Rod's car

Rodgers has an old Cavalier. It's been a trooper, but it has lots of mechanical problems. Last time he took it to the mechanic, the estimate to fix it was $500-700. Blue book on that car is only $805. Since it's still running (though not well and could die completely at any moment) we decided to skip the repairs, empty our savings account, and buy him a good cash car - an older Toyota or Honda would do - and he could continue to drive the Cavalier to school, work, and home while we looked for a car.

So we found an Accord coupe, with very shiny red paint, for sale for a great price. We met up with the owners Sunday for a test drive. It runs great. One of the rear windows is a little ghetto-fied, but it still looks pretty good. I mean, I've always thought the Accord coupe looks rad. And it has a sun roof.

[This is where it turns into a rant.] Monday, we called the owners, told them we want to give them $$$, and asked when we could meet up to get the car and pay them. They said that they would meet us in Belton Monday evening. We got money orders (their preferred means of payment) in the agreed upon amount, though Rodgers wisely prevented me from filling in the seller's name when I was signing them. We got to the meeting place and waited...and waited...finally Rodgers called and asked if we would see them. They didn't answer the phone, he left a message, and they called back, at about 30 or 40 minutes past the meeting time saying they couldn't make it and could we reschedule for Tuesday morning?

I had a Dr.'s appointment Tuesday morning, and have to take sick leave in increments of 4 hours, so once Rod's class was over at 11:30, we could meet them. I called them at 11:25, and they were not on their way to Belton to meet us (they live in Killeen). No, they were in Copperas Cove. They asked if we could meet them there. It wouldn't be such a stretch because I was going to be on my way to Fort Hood to work in the afternoon, and could just leave early, take Rod to Cove, let him get his new car, and go to work. However, she had neither a time or meeting place decided upon and would call us back. I told her I had to work in the afternoon, but it was possible that it would work out. When it was time for me to head to work and we hadn't heard from them, Rodgers told me to go and said he'd give them one more chance to sell us their car. We absolutely didn't want to get stood up in Copperas Cove when I had to be at work at 12:30 and Rod at 2:30. And Rod without a car.

She called me after I was already at work. I did not answer the phone, but told Rod, and he called them. He said, "If you want to sell us this car, meet us outside of where I work in Belton at 5:45 this evening." They said, "Ok!" They found a car in Cove that they wanted to buy, but needed the money from us for the down payment. They called Rod several times that afternoon while he was working, telling him how it was all going to work out, and it was a good time because they could get back over to Cove before the dealership closed at 8.

So, 5:40 rolled around, I was waiting in the parking lot, Rodgers had just gotten off work, and where do you think the car sellers were? AT HOME IN KILLEEN. Rodgers called and asked if they were planning on showing up. They asked if we could meet them somewhere else. In the end, he hung up on them. We're not buying that shiny red car.

So I looked at a car today that's for sale at a dealership. He'd give it to us cheap because he's desparate to get rid of it, and it needs some odds and ends. It needs a new paint job, a new handle for the inside of the driver's door (there's one there and it works eventually, but it's broken), a cover for the console, cupholders to fill the cupholder hole, a cover for the ash tray, a new horn pad, a motor in the passenger's door to run the power window, 2 wheel covers, and a brake job. With the car being so cheap, we could afford fixing the brakes and horn, and maybe even replace the windshield which has an 8" crack in it. I don't think Rod's too picky about the paint not being pretty, and we could get a paint job in the future if we wanted to. The rest of that stuff, he assures us we could find at Pick 'n' Pull, which is probably where we'll be selling Rod's car.

But do we want to do that? I don't know.