Fixed my Mom's car. Last Tuesday (Valentine's Day) she ran over something and messed up something up front, so something was causing the car to not go forward or backward. Had it towed to her place and parked it. It's a '97 T-Bird LX.
OK - so that's a little vague... let me explain.
So Thursday night, I was talking about just buying her a newer used car (she's on a fixed income, and seems happy just barely scraping by - for some reason... whatever). Anyway, my wife was commenting on how messed up it would be if I found Mom a nicer car than hers (in all fairness, my wife's '01 Grand Prix GT is an awesome car, not a scratch on it, and only has 72K miles - it's a REALLY nice car... and not worth more than $2800 because of the age - no way could I find a nicer affordable used car for my Mom). I suggested we just buy her [my wife] a new car and give Mom the Grand Prix. She said it's an idea, and to figure out what's wrong with Mom's car over the weekend before we make any decisions. Sounds like a plan.
I get home from work on Friday and she's car shopping with eyes on a silver 2013 Camaro about 90-miles away in Abilene. Uh-huh... now the tune is, "you know, you've been limping that old beater of hers along for years now and it's not going to get any better..." Yeah... I think I can see where this is going. OK - you know, she hasn't been excited about a car, like... ever, so I'm on-board. I called the stealership in Abilene and they'd already sold it. (Well - take down the freaken ad already!) OK - so, I break the news to her, and we both got online and started looking. Nothing along those lines within 500 miles... but I found a gorgeous 2014 in deep cherry pearl red up in Dallas, which was everything she wanted and she fell in love with... even with costing more money than she initially wanted to spend. So, I call them and they'll hang onto it until Monday - I told him we needed to find a local car to test drive since she's not comfortable driving unfamiliar cars and I'd call them back. Jumped online and found a good candidate to test drive at a local lot. So, we beat feet over there and test drove it - she loved it, is comfy, happy, and the car we drove even had everything she wanted... except for the color. Then, instead of thanking the salesman for the test drive, we went inside and started talking. Whoa - slow down. It was more expensive than the one in Dallas, the wrong color, and probably not quite as nice, but something clicked and she decided that's the one she wanted. OK... well, it's a LOT more than the one in Dallas... because... well... it's a 2015. Well crap - there's the difference - if we'd been interested in this car for more than just a test drive, then I would've noticed that. But OK, let's buy a car. So we did. She wound up with a 2015 Camaro 1LT, loaded with everything (and more) that she wanted (including a sunroof!) and she loves it. We thought we got a good deal - but they sweetened the pot with $500 off the sticker (which was still fair), lifetime oil changes & state inspections, and offered to tint the windows - all because she played it cool and mentioned that she didn't actually "need" the car (pretty clever - I suck and making car deals). She did pretty good, I think.
Took the car home... she's happy as a clam... all is good. ::thumb::
And I didn't have to lift a finger on that old T-Bird. :whistling: rofl
