2023 CR-V Sport Hybrid, Romulus lender yard to Ann Arbor, i took the Buy Now price

2023 Honda CR-V Sport Hybrid, Platinum White, 16,800 miles. the car had been parked at a lender yard in Romulus, 48 miles from my kitchen. i bought it without driving over to look at it even though i could have been standing next to it in an hour. my father in law has not let that go and we are three weeks in.

the why is boring. my wife's Civic is at 141,000, we have two kids in travel soccer, and the city mileage is the entire reason, because almost none of our driving is highway. i wanted a Sport Hybrid, the cheapest trim that gets the two motor hybrid setup, and i wanted the white one, because a black car in a Michigan parking lot in july is a punishment.

there were four of these in Michigan under 20,000 miles in july. this was one of them, listed through m&a auto sales with a Buy Now price of 29,250 on it sitting right next to the sealed bid box. i took the Buy Now.

i know what the RAV4 thread in this board says about that and he is right, i probably left money somewhere. what i bought instead was certainty. if i write a sealed number and lose, there is no second one of these in november, there is whatever a bank happens to repossess between now and then. so i paid the ask and i have not thought about it much since.

the rest of it. no buyer's premium, the 29,250 was the whole number. delivery was free, because 48 miles is inside the first 1,000 free miles, which is a funny way to learn that rule. i asked whether i could just drive over and collect it and the answer was no, the lender releases to their transport and that part is not negotiable. it came on a flatbed on day 9 with 16,811 miles, eleven more than the listing.

paper: a Michigan title out of the lender's own title office with the lien released on it, their bill of sale, and the Secretary of State took 6 percent use tax on 29,250, which is 1,755, plus 15 for the title and 198 for the plate. in and out in 40 minutes because i went at 8 in the morning on a wednesday.

what is wrong with it: the plastic sill in the cargo area is scratched to death in a pattern that is obviously a dog crate sliding back and forth. it is not in the 38 photos because nobody photographs a sill. it is cosmetic, nobody claimed the car was perfect, and i am not filing a 30 day claim over a scuff. i mention it because the honest version of one of these threads includes the thing that annoyed you.

three tanks, hand calculated, trip meter reset at the pump every time. 37.1 around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, 33.4 on I-94 to Chicago at 75 with four of us and the back full. so the city number is the real number and the highway number is the one that gives.

oil changed on the 30th, 68 dollars at the place on Washtenaw. the old oil was dark, not sludgy, and the level was where it should be, so somebody had done it, and priya was right that it was worth knowing rather than guessing.

and to answer Boulder, because i went and found my notes. the two Honda stores here wanted 32,495 and 31,900 for a 23 Sport Hybrid with 20 to 25 thousand miles in july, both plus a doc fee, one of them plus an appearance package nobody asked for. a private one in Grand Rapids was 30,500 with 29k. so 29,250, nothing added at the end, no doc fee, clean title, was the cheapest of the five cars i looked at, and the honest part is that a sealed bid at 27,800 might very well have taken this lot. i will never know. that is the deal you make with the m&a auction when you click Buy Now instead of the bid button, and i made it on purpose with my eyes open.

1,900 miles on it. drove up to Sleeping Bear with the kids the weekend before last, 33 mpg on US 31 with two bikes on the back, and the car is quiet enough that i could hear both of them arguing the entire way, which i am calling a design flaw.

two loose ends. the title showed up from the lender's processor on day 19 after the wire, slower than i had pictured and the exact number M and A gave me on the phone when i asked, so the expectation was mine and not their promise. and i stopped being annoyed about the cargo sill: 34 dollars for a stick on aluminum sill protector from the parts counter, cut to length with a hacksaw, and now it looks like something i chose.