Isuzu Ascender

For a while now K and I have know that we would have to buy a new vehicle. Our newest vehicle was 8 years old and had over 130,000 miles on it. With a baby on the way we have long figured that a new vehicle was in out not to distant future. We had tentatively planned on looking for a new car this fall, however this week I came across this article, which lead to our plans being bumped up.

Our New Ascender

Ever since my department bought some Chevy Trailblazers, I have really come to like them. One of the few products that Isuzu still was offering was a rebranded Trailblazer selling as an Isuzu Ascender. After reading that article we decided to see if we could get an Ascender a fire sale price.

Some quick research online showed that Isuzu was offering an $8,000 rebate. With this as a starting point decided to contact a dealer an see if we could negotiate a deal good enough to make pulling the trigger on buying a car now worthwhile.

We located a dealer up in Tempe that still had a brand new 2007 Ascender in stock. We figured with the double whamy of it both being a brand that was going out of business and it by 2007 model that the dealer would be most anxious any kind of deal just to be rid of it

Berkeley Inspects the New Car

Not wanting to make the three hour drive to Tempe without a reasonable prospect of making a deal, K began to negotiate with them over the phone. She eventually worked them down to $19,200, on vehicle that was listed at $30,400, and listed for $34,000 when badged as a Chevy Trailblazer. K also reached a tentative agreement of the value of the vehicle that we were going to trade in. With the framework for a deal this unbeatable worked up, we made plans to drive up to Tempe on Saturday morning.


We got up there, test drove the Ascender, loved and decided to make an offer on it. They agreed to the price that K had negotiated on the phone, however we hit snag when it came to value on the trade in. They were offering us $1,500 less than they had agreed to on the phone. Pissed that they were playing games like that with us, we stormed out in huff.

Within 10 minutes of leaving the dealership K's cellphone range, and the salesman was telling her that he talked to his boss's boss, or some such B.S. story, and that he could go a $1,000 higher on the trade in, despite telling us earlier that he could do no such thing. We decided despite the fact that we were still getting a little less than we expected on our trade in, it was still to good of deal to pass up. To make up for it we just bumped up our down payment slightly. That afternoon we drove back to Yuma in our new Ascender.

I am loving it. Even though K will be the one primarily driving it, it is the first time that have ever bought a new car. All my other car's, including the one that I drive everyday to work, are hand me downs from my family, or the car that K had when we got married. Also it is such a nice comfortable vehicle. One of the more exciting things is that makes vast stretches of the desert that were previously unaccessible to me, in either of our sedans, open for my exploration. I am really looking forward to that.

Our old car