I had been driving my Purple Cavalier of Death for about five months with it in a rather dangerous state, due to severe rust. The rust was so bad that it had eaten through my fuel line and then carved its way into my interior, letting all the fumes into the car. Upon opening the door, a wave of overwhelming gas fumes engulfed me, and this is what I had to sit in wherever I went. My clothes, drawing pads, and really anything else that was in the car for any length of time reeked of gas! There was a guy I know from work ,who saw me at Starbucks one day, who told me that when he pulled into the parking lot and smelled the gas fumes, he knew instantly that I was there! If someone flicked a cigarette out the window while I was driving behind them, I thought to myself; “Well, this is it!”
In short, it was bad!
Not making much money, I had to deal with this for however long it took me to muster up some funds to get a new vehicle. Getting my tax money helped, but I knew I would need at least twice what I had to either get something that would run, or to fix up whatever I could get with what I had. I bumped around some dealers seeing if I could get financing, but without credit and making so little, no one would touch me! After a while, my family was able to scrounge up some extra cash to help me out, so I could finally get serious about looking, to which I am grateful.
Now, with some monetary backing, and pretty significant motivation, I set out to see what I could find. There is this little car lot by my house that I stopped by first. It had a nice looking Chevy S-10 that I had been drooling over every time I passed it. I figured I’d never be able to afford it with what I had, and this turned out to be true.
However, there was a cavalier on the lot that caught my eye. Other then the fact that MY cavalier was trying to poison me and blow me up, it was a pretty good little car. I didn’t mind having another one. I talked to the salespeople and they said they would finance me! I was happy, but I really don’t trust the small dealers around here, so I didn’t make any deals until I could get my brother, the mechanic, out out check it. He came down and looked it over pretty thoroughly; so much so that the salespeople thought we were messing up their car! We were making them very nervous. I thought it was funny. As it happened, we found that the entire front end had been replaced, and done so poorly. We also saw the frame was bent and then read on the Carfax that it had been totaled in a wreck! Needless to say we left very quickly afterward.
Undaunted, I kept on with the search and found another dealer with an S-10! I thought “Great! Just what I was wanting!” I called to see if they still had it, which they did, and told them I would be down the next day. I was excited! I drove down, with my girlfriend, to the dealer. They said it was off for some routine maintenance, and would be back in an hour or so. They said they’d call me when it got back. So off we went for a short drive (in her car) through the countryside while happy visions danced around my head of me in my knew truck. About an hour goes by and here comes the call: “We found that the bottom end is cracked, so we are junking the truck!” Not what I wanted to hear!
Moping at the coffee shop a bit later, I told my brother of the situation. He gets with his boss and he starts flashing us a bunch of vehicles that he has heard about or seen in ads. Mustering up some motivation again, I start calling the numbers looking for a lead. I got in touch with a guy selling a ’94 Ford Ranger, a truck that I might prefer over the S-10. So I set up a meet and off my brother and I go to look at it.
After a series of wrong turns and bad directions, by me apparently, we find where we are wanting to get to and see my future truck there before us. The guy was a pilot in the Air Force, who use to be a mechanic in same, and had kept the truck in good running order for the better part of 14 years.
The guy was real cool, and we both got a good vibe about the whole thing. He said his unit was being move and he had to get rid of everything. This is, I have learned, usually a tell tail sign of a scam, but it just didn’t seem the case here. He was upfront about everything that had happened with the truck, both good and bad, and it looked and felt like it was well cared for. The engine looked real good, and both my brother and I thought it would be a fun truck to work on.
Of course, there were some issues with the truck, but they were minor and cheep to fix. This was really an added bonus to me because it’s an opportunity to learn more about maintaining my vehicle. So we made our offer and got it at, I think, a steal of a price! What’s more, if I take good care of it and fix it up nice, I could potentially sell it for much more than I bought it for! So there be my grand quest to find my new Ranger!
Oh, and my poor Cavalier has mercifully been turned into a large, cube paperweight.
dansmadrabbit 