Buying a used truck-harder than it used to be, but worth it!
On December 23 my car was parked next to my garage because the garage was filled with construction materials. The job was supposed to be finished in November, then on the 8th of December but kept getting dragged out for various reasons, until it was just too cold to continue. So now it's winter with snow and more and my car is sitting outside when an ice storm hit (freezing rain). A tree couldn't take the weight and a limb came down and stuck the car. It didn't do a tremendous amount of damage; the windshield was cracked, the fender was badly dented; the hood, roof and trunk had small dents. There was sufficient bodywork on so many panels that the insurance company decided the car was a total loss. The car was a 2009 (9 years old) Chevy Impala. We bought it for Joan for $13 grand back in 2011. I figured it to be worth about 2 grand, maybe 3 tops. When I started looking, I found out to my shock that it was worth about 6! What? A nine year old 120,000 mile car... 6 grand? okay.... I'll keep that in mind when dealing with the insurance company! Well, since then and until the day of my birthday (the 18th) I had been searching for a new car 6 to 8 hours every day. What a mess the private used car market is, at least around here. The price of used cars has gone through the roof, and private party sales have become difficult because of a lack of availability and frankly poor/rude manners of sellers. People don't return calls or texts, break appointments. Something has gone or is going terribly wrong with our society  Anyway, I sit quite tall. I'm 6' 3", but I sit much taller since I have very short legs (and some extra padding on the backside, too). I generally only fit into GM cars and trucks as they offer the most headroom (the measurement of seat to roof) in most cars. From experience, I need a car with 41 inches of headroom. This means that almost without exception I cannot own a car with a sun/moon roof. In a Tahoe/Yukon/Suburban/Escalade/Pickup the headroom is 40.7 inches and my few stray hairs on my head touch the headliner (annoying!) and many road bumps cause my head to touch the headliner. Without the roof window, I have plenty of room. This was a Lincoln Aviator I tried   I decided to start looking for a cheap GM SUV. One suitable for dump runs, carrying the dog, going to home depot, pulling a trailer. I'm looking at older models and I want to spend about $2,000 which is the amount I think my car was worth, give or take. I've never owned a car with leather interior, always cloth seats. If I'm going to look for a cheap truck I'll spend a few extra dollars and find one that was a luxury version when it was new. This pretty much limits me to certain Tahoe/Yukon models and the Cadillac version the Escalade. Long story shorter.... I up my spend limit to the amount my totaled car is worth and I still can only find trucks through dealers. One day on Facebook an acquaintance of mine who I knew moved to Austria a couple of weeks back posted "Buy my cars" on fb, and wouldn't you know it includes an old Escalade just above my price point. The post was a couple of days old (why didn't I see it right away? grrrrr, thanks fb) I quickly contacted him but someone else "had dibs" before me... and he bought it quickly. So I add dealers into the mix and find a few real clunkers in my price range (remember, dealers have to add a couple of thousand to the private price if they want to stay in business) and finally find one that seems pretty good; a 2004 Escalade with (gulp) 200,000 miles. I check it out and it looks so darn shiny and clean. It's been in a couple of minor accidents in it's life but it's been owned by two people; first one in a wealthy suburb of Boston for 4 years and 70,000 miles, and then by the previous owner for 9 years and 130,000 miles. So.... here it is, my "new" 2004 Cadillac Escalade     |
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| So here's the funny part: The older car -well actually the younger of the two, so I guess I should call it the former car- was titled and registered in Joan's name as it was a hand-me-down when she got a newer used car last year. In order to transfer the registration without getting new plates and incurring an extra fee (hey, it's like $50 bucks) it has to be in her name alone. (Of course I'm listed as the primary driver so there's nothing underhanded going on at all.) Well, I guess that'll be okay. We've been happily married for 6 years now... married for 31. I think it might last. So technically what I did is... I bought my wife a Cadillac for my birthday. LOL |
That looks big enough for more than one sheepie. Just sayin'....  |
| You ought to buy back the Impala, fix it, and sell it (or even keep it). You could probably buy it back for a few hundred dollars. Find a body guy that does work under the table. Have him make the repairs for $1k to $1,500. And then sell it for $3-5k. |
| Love the Caddy. It will run for another 100K |
Mady wrote: That looks big enough for more than one sheepie. Just sayin'....  We're just starting to catch our breath from this puppy!CamVal1 wrote: You ought to buy back the Impala, fix it, and sell it (or even keep it). You could probably buy it back for a few hundred dollars. Find a body guy that does work under the table. Have him make the repairs for $1k to $1,500. And then sell it for $3-5k. Thought about it. The buyback was about $900 after tax consideration (they pay you sales tax if they total the car, but not if you keep it) then repairs would be about $1,800 plus a windshield (probably $250?) then it would have a "SALVAGE" brand on the title... It would have been a good $3,000 car for someone but I didn't want the hassle. Paula O. wrote: Love the Caddy. It will run for another 100K I hope so, that would be 10 or 15 years for me as a secondary/utility car!!!  |
Ron wrote: I bought my wife a Cadillac for my birthday. LOL Now Joan has returned the favor: I bought her a Cadillac for my birthday, and she had our septic system pumped for me for Valentine's Day.  |
Ron wrote: Ron wrote: I bought my wife a Cadillac for my birthday. LOL Now Joan has returned the favor: I bought her a Cadillac for my birthday, and she had our septic system pumped for me for Valentine's Day. A romance made in heaven. LOL |
| I've driven my Cadillac about 4,000 miles in two and a half years, including about 500 on one trip that involved me picking up my dad and driving him to and from the wedding. I've had a few issues; the fuel pump broke and spilled gas for a while and a brake line went and needed fixing. Also a mechanic tried to rip off both a small garage owner and me, and the garage owner died in the middle of the issue and I wound up having the mechanic criminally charged and I eventually got paid back the $250 he stole from me but I didn't get back the last $100 the garage owner owed me because the mechanic ripped him off too and never did the job on my truck. But other than that.... Haha  |
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