True Stories: “How I Leased My Vehicle”

Moving to a new state was intimidating and exhilarating. I’d never lived outside of Michigan, and I’d always lived in small towns. Dayton, Ohio is a small city, but to me it was big. I didn’t know what to expect, how bad the traffic would be, what the area looked like, or how I would get to work every day since my husband and I had one vehicle.

My husband dropped me off on my first day of work (great first impression, right?). But I soon found my new method of transportation. One of my co-workers lived right next to me and was ecstatic to have a carpool buddy. It seemed to work out so perfectly. So we put off buying a second car.

Several months later, my weeknight schedule started filling up. On top of that, I had week-long training starting promptly at 8 a.m., and ending at various hours.

Although carpool buddy never complained about chauffeuring me around, there’s something about having to rely on others to get from point A to B. It was time for me to get my own car.

My car shopping process happened in a week. I’m a decisive person, and I don’t like putting things off. I’d already waited 7 months for this moment.

I was still trying to determine what brand of sedan I wanted when I overheard my boss talking about a dealership she went to that had AddOnAuto and the docuPAD^® system. I’d heard of these things before at work, but had never used them. From what I heard, AddOnAuto was an accessory tool and the docuPAD system was an electronic signature tablet for the F&I office.

The dealership was a Honda store, so I looked at their inventory to see which car was right for me. Later that week, I was walking into the dealership determined to lease the Civic I’d seen online.

The test drive confirmed my choice. Then, I came back in to the dealership excited for the accessory presentation. Although it sounds odd, I’d just driven this car, but now I was excited to stare at it on a computer screen!

Eric, my salesperson, launched AddOnAuto and pulled up the car I just drove. It was the exact model – a 2019 Honda Civic sedan, sport trim level, Lunar Silver Metallic with black interior and metal pedals.

Eric gave a presentation on how the accessories system worked, clicking through to different categories and showing the popular items. A click of a button sent an accessory flying onto my vehicle. He gave me control of the mouse and sent me off to the magical land of accessories.

There were items I had never even heard of before: underbody spoilers, glass coat, hood air deflectors… I was quite tempted by the Honda alloy wheels with red trim, but it was a little too pricy for the time being.

After exploring the options, I settled on buying window tint. It was something I always wanted and it made the car look sleek.

The finance manager was polishing off the docuPAD system when we got to his office. We sat down and he walked us through all the products and signatures. Afterwards, I got to drive home in my new vehicle! A couple of weeks later, I got the window tint installed and drove off in my sleek, new ride.

Now that I’ve been driving it for a few weeks, I’m thinking of going back for a new cargo net… or maybe some nice red trimmed alloy wheels.

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