Car Shopping - The Final Chapter

I finally found a car. After a month of online searching and putting up with the fact that 80% of all used car ads are bullshit, one popped up. However, it was not without several days of wild goose chasing!
My final weekend actually started on Friday afternoon when I went to the Toyota dealership to see a car they had listed on AutoTrader. It had been on there for 4 or 5 days. I went inside and asked the guy at the desk (who is in charge of knowing where all the cars are) if I could see it. He gave me one of those huh? looks and said they didn't have a car like that. I told him it had been on AutoTrader for 4 days. Another salesman walked up and they both looked thru the list. The desk guy finally said that the car was a trade-in and the people took it home to clean it out. It was supposed to be returned Friday but hadn't shown up yet. When was the last time you made a deal with a trade and they let you leave with the trade? They don't! The salesman said he would call me when it got there. 4 days later I still haven't heard from him. I think the ad was just a ploy to get people in the door.
I went home and got back on AutoTrader. I found an SUV in a town 60 miles east of us. I called the guy to see if they were open Saturday. He said that they were in and out and to call him when I headed that way and he would meet me there. On Saturday we loaded up the kids and headed east. I called him before I left and said I would be there at 2:15 pm. He said he would see me there. I was pulling into town at 2:10 and the guy called me. He said he wanted to catch me before I got too far to tell me that the SUV had been sold. Note that I had called him an hour before. What the hell did he think I was doing for that hour? I told him I was already in town and all he could say was that he was sorry. We rode by the car lot anyway and it is probably good that he had sold the car already as the lot looked like crap. They must have taken their cars up to the mall to take the pictures they put on AutoTrader. We ate a late lunch at Huddle House and went home.
Jumping back on AutoTrader and Craigslist, I found a minivan on a car lot in a town 80 miles south. I called the guy, Ahmet, to see if he was open on Sunday. He said he was open from 10 to 3. Instead of hauling everyone out at 8:30 Sunday morning, I jumped in the truck and went myself. I figured if I bought something, we could go back to pick it up. I got down there about 10 and there was a 13 to 14 year old kid hosing down the cars. There was a small house at the back of the lot and I guess Ahmet lived there. The kid was his little brother. I told the kid I wanted to look at the minivan and he got me the keys. Once again, pictures on the internet tend to hide small flaws like busted windshields and dirty interiors, of which this minivan had both. I started it and it ran great. A/C was cold too. The back liftgate would not open at all and the passenger side was skinned up but I was still thinking positively since the price was good. I asked Ahmet's little brother if I could take it for a drive. He said an employee of the car lot would have to go with me but he was not on their insurance. He asked me if I wanted him to go wake up Ahmet to go with me. I said no and left.
I got on the phone with my wife and asked her to see if there was anything on Craigslist that I could check out before I left town. She found another minivan and gave me the number. I called it and a lady answered the phone. She said her husband had the van and would get off work at 1:00. It was 10:30. I explained that I was from out of town and heading back home so I couldn't wait until 1:00. Turns out her husband is a cop and they park their cars in a locked area downtown. He was on patrol so he couldn't just meet me over there. It's pretty bad when you have to have a secure parking lot at the police station! I told her I would look elsewhere.
I called my wife to let her know and she told me about a truck in a town 30 miles north of where I was and 50 miles from home. I called the guy and he told me where it was parked and to call him if I wanted to drive it. When I got there, I noticed a couple of guys hanging out at the convenience store adjacent to where the truck was. Now, I have 3 grand cash in my pocket. I'm not getting out of my truck or even stopping. I circled the block and by then, they had left. I stopped and got out to look at the truck. First thing I noticed was a windshield with 2 different cracks. The interior was blue, not the gray on the pictures. The tires had good tread but were dry rotted so this truck had been sitting awhile. I didn't even call the guy for a test drive.
I headed home, 50 miles away. Halfway home, my wife called and said there was an Explorer in the town I had just left. Note that I had already driven 25 miles away from there. It belonged to a little old lady but I would have to talk to her son, who wouldn't be home until 2. It was 11:30. I said nope I'm coming home. I had basically made a looping 160 mile round trip thru the country!
Saturday night, I had emailed a guy about a van for sale. He replied about the time I left the house that morning. I wish I had seen it before I left. I had asked about the interior and he said he could shoot me some pics. I replied at about 12:30 that I would like to see some pics and I left him my phone number. 3 hours later, I finally get the pics. I replied back to tell him I wanted to see the van and to call me or send me his number so I could call him. Finally at 4:30, his wife called me to say that her husband had gotten busy at forgot to call me. I got directions and we all jumped in the car. The directions started from a town 50 miles south of us. The further we went, the skinnier the road got. I told my wife that the road the guy lived on was probably dirt because every time we made deliveries in the area, the roads were always dirt. 70 miles from home, we finally get to his house. The dirt road looked straight out of Deliverance. Cats were running everywhere. We met the guy, drove the van, and bought it. The guy was real nice but a bit eccentric. Sort of an old hippie. He and his wife have been building a house for about 5 years and were close to finishing. My money is helping them along.
End of the story is that I now have a 1997 Dodge full size van thats seats 8 and reminds me of the van I drove in my "formative" teenage driving years. My wife thinks I'm crazy :)

Craigslist Car Shopping Part 2

I went to look at a minivan yesterday. Not exactly my first choice but it's practical and cheap. There were only 2 pics on the ad so I had to go on faith that the guy wasn't lying to me about the interior. The outside looked decent and after a long phone call I decided to drive the 60 miles to see it. As soon as I opened the door, I realized that people have different opinions on what is considered clean. There were supposedly a "few" spots on the carpet that needed cleaning but overall it was supposed to be pretty good. Boy, was he wrong. The back area looked like someone rebuilt a motor in it! The rest of it was also filthy with missing or broken trim everywhere. I would hate to see this guy's house. My wife looked at me like I was crazy when I said to get in so we could test drive it but I'm too polite sometimes and figured that, since I drove 60 miles, I might as well drive it. We fired it up and noticed immediately that it didn't have enough gas to get to a gas station if we bought it. I guess if you keep one on empty, a potential car thief won't get too far. It's a shame that it was so dirty because it actually ran pretty good. We got back to the guy's house and told him it was too small for our needs and got the hell out of there! Well, back to the ads.

Shopping for cars on Craigslist

I have been looking for a car to buy on Craigslist and it has been pretty interesting to see some of the stuff that shows up there. I am amazed at what some people think their car or truck is worth. I love the ones that say that it runs great but needs a starter solenoid. Can't they spend $15 on a solenoid? Or the one that is asking a fair price for one except for the fact that it needs a transmission! There are also the ads that the pictures show a car that obviously has not been driven in a while. It is usually sitting in the back yard in the weeds. How can they say it runs and drives good? Then there are the ads that seem too good to be true. They generally have a real nice car really cheap and just have an email address from gmail or msn. I found that you can cut and paste the ad title on Google and it will show you all the different cities the ad shows up in. What I don't understand is what they have to gain by posting the bogus ad to start with.
I do have some advice for those who want to post a car ad on Craigslist. First, if it doesn't have the mileage and pictures, I'm not looking. Also, this bullshit about putting $1 for the price or advertising the car with the down payment as the price is bogus. Dnt wrt the ad in all txt b/c i dnt no wtf ur saying! k? Standard English is fine. Don't run out of the house at 11 pm and take pictures of your car so you can post it at 11:15 pm. It's hard to tell whether or not it's a piece of shit. Don't post a car as being modified when the modifications are still sitting in your garage on the floor or in the trunk. Last, but not least, to satisfy my OCD, don't have 4 brands of tires, rims, or wheel covers on the car. That just looks stupid.
Happy posting!