Our 'New' Cars

Since the untimely death of our Camry (still one of the saddest days in history, which began one of the strangest weeks ever- see “God Has a Sense of Humor”), I have waited until the car situation was totally settled before adding the update here. So here’s the quick story and specs on each of our ‘new’ cars.

Car #1

1995 Nissan Maxima
• Color: white
• Miles: 112,000 (when we bought it- a month ago)
• Automatic transmission
• Power windows, power seat (driver)
• General feelings: it’s not quite as gas efficient as the Camry was, but it’s also a larger car with a larger engine. I’ve been driving it to and from Lancaster for 2 weeks for work- it’s got a lot of good qualities, but our Camry was simply a sweet car and we miss it. It’s ok, though- no complaints, no worries.

Story: We had picked out this car on the Friday following Labor Day weekend. We had been to a few guys we know in the auto business to see if they could keep their eyes and ears open for us for something specific. We knew we were going to refinance the Camry to include a second car and we wanted to feel as though we were getting something we’d be able to keep for a while. We found this as we just decided to take a quick look on a used car lot with a good rep.

Funny thing is: we had taken care of all the financing options at the bank that Friday night, but it needed a manager’s approval to cut us a check- and there wasn’t going to be one till Monday morning. Through the rest of the weekend, Rachel and I figured out what was going to work best for us to get the car sometime before Tuesday night (when the dealership insisted we pick it up by) and decided that coming to Lancaster after work on Monday and doing the paperwork Tuesday morning would be ok- Rachel would be late for work Tuesday, but better Tuesday than Monday she decided. Then the Camry caught fire on Monday AM on the way to work, and despite this- the bank still let us refinance- so we got the Maxima (and it went along with our rental car on the insurance company’s dime). Story finished with car #2…

Car #2

1998 Mitsubishi Mirage
• Color: Grey
• Miles: 100,700
• 5-speed (standard transmission)
• Manual everything- windows, door locks, seats, side mirrors- everything. No frills.
• Cassette player
• 2-door DE Coupe
• General feelings- I’ve really missed driving a standard!! When we had gone looking for a #2 car and decided on the Maxima, I was sad because I had really been hoping for a standard! It’s a small car, however. A bit smaller than my first car- a ’93 Subaru Impreza Sedan. But it reminds me of that, too. And as long as I can fit (which I do), i can live with it.

Story: We heard from the insurance company on Friday- actually, from the adjustor who had looked at the car (as opposed to the claims adjustor who was the overseer handling our claim) and he told us what he valued the car at. MUCH more than we had anticipated. With this in mind, we sometime talked to the guy at the bank who had approved the refinance of the Camry and he told Rachel that the bank would release the title for less than the insurance company would pay, so we would get the difference. Slight misunderstanding there, however- as what he really meant was that the insurance company would have to send the bank the whole check, which would be applied wholly to the newly refinanced loan, and we would get a loan giving us the certain amount, and the rest of it paying off what was due on the other loan- basically, refinancing that loan to give us some to buy a 2nd car, but still pay off a good chunk… much more complicated- added a middle man, but whatever…

The REAL problem came in the insurance company taking forever to do stuff. We even told our claims adjustor that we would overnight the paperwork from us to her to speed up the process. That didn’t stop her from taking a week to do anything with that paperwork, then lying to Rachel about sending paperwork to the bank- she said she’d sent it a week earlier, then her assistant told Rachel that it had been faxed to the bank that day.

All that’s the side story. This car came across our plate from someone at church- she worked with a girl who was having her 2nd child and she and her husband needed a larger vehicle then as the Mirage would not take 2 car seats. We kinda dismissed it- not because we weren’t interested, but because at first, we thought we were going to have to finance something again and even though the price was good for this car, we really wanted to get something a bit more if we were going to be paying for it over the next 5 years.

Then we found out we were going to actually have money in our pocket to put a sizeable downpayment (or simply buy outright if it was less- which this was), we revisited the information that had been passed along to us. So, we set up a test drive of the car, which went very smoothly. We had a small side conference, and that evening we told them we’d take it- as soon as the insurance company cut a check and we had the money to pay for it. And this weekend (the first weekend of October, 2007), we transferred the title and picked up the car.