A BRAND NEW CAR! Not even kidding. One of the stress issues I’ve been having with in regards to moving and school is my car. It’s a 1995 Honda Civic LX and has just over 107k miles on it, I got it in 2004 when I graduated high school and haven’t had any problems with it until the last year or so; the check engine light has been on for over a year, and ended up being the O2 sensor which is why my gas mileage has gotten pretty crappy, and when I took it in to finally get it checked at the dealership they decided to check out the rest of my car and told me that the radiator was leaking and the fan was broke, the oil pan has a leak, the tie rods needed to be replaced, and a slew of other things. The repairs according to the dealership were going to cost me about $2000 give or take a little, and it’s money I didn’t have so I didn’t get those things repair (this was a few months ago).

We took the car on Tuesday to a mechanic that one of my uncles knows for him to look at it and gave him the list the Honda dealership had given me of everything that was wrong with the car. He pointed out what absolutely NEEDED to be fixed and what I could do later, it ended up being around $750 - not as bad as $2000 but still money I didn’t have. So for the past couple of months since all this started (with the intial visit to the dealership), my mom and I have been debating on whether or not we should throw money into my car - an older car that already has pretty decent amount of miles on it that will most likely keep having problems until it finally breaks down completely - or get a new car. The issue with me in regards to a new car is that I never want to be put into a position where I would feel like I couldn’t afford it, I don’t want to start on the road of bad credit now and want to do everything the correct and smart way.

My mom was worried that my car might break down on me on the way to Kansas or that it wouldn’t last much longer after I got there, despite the repairs we could get down prior to me leaving. It runs fairly well, but you can tell it’s starting to show its age. So, she talked to my aunt who works for an auto magazine and she had the Suzuki dealership call me…they wanted me to come to their dealership in Moncks Corner, which is 45 minutes from where I live. My mom and I drove up there in my Civic, and was immediately greeted by a salesman who acted like he had a bad case of ADD; he took me over the Suzuki Reno, drove us around, let me test drive it, and that was that. We went over the numbers and my mom talked them down a bit from where they originally started; she said she would help me for awhile until I get settled but that it makes her feel better knowing I’d have a more reliable car to drive around in. She said that I have to start somewhere and that even though everything is overwhelming for me right now, with moving and school, that she knows I’ll be okay; she knew I was concerned about affording it and not wanting to start on that bad path.

I figured we’d look at some cars, look at some numbers, and go home…instead I came home with a brand new Suzuki Reno in Sunburst color that only had 20 miles on it. I have until tomorrow to fully make up my mind as we have to go back and give them the title and down payment for it, so if I change my mind between now and then, I’ve lost nothing. It’s a big step and a scary one at that, but I’m pretty happy and excited with how things are going so far - I can’t wait to start school and see what else is in store for me.

Tags: Car

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 2:50 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.