This post is sponsored by Capital One. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

You ever think you’re going to tuck a piece of information away for some time in the distant future when you might really need it?

Ever had to use it way sooner than you thought?

Well, that’s what happened when I learned about Auto Navigator by Capital One.

After posting about Capital One’s Auto Navigator tool HERE last month, my husband and I became a little obsessed with checking out the inventory of nearly 4 million cars at almost 13,000 dealerships nationwide. We naturally have drastically different personalities when it comes to money. I’m the saver and Gerald’s the spender, but somehow we both enjoy playing around with the numbers to figure out exactly what the personalized APR and monthly payments would be – and Auto Navigator makes it so easy to look at different options!

Well, a week ago, we went from playing around with the Auto Navigator site to actually having to get serious about searching for a new car.

In 2018, our neighbor’s tree fell smack dab in the middle of Gerald’s car approximately 13 minutes after he had come inside the house. We were annoyed by the entire ordeal which blocked our entire garage and prevented anyone from getting in or out for hours, but we were grateful that it wasn’t worse.

That old oversized tree completely totaled the car and when the insurance paid it off, we decided he didn’t need a new car since we were prepping for our move this year anyway. So, for the last few months he’s just used his old school 1964 Buick Electra 225 or my car if he had to drive further than 20 miles or so.

Well, no sooner than I posted about Auto Navigator, our beautiful black Buick decided she had enough. Even if we fix her up, she just can’t take the wear and tear we’ve put on her recently, so it was time to look for a new car.

The beauty of this entire scenario is that before Auto Navigator, we would’ve been spending every Saturday going from dealership to dealership spending valuable time that could be used for prepping for our move or hanging out with friends and family before we leave.

Not to mention the hit your credit score takes when you head to a dealership and allow them to run your credit! The fact that you can pre-qualify for financing in minutes with no impact to your credit score with Auto Navigator is powerful to say the least. Since we’re also in the middle of a mortgage transaction, any hit to our credit is the last thing we would want!

We’ve narrowed it down to a few contenders that we were able to find from the comfort of our own home in Los Angeles. Next week, Gerald will be flying to Atlanta to the dealership we found near our new house with his offer summary and will hopefully drive away with his new car!

I really think the timing of when I was introduced to Auto Navigator was completely divine. In 11+ years of marriage we’ve never been on the same page about buying a new car this much!

I would say wish us luck, but I already feel pretty blessed that we have a transparent tool that makes us feel confident about our car-buying decision.