The last two days have been an adventure, and not one I plan to experience again in the near future. I was lured into the car dealership with an email about a pre-Memorial Day Sale.
Day 1, I wasn't there very long before I was told I was approved for a $15,000 loan.....really?.....how's that possible with my not so good credit score.....wow! How indeed, it was a 21% interest rate "reestablishment" loan. After seeing the plethora of used cars available on the dealerships website I felt a tingle of excitement, albeit still resistant to going into debt again after being debt free for the last several years and trying to block out that pesky 21% interest rate.......but let's play the game shall we. I was escorted outside to be shown a $12,000 used Prius, what a funny looking car, I wasn't impressed and even less so when I sat down it, pressed a button to start it and nothing happened!.......dead battery. Walking back into the building I told the girl showing me the supposedly one car available to me because I had no money to put down (only my car), that I did NOT want to spend $12,000 on a used car or make $400 payments every month, I didn't want to spend more than $200 a month on payments, well that got a giggle out of her as you can imagine.
I was thanking her for her time and about to walk out when suddenly another car was in the offering...amazing (not). This one was $10,000 and $300 payments.....enter the guy who arranges the loans with the banks with the testimony on how lucky I am to be approved for a loan with my low credit score and how hard he worked to get this approved, I'll never find a car like this with only 40,000 miles on it, heaven forbid I should walk away and something happens to my car, and of course there were two other people interested in buying it...blah, blah, blah...he wore me down. I climbed in this car which hadn't been detailed yet and wreaked of old cigarette smoke and took a drive around the block......a 2009 Toyota Corolla, a reliable car, good milage but oh so boring. I reluctantly decided to take the plunge and purchase the car, the deciding factor being all that is wrong and borderline dangerous with my current car.
Day 2. I return to the dealership car title in hand and we begin the process. The young lady left the office to work with the 'loan procuring guy' and briefly stopped by my door to show me the loan agreement with the bank (I'm sure she's kicking herself now) and I asked for a copy, she obliged and left me to sit there reading it. Whats this?? I'm not buying a Ford Focus or paying that price for a car??? I go to the next room where they are sitting getting all there paper work together and question this 'mistake'. Oh........don't worry about that he says and I can't remember the words after that. I go back to the other office and sit there with this uneasy feeling coming over me and the girl finally arrives with the pile of paper work ready for signatures. I say "Let's take a look at each paper". I look at the contract and the first think I notice is the price of the car $11,999 (not $10,000). The second thing I notice is they listed my rent as $325 not $960 and my income was 'enhanced'. She shows me a paper with 'extras' listed that can be purchased saying I'm not obligated to purchased any of them but I see three items were checked......that was it. I mention my concerns and disappointment in the process and she goes to the other guy's office to see what she can do. He comes in and starts saying all the things he said the day before only with a little less conviction and the profound statement that this is how things are done in this business and I wouldn't have qualified any other way and this was all done for me.........right. I left.
So back to plan A, get the hole fixed in the floor of my car and stay living close to my mechanic ;-)
Got some painting done this past weekend. I started painting number two of the three for the Florida restaurant
and then took a day to work on a few ACEO paintings for ebay (its been too long).
