What Had-Happened.

Category: dribblings

So I’ve needed a new car for the last 5 or 6 years, I guess. I mean, the Jeep has been my ride since I learned to drive. She’s 21 years old. I had to buy a new battery for her last week and the tranny is still wonky, slipping out of gear when I press the brakes a bit hard. If you were to borrow my Jeep I’d have to take 20 minutes to explain to you how to drive it and what not to do. THEN we’d drive it around the block so I could make sure you understand how SERIOUS I am when I tell you that you CANNOT BRAKE HARD. DON’T DO IT. Then you’d freak out because you didn’t even hit the brakes that hard and it STILL slipped out of gear and OH MY GOD JAIMIE HOW HAVE YOU BEEN DRIVING THIS DEATHTRAP FOR THIS LONG?

Okay, first of all, don’t be such a drama queen. It’s not that bad.

YES, IT IS.

So I’ve been preparing myself for buying a new car. I’ve prayed about it, even. I’ve looked at dozens of websites and interest calculators and SUVs and crossovers, and I’ve had many a moments of panic sitting in my computer chair. I took a second job. I saved and researched for 2 months. For some reason I had “August” in my mind for when I’d get my new car. It didn’t seem like enough time. I was all, “Lord, I’m hearing August, but maybe September or October would be good too, right?”

August.

My second job is 20 miles away, so on those days I have to borrow my dad’s truck. It’s a pain in the ass for him. He’s basically stuck at home, unless he wants to drive my deathtrap jeep. Both of my parents have been really great about letting me borrow their cars when I need to go somewhere farther away than the grocery store.

As August approached I was sort of feeling like maybe September would be better. So I had stopped talking to God about the car business. In June and July Mr. Fleegan and I had stopped at a couple of dealerships afterhours so we could look at some cars without having any douche nozzles pester us.

Of course I wanted a Jeep. But I knew it was a bad idea to get one. I’d been researching and the research said that if you buy a new/newer Jeep all the stupid shit breaks on it, the power windows and seats break a lot. So I stopped looking at Jeeps.

I wanted to keep my money in Rainbow City, cos that’s where I live and work, and I know that sounds corny, especially when you can go to Boaz or Anniston and supposedly get great deals at all those car dealerships. Rainbow City has 2 dealerships, maybe 3, I’m not sure where the Kia store hits in the city limits. So I knew I was limiting myself, but it felt important that I stay in the RBC. So I checked out the Hyundai place online. One of my coworkers drives a Hyundai Tucson, and I really liked it. It was a smallish SUV like my ancient Jeep.

At this point, Mr. Fleegan was starting to insist on a new car and not a used one like I was wanting. I wanted something that seemed affordable. He wanted something that had a warranty. I figured we could compromise and maybe get a 2011, because that’s like new. I mean, when you’ve been driving a 1991 Cherokee, a 2001 Anything feels like a new car.

Then I stopped talking about the car sitch. I was sick of it. Mr. Fleegan would bring it up from time to time and I’d be all, “Yeah.” and then he mentioned that lots of times December is a good month for buying a car cos the dealerships are trying to sell as much as possible. I was all, “Yeah!” cos then I could put off thinking about all of this for months! Sweet!

On Friday he called on his way home from work saying, “Let’s go test drive a Tucson.”

“Oh God, no. No no no no no.”

“Why not?”

“Cos we’ll buy it.”

“We don’t have to buy anything.”

“But we will. Oh no.”

“What is the big deal here? What are you so afraid of?”

“Talking to some asshole. And also having to drive a car with some stranger, who is probably an asshole.”

“That’s your fear? The test drive?”

“YES. OH MY GOD THE TEST DRIVE. YOU DO IT.”

“No, it’s your car; you need to drive it.”

“But not with some asshole in the car!”

“We’re doing this.”

“I thought we talked about December.”

“Be ready in an hour.”

Fuck.

Leave it to Jimmy to rip me from my very static, warm, kinda soft comfort zone.

Super duper long story short: 4 hours later we had bought a Tucson. The test drive was fine. The car salesman was an asshole. None of it killed me.

Honorable mentions:

We bought the car on Friday, it was August 31st.

15 minutes after I signed the papers and CAREFULLY drove it home I received a text message from a friend asking if I could play bass at the Albertville Vineyard church on Sunday. Normally, I’d have to turn that gig down because I didn’t have a car that I’d trust to not only cross county lines, but also drive up a mountain (well, “mountain.”)

God is good. All the time.

I am so relieved that this is over.

In other car news that you care NOTHING about:

I still have the Heep. It’s is still our Snork-hunting, drive-to-the-park car. There’s no way I’m letting Roxie’s dirty paws in the back seat of the Tucson!

I’ll post a picture of the new car when it stops raining.

 

 

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