Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
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Our Car Catastrophe
Brad
and I left in our two vehicles with everything not in the moving truck (the girls, two dogs, tree
frog, banking statements, fireproof safe with all other important documents,
etc.) around 9 PM on our last Sunday there in Baytown in order to make it to
Grapevine around 2 am, grab a pet friendly hotel once we got into town, and
meet the movers at our rent house at 8 am. We were hoping the few hours of
sleep we would get would be enough to get us through the day as we were already
incredibly physically and emotionally drained. Everything was going smoothly,
and we were on track until I hit a dog going 80 mph on I-45 in the middle of
nowhere, (which was also about 30 miles outside of Dallas). The car didn’t make
it much further before if started smelling, making horrible noises, and letting
out lots of steam from the engine. To make an incredibly long story short- we
waited two hours beside the road in the middle of nowhere for AAA to come and
tow us (3 am), and we were still over an hour away from Grapevine (just under
100 miles- our towing limit). Since the tow truck didn’t typically deal with
anything in Grapevine, they asked to follow Brad to the body shop of our choice
(like we had one at that point…or like we knew our way around any better than
they would). Anyway, it was after 5 am when they dropped off the car, so he didn’t
even bother going to the hotel. Brad’s parents were spending the night with
Brad’s brother and family in Mesquite and thankfully they were able to come get
me and the girls (and everything in my car that we needed) before the tow truck
arrived.
The
car had over 200,000 miles and was going to cost every penny it was worth in
order to fix it (basically anything plastic under the hood was ruined- fan,
radiator housing unit, other big plastic car parts with names I don’t remember)…so
Brad and I (and a very nice man from church) towed it down to car max and got a
check for a whopping $450.00.
Since
the towncar was the only car that we own that fits the car seats, we were in a
pretty quick bind to decide what we were going to do. Yes…picture us…just
moving into a house in a new city where we know absolutely no one, with no way
to get around. Once people at church heard what had happened, people were so
helpful in lending cars until we were able to find something we liked and could
afford. We really wanted something with a third row, but not a ton of miles,
and a price we could pay cash for.
We
searched craigslist, dealers, friends of friends, friends of family members…anyone!
I ended up finding an ’02 Suburban that had been traded in at a dealership, and
Brad and I bought the vehicle. We thought we had gotten a great deal, had
convinced the dealership to add a 6 month warranty on the vehicle, and they
were going to run the car through their service center the following day. (That
was Monday) On Tuesday, we called several times to check on the vehicle, but
never could get in touch with someone who knew what its status was. On
Wednesday afternoon, I got a call from the dealership saying they could no
longer sell it to us because it would cost too much to fix. On Thursday, they
cashed the check we had written for the vehicle, which left us in a position to
no longer be able to negotiate with anyone else because we didn’t have funds
available. I spent about 6 hours at the dealership Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday (total) before walking away with a reimbursement check (and a bunch of
bologna). The staff was so incredibly rude and no one told the same story. I
was so disappointed by the whole thing, but mostly felt completely lied to, or
like they backed out because we got too good of a deal. Regardless, there was
no convincing and we began our shopping again once we had our money back!
Today,
Brad and I purchased a 2007 Ford Freestyle, and it is just perfect for our
family. This will be a much better car- newer with better gas mileage, but it
doesn’t completely erase all the frustration from a flat out horrible
experience!
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