At the end of the summer Dave was in an accident that left his car totaled. He was fine, some ugly cuts but he was able to walk away. In that moment, that was all that mattered.
Of course, days later when we found out that his car was a total loss, we were bummed. It was paid off and we didn't really want to take on any car payments. After some deliberation, it was decided. We'd buy another car using only as much as we got from the insurance payment. It seems easy enough.
Then you actually have to start searching for a car.
I'd forgotten what an ordeal it can be when you have a very rigid number in mind. Our bank has a section of their website that shows cars for sale at local dealerships that are "approved" (I guess thats what you'd call it). It seemed like as good a place as any to start. Almost immediately we were looking at a Montero Sport. He liked it, looked at a few more on the web site, printed out 3 we were interested in and off we went!
When we arrived at the dealership, we realized that had it not been for our banks backing of them, we would NEVER have chosen this place. But hey, we were there, so full steam ahead!
The Montero was a no go, from the first look. Gave it a test drive and that confirmed it as a solid no. Next up was a 2003 BMW 325i. This one wasn't much to look at either. Test drove it, drove pretty well, AC worked (it was late August, this mattered a lot while we stood there sweating on the black top), it was a contender. Then we tried the third car. I can't even remember what it was. There was one final car on the lot that we were interested in, but it was $1200 above our agreed upon range. It was a beautiful, low milage Cadillac. We debated about wanting a car payment (no matter how small) and finally agreed to stick to the original plan. We took the BMW and signed the papers. The guys at the dealership were very nice and they told us, if we weren't happy before the registration came in, bring the car back and they'd let us trade it.
Okay, so this is when things go downhill. Within a couple of days of getting the car home, we're realizing that it's quite a bit more than well loved. Hehe. Not too long after that it starts riding a bit funny and rapidly following engine light pops on. Dave says he'll deal with it. We only need the car to last til he's done with school. Now the car just sits in it's spot.
Fast forward to Christmas day. He takes it to the store and almost immediately gets stopped. The officer tells him the car isn't registered and his temp is no good. Gah. We fret fro a few days but get in touch with the dealer. They say come in we'll give you a new temp until we can sort out why the registration didn't get done. About halfway through our drive Dave realizes they said we could get a different car before the registration came in, assuming we weren't happy with this one. I kind of thought they'd say no, since we were supposed to have had the registration by now. He figures, what can it hurt to ask. So he did. They were totally fine with it!
Took a couple of days for them to smog check our new (used) car, but it's in our possession now, it's older than the BMW, but has 50,000 fewer miles and seems to be in much better condition. All's well that ends well.
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