back in January 2019, I was in the market for a new car. I had never really had a car that I picked out for myself and always had some sort of hand me down. I was in a position that I can make my own car purchase but I wanted something that was unique and kind of fit my against the grain personality. I was vaguely aware that cars nowadays had turbos even cars that were run of the mill historically or were family cars such as the civics the accords etc in recent decades. I didn't want to be part of the crowd too much but I knew I wanted a sedan with manual transmission and that I could say was a turboed car. it was either some kind of video or internet posting that I heard about Hyundai Elantra sport. after doing research and obsessing over videos of this car that I have never heard of I realized it checked off so many boxes for me. I believe I was heavily influenced by the straight pipes YouTube videos and a couple other car review YouTubers. over the next 4 months I would do a lot of research and look at listings but I would hesitate on pulling the trigger to factors such as high mileage of a used one or too far location. it didn't help that I was dead set on manual transmission of either 2017 or 2018 model. I got close to pulling the trigger but I would check minutes later and the car would be sold and I would regret it. in May 2019 I saw a brand new listing on CarGurus of a dealership about an hour away. The listing was so new that there was no picture but just a description of a blue 2018 manual transmission. when I called the dealer I realized how new the listing was. The staff at the dealer stated the car was not even fully in their system yet or that they didn't get a chance to fully do what they do with new inventory and actually were in a way not aware that they had the car on their lot and did not realize that CarGurus app already posted a listing. I visited the dealership to look at the car. my plan was to take the car to an independent shop for it to be looked over. The car was certified pre-owned and was supposedly some sort of car that was used by Hyundai Management or something to that effect. The car had a little under 10,000 mi. as a result I believe the price in the car was a little high which was $19999 with the out the door price around a little bit above $21k. The dealership sweet talked me into not taking the car out to a local shop due to CPO anyway. because of my history of experiencing cars snagged under my nose I ended up purchasing the car in cash (sorry weird humble brag) with a fair chunk of my savings. I promised myself years earlier to never have a car loan payment again but that's a whole other topic. I actually purchased the car without even ever having a test drive. my only regret was that I got sweet talked into some sort of maintenance package that added 900 bucks to the total but in the end I never really even did oil changes at that dealership or other certified dealers consistently. Even now I still find myself smiling when I drive around doing errands or getting on an on ramp.
bonus weird question: I rarely see other 2017 and 2018 Elantra sports in public but when I do usually the driver is a male driver of varying ages which I always assumed is the target demographic of this car. but on several occasions I've seen an obviously older female driver and sometimes I wonder the story behind that driver or that purchase. I hope that doesn't sound sexist but I was wondering if anyone had any theories or anecdotal stories lol? it's just seems kind of random to see almost grandma in a nice 2017 or 2018 Elantra sport. The stereotype minded me assumes that they are driving DCT not that there's anything wrong with that haha
bonus weird question: I rarely see other 2017 and 2018 Elantra sports in public but when I do usually the driver is a male driver of varying ages which I always assumed is the target demographic of this car. but on several occasions I've seen an obviously older female driver and sometimes I wonder the story behind that driver or that purchase. I hope that doesn't sound sexist but I was wondering if anyone had any theories or anecdotal stories lol? it's just seems kind of random to see almost grandma in a nice 2017 or 2018 Elantra sport. The stereotype minded me assumes that they are driving DCT not that there's anything wrong with that haha
