Something Sunday: Car Shopping

I am sure nearly everyone who reads my blog has been car shopping at some point in their life. My personal opinion of it is that it stinks. I have never been car shopping when I actually wanted to get a new car without it being that we NEED a new car. We are currently looking for a replacement for our 1999 Toyota Corolla. It isn't dead right now and this is a right for us...Or maybe I should say it is a first for me. I personally have never bought a car. Not for myself. I have never gotten to pick out the vehicle that I am intended to drive and I am 30 years old. I am not complaining because I have had some really good cars. Actually the Corolla was my car, but my hubby has been driving it since our son was born and I have been driving our Dodge Ram 1500 which was supposed to be his truck. I am not complaining. The truck is awesome, but he and I compromised on the truck so it isn't what either one of us really wanted. Since he has been driving the Corolla, he has been absolutely miserable. He has an hour drive to and from work. He barely fits in the car and his legs bother him ever time he gets out of it. He's only driving it because we can't afford for the gas in the truck for how much he drives, the truck barely fits in his parking lot at work, and the truck is way safer for our son. The result has been a very unhappy man for a year and a half. This is especially the case since he sold his gorgeous 2002 Pontiac Trans Am with all the fixings to get the truck. The result? Well we're car shopping. The Corolla could last a while longer, but there are other members of my family that really need a car right now and we have the opportunity to make my husband a little happier by getting him something he fits in. In other words, we are trying to find another Pontiac Trans Am, preferably with 100K miles or less and manual. This has been a VERY difficult thing to find though since the car was discontinued in 2002. Most have a lot of problems and will require us to put money into them. They are still valued around $10K so we have to get a car loan. We won't have the money to put into the car after paying the down payment on it.

Where is this heading? We drove three and a half hours this past Friday to look at what I thought was an awesome Trans Am only to find out that the kid (and it was a kid) didn't give us all the information on it. It had no gas in it so we had to buy gas just to start her up. The truck couldn't close due to the crappy after market speakers he made himself. It needed tires and paint. The turn signals didn't work at all. The Check Gages light and Service Engine Soon light were on. It just wasn't worth the money he was asking for it. To top it off, he left the car parked in a field in front of his house with the key in it for us and then never bothered to show up to sell us the car. He even knew how far we were coming to see this thing. We stuck around for an hour and he never showed. He texted us to say we could take it for a ride and take our time looking at her. When we told him we weren't interested and that it was partly because he didn't show up, he said that he was giving us time alone with the car to talk about it freely. He didn't want to influence our decision about it. How crazy is that? how do you expect to sell a car without being there? Now we are going to end up driving to see another one this coming Friday which is 4 hours away from us. At least this one seems to be in much better shape and the guy is asking for a much more reasonable price.

If you can't tell, I love my husband very much because I am not telling him to give up on replacing his dream car. I am willing to drive all over the place to try to find it, but we are running out of cars to look at. I am afraid he is going to have to consider a different car very soon and even if he does get a new Trans Am, this is it. He won't be able to get another one in the future because they will probably all be broken down rust buckets. Another reason why I am ok with him searching all over the country for this car. It won't be happening again and this time he's driving it until it dies. Hopefully next time we car shop it will be me picking out the vehicle since I have never had the car to do that. This is one reason why I don't care to car shop. I actually have no clue what car I would pick because I have never had to do it. I just know it isn't worth even thinking about it when I might never get to pick out my own car. I can't really complain since every car I have had has been a good one. At least I have never picked out a lemon.