“I’m bored. You wanna go buy a car today?”

“Okay.”

Okay, so it didn’t happen exactly like that, but it was pretty close.

The Ford Flex has been on my radar ever since I sold my Scion XB a few years ago. After I got the Subaru WRX STi, owning a Flex went on the back burner. When I sold the Subaru a couple of months ago, I put the money in the bank and it’s been sitting there ever since, waiting for the right car to pop up.

The Flex comes in a variety of colors and trim levels, and the combination I wanted (black on black w/black interior and the Limited trim level) doesn’t come up for sale too often, and the ones that have end up being out of my price range. This past week, two nearly identical Ford Flexes came up for sale. Both were the color I wanted and had all the features I was looking for. One was a new 2017 model, priced at $43,000. The other was a used 2017 model, priced at $27,000.

After weighing the pros and cons, I ended up purchasing the used one. While I love a brand new car as much as the next guy, I couldn’t pass up saving $16,000. In fact, we were able to use the money from selling the Subaru and paid cash for the Flex. While buying a new car makes me feel great, so does going into 2018 having four cars and no car payment.

I’ve got an appointment next week for darker tint and I’ll probably end up replacing the rims, but other than that I’m not planning on doing much to it. I had originally planned on upgrading the sound system, but the Limited model has a twelve speaker system and a built-in touchscreen system that already sounds great.

My Flex has more buttons than I know what to do with. I look forward to driving around town and figuring them all out!