My brother went with me to check out a dealer's lot that he knew could be trusted. The only car they had, in my price range, was an old lady car - an early 90's Dodge Dynasty, 80,000 miles for about $2500. It was nice but it seems like I may have had problems parking. It's kind of big for what I need. So, I passed and the nice man sent us to another lot that would have more cars in my price range. This new lot had a clean 1993 Pontiac Le Mans, 107,000 for about $2500. I was in "new" car mode and liked this car as soon as I saw it. It's a funky car but small, and again, in real good shape. I bought it. It has A/C, finally, a summer without sweating! The car needed new front tires and I knew it would probably need a muffler soon. I took it to the tire shop and put on some new tires. Then, I was off to one of those Muffler/Brake shops. I sat there saying to myself, some new brake pads and a muffler, $330 and I'm on my way, with my "new" car. I was excited. They came back with $240 for the muffler and over $500 for the brakes. I was sick to my stomach. I was in shock. They showed me the brakes, the drums were bad and the front caliper - wasn't ever right for that car! I look on the Internet that night and found out that this car was the shame of Pontiac. I was up all night thinking about the poor decision I made. We were just operating on 100% trust. Which, sadly, you can't do. It never even occurred to my brother or myself to have the car checked out. If they didn't check the brakes, what else didn't they check? The answer is - There was also almost no transmission fluid in the car and after I took out all the air fresheners, I found out, from the smell, that the car belonged to a smoker. I cleaned the windows with a white rag and it turned yellow. I got up at 6:30 am and looked on the Internet for lemon laws. At 7:30 I stopped payment on the check and returned the car that day. They said they'd fix the brakes, no problem. Then, I went into the "garage." The mechanic told me they usually only check one side of the car and that's usually good enough. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. So fast that I had to go back later to get my jacket. I was out close to $100 dollars for the tires but that's a small price to pay. I considered myself lucky that I didn't end up with this car.
Here's what I learned from this experience: Always take the car to your mechanic to get it checked out, be wary of a car with an air freshener stuck in the sun visor, and last but not least, you get what you pay for. So, I went back to the first dealer because all of the sudden, that old lady car wasn't looking so bad. They sold it already. I thought about buying something new but I'd hate to have those payments hanging over my head every month - rent is enough. I took my car to a transmission place and they told me, "It sounds like it's in your electrical system, that's not the transmission." AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! I took the car in to another shop and they cleaned some clogged plugs, $10.00. My car was fine. I put myself through hell, what a vacation! I ll want a "new" car but for now, I'm going to keep saving my money. That was 90% of my week.
I saw my nephew, Lucas, graduate from pre-school. I was so proud of him, I swear, I started to tear up. I love the kids! I didn't have any problems driving home yesterday, other than my "volt" light coming on when I started up the car. I got home, unloaded my stuff and got a burrito for dinner. I started to watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind and I started to fall asleep. I woke up an hour later at an odd angle. The burrito I ate felt like it was in my esophagus. I coughed and threw up. The perfect end to a perfect week.
That was my first time back to Ohio since my Dad passed away. It was weird, kind of hard to explain. Now that I think about it, maybe that's why I focused so much on getting a new car, to take my mind off of that. I don't know? I miss my Dad. That's it for today.
Have a good day.
