Really? Do you know how hard that is to find? But....he searches. EVERY day. It's not uncommon for me to get a text (or two) while he's in school with an attachment and note that says 'check this one out' or 'I found one!'.
And he really did. He found a 2002 Toyota Tacoma. Red. Crew Cab. Excellent condition. In Warrenton, VA. About an hour from us. AND we were headed there on Saturday for a baseball tournament. Perfect.
So I did my homework. Ran a car fax. Called the dealer. It sounded pretty good. We would go there while we were in the area. Yep, all sounded good until the tournament was cancelled due to rain.
Next up? He found option B. A 2002 Sonoma, crew cab, excellent condition. In Wheaton, MD. (about 1 1/2 hours from us). Car fax. Call the dealer. Oh and come to find out, it's only had three owners. Two within 5 miles from us. The first for nearly 3 years and the second for 2 1/2 years before one about 40 minutes from us. It's a small world. Our plans were made to head there on Saturday morning.
Up decent, picked up Christian in time to hit Chick-fil-a for breakfast -
then down the road we went in the nasty rain.....arriving just after lunch. And there it was -
It looked really nice.
They got the keys and started it up. It sounded pretty good......at first. And then the fun began. The looks between Ronnie, Chase and Christian were priceless.
Next up 'the test drive'. Oh my....if I could have been a mouse to see the looks when the brakes squeaked and the gears didn't change too good. Yep, Chase was disappointed but hey, it's better to find out now instead of buying an 'AS IS' car, right?!
So back on the phones and iPad searching. We decided to hit all the dealers in Frederick. He liked a Honda Accord.
Same year as Cierra's. A little higher. And quite a few more dings but he got the saleman's card just in case....
And then we hit Fitzgerald where he had seen another Sonoma on-line. We entered the HUGE parking lot and drove towards the 'used' cars. Nothing to the left. And then......to the right, down along the fence we could see the nose of the truck.
Hmmm...looking a little rough but oh, it's from Des Moines, lol.
As we were approached by a salesman, he talked about their "handy man" lot. Basically cars "AS IS".
Chase even found one he could pay-off now, haha! (who needs mirrors?!)
After walking around for a little and seeing cars that need pretty much a 'boat load' of work, we decided
this isn't the way to go.
So off we went to Toyota with our final destination for the day being the Ford garage -
He and Christian walked around and then checked out this one -
One owner. Purchased originally from this dealer. All service done here. A woman. Miles were highway - commute to Bethesda. MINT condition. And, within his price range. SCORE.
They checked it out, sat in it, phoned a few friends, test drove
and then put $100 down to hold it. Given this is his first car, we wanted him to sleep on it and make sure this would work (especially since he wanted a truck).
On Sunday morning, the first question we asked was "well, do you still want it?" and the answer was "YES!". That works.
And back to Frederick we go -
Await our turn to close the deal -
Chase is now the owner (or at least after his payments) of this SUV. Deal done.
And Ray will forever be "Pappy"!
And yes, he already has a Christmas list. brush guard, tinted windows, stereo system......did we expect anything different?! Congratulations Chase!!
Now I think we can throw all these cards away, lol!
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