It was a about six months ago when I wrote about a shirt I got that had been cast off on the side of the road, abandoned and neglected. Now it seems I've attracted something else in my life that shares a similar story. I have to wonder if my purpose in life is to resurrect things from the dead that have been neglected for far too long, and give them a new purpose.
This time it's a little bit harder than an article of clothing. It's not a matter of simply putting on a shirt and giving it a chance to live again. Not everything in life is that easy, and in this case, I've got a challenge, and we've got our work cut out for us. This one is going to take money, effort, and a lot of time.
Anyone who knows me well already knows we just got a new car, but they may not know the story. This car has her own story to tell, as I've come to realize most cars do. I just wish I was able to trace it all back to the original owner, but I guess sometimes there are things you're just not meant to know.
This car was bought by it's current owner when it had about 93,000 miles on it. They babied her. She was given all the care and maintenance she could possibly need. They kept her in as pristine condition as possible, and she was given all of her regular maintenance just when she needed it, never waiting until it was good for them. She had only the best.
Then we're not quite sure what happened. Somewhere along the line she needed some work. The door panels were torn open. The electrical systems in the door didn't work right. It wouldn't have taken much, but they didn't have the time and they had other cars to focus on. She was put into the back yard and they were going to work on fixing her up for their son, but that never happened. Their son decided he wanted something else instead and now the car needs a lot of love. She sat in that back yard for nearly five years. In that time she was climbed on by dogs, exposed to the elements, and forced to suffer without the regular care and maintenance she needed to keep her going. Her battery died. Her oil turned to sludge. Her front tire went flat. Even the tail light, which wasn't completely sealed, began to fill with water. She was beginning to think she should just give up. She'd end up in a junk yard somewhere, rotting until she was finally crushed.
That's when we came into the picture. We saw a listing on Craigslist for a 1993 Mazda Mx6 for $700. We were originally looking for a minivan or larger SUV due to our family size. I've got three kids and two more I may need to transport when I'm working as a nanny. We really need a large vehicle. However, beggar's can't be choosers, and it was coming down to the line. There was only so much longer we could look for a car before we really couldn't wait any longer for a way to get around. With tax season hitting, it means everyone is going to have more money to spend. The prices on Craigslist are starting to rise and dealers are no longer willing to negotiate on having smaller downpayments. Because of this, we had to start expanding our options. We were going to have to take what we could get and look for something that can fit the whole family later. At the very least it would give me something that could get me to my nanny job and to the grocery store. We could stop relying on other people for rides. That's what we needed.
So, seeing this car listed, we decided to check it out. The car was listed as needing some transmission work, and the battery needed to be replaced. It would need a new paint job and had some damage here and there. I checked the blue book for the car and it was listed in it's condition to be around $850. We figured for $700, that was a steal, even in the condition it was likely in. Chesh went out to check it out. We'd already gotten her to come down on price a bit, so we were pretty excited.
When we got her home, I have to admit, I was worried. She burns gas. Her windshield is more broken than I thought. I didn't realize she'd need a tire. She looked like she'd been through a natural disaster.
When he got there he saw all the things wrong with her. He got there around 5pm, but it was well past dark when he was done going over every detail. He wanted to make sure we knew exactly what we were getting before we drove her off the property. After going over her with a fine tooth comb, he finally got the owner to hand her over for all of $450. That was a lot lower than she could have sold for, but given she'd been sitting in a yard since 2007, she was willing to take what she could get. She wasn't selling it because she needed the money, but more that she wanted to get rid of her and see her used rather than pay to have her hauled off to a junk yard. It worked well for everyone involved.
Things didn't look much better when we got her home. The next morning we got to take a good look at her together. She needs a lot of love. We put as much effort into cleaning her as possible, but it was clear she was going to have some issues. Her whole front end does the shimmy-shake when you have her at idol, though it doesn't seem to be a problem in motion. She also burns oil, probably from the time she's spent sitting and her oil being sludge. One of her tail lights doesn't work, which means it's going to need to be rewired, probably due to water damage. There was no bulb and with all that water sitting in there, it's not surprising it's out. I was beginning to think the worst of this situation, that we'd spent this money on a car that would cost more to make useful than we really had in our budget to spend.
The next day Chesh took a good look at the car. Apparently the damage isn't as bad as it seems. All the lines need to be bled, but it looks like the only things she'll need to pass inspection are a new tire, a new windshield, new windshield wipers, the taillight fixed, and an oil change at the least so she'll pass emissions. Sure, she needs some help before she'll be able to hit fifth gear, but at least that's the bulk of it, and she can be driven. It's not as bad as I had feared.
I guess that's kind of how I feel about myself sometimes. I was put into a rut. I was cast aside, neglected and abused for far too long. Finally I was rescued, though more from my own actions than someone saving me. At first it looked pretty bad. I almost looked like a salvage job myself. I didn't think I'd ever find something stable and "normal" underneath it all. Then, once the dirt was all cleared off and someone could finally take a good look at what really needed to be done, it was apparent that all I needed was a few repairs in order to get myself back up and running again. True, I'd need a full overhaul in time, but until then, I'm at least capable of getting through the day without driving myself any deeper down. Things will get better with a little work and TLC.
It's funny how I attract these sorts of things into my life. At the same time, it's kind of frustrating. We were looking for another car that would better suit our needs, but that one fell through due to some shady people making the deal. We found another match, but the guy was giving us the run around. He wouldn't be in state until today, but he'd already had several offers for the car much higher than ours. Had he not told us he had gotten other offers higher than our own, we probably would have sat it out until he got back, but it sounded like he wasn't planning to sell the car to us. We'd already been looking for nearly two weeks with no success, so we gave up and decided to go with whatever we could get. Otherwise, we'd probably be driving that minivan right now. It just seems like fate that we would end up with this car, even though it's not at all what we need, but then again, maybe it truly is...
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