I am the new owner of a used Pontiac Vibe! (The only sort of vibe I’d buy used, let me add…I see little chance of this car not being dubbed "the Vibrator" for the foreseeable future.)

2006, 39K miles on it, got it for around a thousand under Blue Book value. They were offering it for right around Blue Book, and I attempted to haggle. Kevin claims I did respectably on that front, since I waved said values around, pointing that this car was probably Good rather than Excellent, particularly with all the dog hair in the cab, and furthermore pointed out that there were two similar Vibes in my area for less than that. 

"But those are high mileage! And this has a sunroof! And alloy wheels! And we’ll get rid of the dog hair!" he said. 

There was a brief silence while he gazed into the face of a woman who hadn’t the foggiest idea what alloy wheels were and didn’t much care. He bowed to either my ignorance or the dog hair and knocked off another seven hundred off his first offer, bringing it down to the same price as the ex-rentals I’d been eying locally, and down to the lower end of the price range I was willing to pay.

The fact that the parking lot was utterly empty and there were a half dozen salesmen standing around like bored vultures probably helped.  I also think I threw him off a bit by being prepared. "I’ll run you a free Carfax report–" "Already ran it last night." "…oh."

Final total went back up a bit when I got the extended warranty, but bugger if I’m doing without that. Financing was no problem, as I have better credit than God. In the end, I am pleased. It’s basically a Toyota Matrix cosplaying as an American car, it’s got a lot more hauling space than I’m used to, and the reviews are universally that it’s a reliable, economical, dead-dull car, which is exactly the sort of thing I want.

So now it’s home, and I have transferred the all important Car Totem (a painted fish my mother made) to the rear-view mirror, and must arrange to order a new "Ganesh is my Co-Pilot" bumper sticker so that I can find the damn thing in the parking lot. Later in the week, I’ll clean out the Nissan, and then decide whether to junk it, or fix it and donate it, or what.

ETA: Oh, hey, I had only done it on the standard model–with the sunroof and alloy wheels, I got it for $2100 under Blue Book. Now I’m actually kinda proud of myself.