Ok, well, that didn't take long. Also, yes, by the way, I
do actually need a car. When I'm not able to work remotely I have to be able to get on-site after all, and it's a 40mi roundtrip just to the office and back, no client sites involved. Riding a bike out here will get you ran over. Not to mention I'd immediately die of a heat stroke even in the winter.
I'm now the proud owner of a 2018 Toyota RAV4 LE. 79K miles on the odo, base package, but it's mechanically mint and cosmetically only slightly imperfect. (Some scratches in the paint on the passenger side door.) 2.5L inline-4 making I think 176hp? 6 speed automatic transmission because manuals+traffic=

. It's in a lovely bright shade of blue, and when I first sat in it I had a huge feeling of deja vu because it felt and sounded nearly identical to my Corolla. That tracks, since the pre-2019 RAV4 is built on the Corolla platform. Steering is a bit more stiff though. I fell in love with it practically immediately. A Corolla isn't really something you love out of the gate, you grow to love it, and then things that remind you of it get that affection transferred to them. I will totally be calling it the "big Corolla" in conversation, though.
My payment is... well. More than I wanted it to be, but nothing I can't handle. I set a "hard" limit of $300/mo for it, but I'm pretty satisfied with $348/mo at 4.34% with my credit and the current market. My insurance supposedly goes up all of 15 dollars per month because it's insuring a more valuable vehicle, but it's also probably being discounted some because of the extra safety features it has. That backup camera is going to be so awesome.
It's still at the dealer being touched up and looked at one last time, because they need the money in-hand for the down payment before I can drive it home, and the check hasn't even cleared my bank yet, so I'm hopefully going to be picking it up later this week.
My plates are supposedly going to soft-transfer from one vehicle to the other in the state DMV's system -- is that typical? I've only ever driven one car in any other state, so I don't know what to expect. I would hope so, considering I paid up my tags for the next two years back in July, but I just don't have the experience to say one way or the other.