Tina's New Car!

Boy O Boy, is car shopping ever hard work! Used cars that is.

Tina liked her Buick Regal so well, that I have spent the last several evenings and most of the day Sunday looking for another Buick. Didn't matter what model, just as long as we kept the price down. We wanted to keep the total price at $5,000.00 or less.

Sunday I started really getting serious looking for a car for her. So I had 12 Buicks lined up for us to look at Monday morning. A few from the "corner rip off lot" to mostly private owners. And talking to the "so called" private owners, only half of them actually had their cars for any length of time, meaning more than a few months. You just wouldn't believe how many people are buying cars at auctions and re-selling them as their "aunt's" or "Grandma's" car! Damn, even the common guy is getting on the "car salesman bandwagon".

Then around 6:30 Sunday evening, something told me to look at Chevy's. So I got on Craigslist and searched for Chevy's. On the first page of 100 vehicles, I found a '98 Chevy Malibu, with just 46,700 miles on it, for under $5000.00!

Gotta be something wrong with this car I thought....maybe a major accident or something. So I called the number listed and spoke with a gent named Sam. He told me it was his aunt's car, and she is now in her 90's. She finally decided she was too old to be driving and agreed for him to sell it for her. He listed the price and quoted "For Serious Buyers Only". So I told him I was a serious buyer and wanted to come look at it, but being late in the day maybe I should come tomorrow. He said the car is in his garage, and there are plenty of lights to look at the car if I wanted to come tonight. I said sure, see him within an hour.

I know, I know, I was sounding too anxious. But I had already lost a great Buick Century with 48,000 miles within our price range just an hour before.

I called Tina, who was ready to "hit the hay" and asked her to get dressed if she wanted to look at this car.

I ended up picking her up 5 minutes later and within 20 minutes we were looking at the Malibu.

I introduced him to Tina, he shook her hand and said he had a daughter named Tina. Ok I thought, Tina is a common name. Then as she was checking out the car I noticed Shrine Circus plates on his garage wall. I commented about them and Sam said his best friend Jim Paluzi is a Shriner and very close friend of his. I know he couldn't make up a name that fast, especially as I was a Shriner and knew Jim. Not personally mind you, but I knew of him.

I commented on the Malibu in the driveway. He said that was his car with 120,000 miles on it and still running. Why then didn't he want to sell that Malibu and keep this one? Answer: Because he already spent a large sum of money having a tow bar installed on it so he could pull it behind his Motor Home. WOW...another RV'er I thought.

After a few more questions about the car, and talking about RV'ing, I had noticed Tina was getting excited. So I took her aside and asked her what she thought. She loved it!

Within a half hour, I had given him $100.00 to hold it until tomorrow, (Monday), when we would be back to finalize the deal.

So...here it is Monday evening now, 5:15pm. Tina has a nice new to her car, plates and insurance on her new to her car, and she is back home with her kids tending to everyday life again, now that some "normalization" has returned to her life. Her next move is to set up a time with Progressive to finalize the old policy claim from her Buick. She should be receiving a small check then, and I will be seeing the Buick leave my yard as it gets towed to a junk yard somewhere.

I guess everything so far is working out pretty good. She has a newer vehicle than what she had before, and her monthly payments have been dropped by some $30.00 per month. And myself, well, I have been nominated by myself to be her loan establishment, and officially I'm more in debt! :-)

Of course Tina and I have come to an understanding on the payment plan, and together we both agree on it. So, there is no worry on my part what so ever.

And so ends another wonderful day in our Adventures.

Until next time, be safe and God Bless.