I wasn't ready then, so I told him no thanks, and on I went with my life.
Later this summer, I reached out to Knight, who always has car dealership hookups. I talked to his friend at Doug's Hyundai and had him work out some numbers. It was for a lease for a 2025 SEL or SE version of the I5. The Limited was off the table as it started around $59k or so. As it was, the SE and SEL were still pretty expensive. But there was the $7500 EV tax credit to take into account, through Sept, at least. Even with that, I wasn't ready then. Besides, a new car is a nice to have, and I love my GLI and it has treated me well.
With Riley's car being bratty in CO, he and I have discussed giving him the Jetta. I'm down with that, he just needs to get the Fiat here and take the Jetta there. I figured I could then take the Fiat for a trade in for $1000 or whatever to put towards a car next year.
Anyway, last week, the guy from the dealership in Bellevue cold emailed me with a, "you up?" type email, seeing how I was, if I was still looking. I told him I wasn't, but after checking his site, came upon an I5 that I wanted to check out. I sent the email on Saturday morning and heard crickets.
It was Gravity Gold Matte in color, had the cool ass black wheels, and was a Limited model from 2023. Basically their top-of-the-line at the time, with all the features, plus the premium $1000 paint option. The pictures looked great but I didn't hear back from him. So yesterday afternoon, I emailed his shop again and got an immediate response. The car was available and I could check it out. I figured, why not, so I stopped by on my way home.
I walked in the shop, said hi to Patric, he scanned my driver's license, tossed me the keys, and let me go. I inspected the outside of this car and it appeared immaculate. It was getting dark, so I had my flashlight, but even with that, I could not find any flaws in the paint or body.
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| so pretty |
I jumped in the car and it was so cool. Interior was in great shape from the driver's seat. Black leather, looking fresh. I messed with some of the settings and then started it up and got going. Surprise to me was a head's up display on the dash showing my speed. Other surprises were the left/right blind spot cameras in the dash as I signaled. The LED strip on the front bumper was there, as seen above. Also seen above, no drilled front bumper! Have always wanted no front plate, now I get to roll without one.
Too many cool things to list, I drove down 112th towards Bellevue Way, then to Coal Creek, got back on the freeway where I stepped on the e-gas. So quick and planted on the road, Incredible! I got off and dropped the car back off. Had Patric run some numbers to finance this bad boy just to see. He had it listed at $31450, and I was just stoked because full-price on this just 2 years ago was close to $60k. 50% off? I had to take a flyer on it. Premium paint, top trim, local, low miles (11k!!), pristine condition? Pretty much a no brainer, but man, I had to think about it.
I went home with the numbers and applied and got pre-approved for a loan with BECU. I slept on it, not knowing what my APR would be on that loan. For the Alltrack, back in 2018, pre-covid, we got a 2.94% APR. That will never happen again, so I called BECU this morning to confirm what I got. The guy said I qualified for 5.99%, which these days, I guess is decent. Knight said it wasn't bad. Monthly payments would be about $550-ish for a 72 month loan.
I called Patric to see what rates he could get me and he said he'd check. I then asked if I could come check the car at lunch as I forgot to look in the back seat, the trunk, under the hood, etc. I wanted to see it during the day and make sure it all passed the eye test.
When I got there, I noticed a couple small things: front passenger tire missing a schrader valve cover; a couple grommets missing from the ceiling in the back; a scuff on the passenger-side mirror. Not enough to deter me, but I felt better knowing it was not perfect and it wasn't me putting the first scratch on it.
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| Just look at it! |
I went to talk to Patric and had him work up numbers with the fresh new APR I got of 5.49%. For 72 months, no down payment, TTL rolled into it, monthly was higher than I wanted, but still manageable at $588 or so. I signed a bunch of paperwork and told him to get it ready for me to pick up tonight.
I went back to work, did a bunch of planning for a last-minute trip to San Francisco to support Ignite (more on that next post), supported a Judson event at EC1, then raced over to pick up the car. I left the GLI there and took the I5 home. I barely squeezed it in the garage, had dinner, then took Marci to pick up the Jetta. We took that over to Mom's house, after clearing some space in the garage, hit up Safeway, then brought it home.
I tucked it back in the garage and tried opening the tailgate with the garage door open... and promptly hit the gate on the door at its apex. I think the gate is OK; it was wet and covered in drops so I couldn't see. I hope there's nothing bad there. I can adjust the opening height, so I'll have to do that tomorrow. I spent some time in the car setting stuff up as well. I don't think I can do wireless Android Auto with my stupid little dongle, so I'll have to go back to a USB-C cable until I can figure that out. Otherwise, the phone connects fine with the car, the GPS is great, the car is fast.
I heard some creaking in the back going over bumps. I left the car in "on" position after walking away, not realizing why the car was beeping at me. There are so many things to set up and learn about this car and I'm super excited to do so, but I won't fully be able to dive in because of that trip I mentioned above. I'll have tomorrow to mess around, then on Friday, I'm off to SF until Tuesday.
For now, I'm super stoked and I need to find a frickin' charger as Patric said it was $175 extra, even though new, the car comes with one. I have to check the trunk before I ask for one, so I'll update when I know more about that.
In the meantime, I haven't had a new car for ME for a minute. Maybe since my 2001 GTI. Even though this car isn't new, it will be my primary car, instead of it being Marci's. Now we can set our sights on an ID.4 for her in the next couple years. Let's see how it goes!
