Buyer Beware

Not having a car sucks. I tried to finance one awhile ago, but got turned down because I have a repo on my credit report. They didn’t care that I make enough money to pay it off in two months, nor that I make five times what I made when the repo occurred. Bah.

So I figured I’d go buy another clunker as I have in the past, and have it repaired on Monday. I looked on Craigslist and found a ‘94 Saturn with 120k miles for $900. The only listed problem is that a rod was knocking. For $900, I figured, I’d simply have it fixed shortly thereafter.

So we set off for Milliken (Trip pictured to the right), where this thing was. We left around 6PM; at night this would be a trip of one hour, 40 minutes. The traffic on I-25 looked really bad so we took highway 24 instead. Google maps navigated us so far out of the way, we ended up closer to Nebraska than Milliken.

On this map, the blue line represents what usually takes an hour and 40 minutes at night; 2-3 hours during the day. The red line depicts what we spent four hours on last night because of traffic on the blue route. The lesson? Colorado needs more county roads. If they’re there, Google has yet to index that information.

So finally I ended up buying the car (I talked him down to $750), based on just needing to get some work done. We set off toward home along the blue route and got to the south side of Highlands Ranch; then it happened.

On the way home (Around 11:30 last night), there was a spontaneous and disturbingly loud clunk. It was so loud it drowned out the jalopy’s habitual knocking. I felt something roll under the car and suddenly lost all mechanical power. I was dead in the water.

This was by far not the first time I’ve had a car break down on the freeway. Fortunately, since I make a good deal more now, I should be able to get it fixed. So I had it towed to a mechanic in Castle Rock, and rode home with the roommates who were so kind as to bring me to pick up the car and follow me home to ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen.

I called the mechanic today, who greeted me with wild remarks about not leaving paperwork or keys in the car. I don’t know what forms they expect to be there, nor was I prepared to get my car stolen. In addition to telling them where the key was safely hidden, I told them what was wrong, and about the knocking, and asked them to prepare an estimate. I should have that by Monday.

So here I am with the title to what amounts to a rolling chassis. Might as well have picked up a salvage title. I remain optimistic, though, that the repairs won’t cost more than a new car and that I may yet again have a reliable vehicle. If I’m lucky, it will even be able to climb a hill without losing speed.

So what do I think of my decision to drop nearly a grand on this hunk of steel and plastic? Obviously I’m left believing I missed some better deals; but it’s better than what I had before.

I should clarify that: It’s not better than the Celica I had for a week; it’s better than nothing.