Buying a car/In-law issues

I was planning on buying a new car later this year--this Summer or Fall. I was already planning on giving my 1999 Altima (152,000 miles on it and still running great) to my MIL equivalent, who needs a reliable car and who has spent all her retirement money already trying to help Anne's brother out of his self-made money problems. When I was ready to buy new, that is. Anyway, since I wasn't going to have a trade-in I wanted to save up a $5,000 down payment so I could get my new Altima on a 3-4 year loan. But it looks like I am going to be buying it this week, even though I only have a little less that $3,000 saved at this point . It seems that brother-in-law has been driving his son's, nephew 1's, pick-up. But nephew 1 is moving out of state and needs truck back. So BIL bought a used car for $2,000 knowing it didn't run well but still thinking it was a good deal--it was actually towed to his house--is that not STUPID?! So of course now it won't run at all and he doesn't have the money to fix it or the credit to get anything else and Anne is upset because her mother is upset and worried because BIL is crying and doesn't have any way to get back and forth to work--hello? Carpool? Oh no, he has to have his own car because he has to be able to drive clients to view property on occasions (he sells mobile homes on commission). And he can't just drive the MIL's car because she also works most of year (this woman is almost 80 years old and uses her salary to buy groceries and pay utilities for BIL and nephew 2, who is still at home). And someone has to be able to pick up nephew 2 after school. Hello? Carpool? BIL deserves all his problems but Anne's mom is sucked deep into this morass and Anne worries so much about her mom already and I love Anne and so....I am buying a new car this week. On a 5-year loan. At least there are some great dealer incentives going on this month for Nissan's 50th anniversery.

good luck with buying the car... I did have some luck shopping around the dealers from edmunds.com. There's an option for dealers to contact you. I did all my shopping by email (I had a specific car I wanted with specific option.) I pitted the dealerships against each other all by email to get the price I wanted to pay. I even arranged financing before I went. It was the easiest car buying experience I have ever had. Took me 10 mins. at the dealership to sign the papers and I was on my way. I did find out that the e-commerce sales work for little or no commission, so they are willing to negotiate a LOT more with you. I would suggest this if you have time. I bought a Nissan as well, but my model has NO incentives, so I am sure you could get a much better deal. Sorry to hear about all the other family issue going on there. That really sucks!

Great minds think alike--I am doing the same thing. there are 4 area dealers and I am taking bids from them right now. The two of them that just wanted me to "come in and see what we've got and discuss terms" got E-mails back saying this is my best offer so far, can you beat it? If not, why would I want to stop by? The whole point of the first E-mail was to avoid having to troup around to each individual dealer.

Good luck hun. I HATE In-law issues and I have my share of them too.

Good luck with the car hunt. You know the difference between inlaws and outlaws? OUTLAWS ARE WANTED.

Good one, Shirley!

Thanks. We have major problems with my husband's family, so much so that my husband and his sister are in litigation against his two brothers and other sister.