So, those of you that know us know that we are HOT for Dave Ramsey and dumping debt! Aaron and I were blessed with Dave Ramsey's program three years ago. Samtec, the company Aaron works for, offered Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University to all of their employees and their spouses for FREE! Heck yeah, let's take it! That was TOTALLY a God thing because I had been looking into the program, but it was a bit expensive for us to do it on our own. Thank you Jesus! If it hadn't been for Samtec offering us this program there is no way I would have been able to stay home with Bella and I'm sure other bad things would have happened because we weren't very smart with our money...we thought we were, but Dave told us different. So, in three years we have dumped 50k in debt! WOO HOO! We still have 33k more to go, not bad considering where we were, but not where we would like to be.
What in the world does all this have to do with a car? I know, I know...I really do have a point. We decided to sell Aaron's car so we could dump some more debt. We knew we were upside down on Aaron's car, but any amount we would be able to pay off would be fantastic! So we put Aaron's car up for sale for less than blue book value so we could make a quick sale. It sold within two weeks of us having it up for sale. We listed it on eBay, craigslist, and in the local paper. The people who bought it from us found it on eBay. They were wonderful people! We were so glad to give them a good car and our car, we brought Bella home from the hospital in, a new home.
Bye, bye little Kia that our family has outgrown. You were a good car! We knew that our buyers would be purchasing the car, but the entire process took about five days. We met them at their bank on a Saturday morning, the Saturday before Halloween. We had been looking all week for a new vehicle so we went to look at a few that day. We were all exhausted and still had to trick-or-treat that night so we decided to call it a day and head home.We found a Dodge Durango on craigslist that we liked and was in our price range. We had the cash to pay for it and had tried to contact the owner without any luck. We were finally able to get ahold of him on Halloween (Sunday, October 31st) and drove to French Lick, IN to meet. Let's call him Ben...Ben Dover. (we will change his name in case one day I make millions of dollars from this story and he can't get any royalties from this! Here's to wishful thinking! =)
So, above is a picture of our lovely car...well, not our car exactly, but one that looks like the one we bought. I borrowed both images from the web. Thank you Yahoo! images for allowing me to borrow the images of both the Kia and the Durango. =)Anyhow, onto our very long story. We drove to French Lick, the home of Larry Bird, in our 1998 white Nissan Altima aka The White Death (it was given this nickname because it seems as though I am always killing something in this car like a bird flying into the windshield or a squirrel running out in front of me). Picture a beautiful, sunny, and warm for October afternoon. I'm dressed in my 1950's sock hop outfit (it was Halloween after all), Aaron in the passenger seat, Garrett in the back reading a book, and Bella in her car seat chatting away. We met at a local gas station to meet Ben and look at the car. I let Aaron and Garrett test drive the car while Bella and I hung out in the parking lot. They came back, I looked at it, Aaron checked it out, we signed the title, gave Ben the cash ($3000), and drove it home. What a great day! Uhm, sure...okay....well, maybe not so much.
So I drove it home because this will now be my vehicle. Garrett was in the front seat with me and Aaron and Bella were following behind. We got home, put Bella down for a nap, relaxed for about 30 minutes, and then got ready to go to my mom's house for dinner and trick-or-treating. We took the car (aka The White Death) because the Durango (aka The Beast) had Aaron's old tags from the Kia on it. We went to my mom's, stopped by my brother and sister-in-law's, dropped by Skyla's, and then headed home. We got home and were getting all of our stuff out of the car like my AWESOME bread machine that my mom gave me! Thank you MOM! I was getting the last load out of the car when I saw a puddle underneath the Durango which, by the way, will be referred to as the beast from now on. I asked Aaron to come downstairs, which he did, and I said,"Babe, what is that?" all while pointing to the HUGE puddle that looked to me like transmission fluid underneath the beast. Now, I am no mechanic and I don't know a whole lot about cars, but I do know that oil should be dark in color (like black) and transmission fluid should be a lighter color (like red). This was most definitely red. Not a good sign is it? So, my husband being the Alpha male that he is began to beat himself up! Yes, looking back we should have waited a day or two to have the beast checked out, but we needed a car for the next day because Aaron had to be at work, I had to be at Target for orientation (that is a whole other story in itself), I had to get Skyla so she could watch Bella while I went to orientation (Skyla was on fall break), and with only one car there was no way we could make it all happen. So my fabulous husband was feeling like all of this was his fault. Not true honey! We live and we learn...and we have DEFINITELY learned from this experience!
So, we go upstairs and call Ben. Hey, he told us to call him if we had any problems so we did. Well what do you know, Ben didn't answer his phone. Aaron tried calling him three times that night and never heard back from him. Aaron decided not to go to work on Monday to deal with all the beast stuff so he talked with his boss and got the all clear. All the while we are looking at the title to the beast and realize that Ben's name is no where to be found on the title! We thought that he had already signed it, but he hadn't. It was signed by Larry who was the original owner of the beast. Oh goodness, we really don't have a good feeling about this now.
Monday morning comes and we call a tow truck to have them tow the beast to Morton's in New Albany. We LOVE Morton's! They are fantastic, honest, and reasonable! So we paid $85.00 for the tow to Morton's and let Morton's know the beast was on it's way. We told them what was going on and they said they would look at it. Well, I went on to Target for my orientation (I'm telling you that story will be next) and left Aaron here with the girls. Aaron sent me a text while I was at Target letting me know that it was only going to cost $130 to fix the beast! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!! When I talked with Aaron on my way home he said that it was the transmission pan gasket (look at me, I sound like I know what I am talking about) that needed to be replaced and they had to put in 6 quarts of transmission fluid (does that tell you how big the puddle was on our garage floor?) so the cost would be $160 and would be ready on Tuesday. SWEET! When I got home I asked Aaron if Morton's looked at the beast over all to see if there was anything else that needed to be fixed and he said they didn't but he would ask them to look at it the next morning.
Tuesday morning Aaron calls Morton's and asks them to look at the beast. They said they would be glad to. Around 10:30AM Aaron calls me from work. I could tell as soon as I answered the phone that something was wrong. Now, those of you that know my husband know that he IS NOT a cusser! When we first started dating I had the mouth of someone that worked in a restaurant for many, many years, but since my honey didn't cuss I decided I shouldn't either so I stopped. Anyhow, he called, I said what's wrong, and he said,"We bought an f@*$&%*g piece of s#*t!!!!!!" Okay, tell me what's wrong. He said that Morton's started rattling off all these things that were wrong with the beast. I asked him how much it was going to cost to fix it and he said he didn't know. I told Aaron that I would call them and take care of it from there so he could go back to work. I called Morton's and spoke with the wonderful lady who works the desk. She was SO sweet! I told her who I was and asked what was wrong with the beast. She said that we needed new brakes, upper and lower ball joints, transmission flush, belts were cracking, battery service and replace cables, coolant flush, brake lights, etc. I asked her for an estimate...drum roll please...$1780! WOW! There went all the money we were going to pay on debt! So I told her to go ahead and fix it all. She said okay and that we should have the beast back no later than Friday. So, a full week with only one car...I know we can make it work. I called Aaron back to talk with him about the situation and he was a little more calm, but not much. He said he had tried calling Ben several more times while he was at work (thinking he wouldn't recognize the number and answer the phone), but no he didn't answer the phone. I knew you would be surprised by that!
Wednesday comes and Morton's calls Aaron to tell him that the beast is ready! SWEET! Two days early! I told you they were awesome! So he picks up the beast and drives it home. The good thing from this whole experience is that Morton's told us we have a REALLY good vehicle and it should last us another 100k miles! That's good because after all this we will drive into the ground!
Well now, I'm sure you thought our story would end there didn't you. Wait! Don't go away because we aren't even close to being finished yet! So, Thursday comes and when Aaron gets off work he takes the beast to the BMV in Corydon to try and get tags put on it. We knew we weren't over all of our hurdles yet. While Aaron was at the BMV he sends me a text that says,"NOT GOOD!" which I replied with,"What's wrong now?". When he left the BMV he called me and told me that the lady at the BMV looked at what he had and said that she couldn't help him. She gave him a list of things we needed to do and sent him on his way. Now, the only experience I have had with buying/selling a car from an individual were all in Indiana with Indiana titles. Remember when we told you that Ben's name wasn't anywhere on the title? Well, it was a Kentucky title. Oh joy! First thing to do on our list was to have the police department do a VIN check on the beast. At this point I was totally believing that we paid $3k for a stolen vehicle, paid $1830 to have it fixed, and were going to be out all that money with no vehicle to show for it! So Thursday evening we were on our way to the police department in Corydon when Aaron stopped in the middle of the road, backed up, and pulled into the parking lot of what used to be a First Harrison Bank in the "heart" of Crandall. I say that jokingly because if you have ever been out to our house you know that if you blink you will miss Crandall and it's population of roughly 200 people. So we pulled into the parking lot of the old bank which is now a Fraternal Order of Police where there was a sheriff's car. Aaron gets out and walks up to the sheriff who just happens to be a guy that used to work at Samtec with Aaron. Thank you Jesus! Aaron tells him the story of the beast, Kerry runs a VIN check for us, and praise the Lord it's not stolen! So Kerry signs the VIN check paper for us and we headed back home.
Next order of business, contact Larry who originally owned the beast. His name and telephone number were on the back of the title where he signed it. Oh, did I happen to mention that he signed the title in the wrong place? Which meant that technically the beast was still legally his. We just paid 3k and put an additional $1800 into a vehicle that didn't even legally belong to us! How much more craptastic can this get? Thankfully Larry was the nicest man in the world! I called him, told him he had no idea who I was, explained the situation, and he agreed to meet us in Jeffersonville at the bank where I used to work on Court Ave.
Friday, November 5th we met Larry at First Savings Bank in Jeffersonville at 4:00. He was so kind to us! He signed the title and filled out a bill of sale for us. We told Larry that the BMV also told us the title we had showed there was still a lien on the beast. He said there was no lien and he didn't have the title stating that. Super nice man! We wish we could've dealt with him from the beginning. He did tell us that Ben had only had the beast for about a week. Ben told Larry that he was going to fix the beast and flip it. Larry sold the beast to Ben for only...are you ready for this....$1000! Yeah, we got so screwed! That's why I named him Ben Dover because that's what he did to us! He flipped it all right...don't know about the fixing part though.
Final order of business, getting a title that shows there isn't a lien on the beast. Aaron called the bank listed on the title where the lien was held. They said they didn't show a lien against the beast and that they don't keep records back that far so we would need to call the courthouse. Aaron calls the number the bank gave him. He spoke to a nice young lady in the county clerks office that said the beast did not have a lien against it and that she could fax him a paper stating that! SWEET! The only hurdle that hasn't been difficult! Wait for it...it's coming. Two hours went by and Aaron never received a fax so he called them back. He spoke with another lady stating that they could not fax us a paper and that he had the wrong courthouse. We needed to call Caldwell county courthouse. Oh yeah, did I happen to mention that Larry used to live in Princeton, KY which is three hours away in Western Kentucky? So Aaron calls me to tell me what is going on. I called the Caldwell County courthouse and spoke with a really nice lady that said that we would have to bring the title in to have it initialed that the lien had been released. There was no other way to do this. We were going to have to drive three hours each way to the Caldwell County courthouse to have them initial a piece of paper stating that there was not a lien against our vehicle.
Monday morning comes, Aaron has asked for a half-day off from work on Tuesday so we can make the drive to Western Kentucky. I asked Aaron to call the courthouse one more time and see if there was any way she could fax us something stating the lien had been released so that we didn't have to drive three hours each way to their location. She said (can you hear the angels singing now?),"Oh honey, you don't have to drive all the way here. You can go to any courthouse in Kentucky and they can sign off on that. Are you close to Kentucky at all?". I think I probably heard Aaron yell YES from New Albany! That Monday afternoon he drove to Louisville after work, went to the courthouse, got the title signed, and we were in the clear!
Tuesday afternoon came and Aaron decided he was still going to take a half-day. He said he wanted to make sure that he had enough time in case we needed to do anything else with the beast...did I happen to mention that was also the day Black Ops came out for xBox 360? ;-) Anyhow, he took the beast back to the Corydon BMV and was able to get it tagged without any problems! Thank you Jesus! The beast is ours, all ours!
We have learned MANY valuable lessons from this experience.
1. You shouldn't always be so trusting. I have a tendency to be very trusting and I trusted Ben. He seemed very upfront, honest, and nice. He knew a lot about the vehicle, but really he was just blowing smoke up our booties. What made me the most upset about this whole ordeal was that he knew the vehicle wasn't safe and yet he let us drive off in it with two of our three kids. How in the world can money be that important that you don't have any value for other peoples lives? That I just don't understand!
2. Always have a vehicle checked out before you buy it. I know the people who bout the Kia and who also bought my old Honda didn't have them checked out. We didn't have the white death checked out when we bought it either. Valuable lesson learned.
3. Yes we were planning on paying off some debt with the extra money we had, but thankfully we had the extra money to pay for the repairs on the beast. At least we didn't go into more debt purchasing the beast or fixing it, however we are still in the same boat we were before.
4. I love my husband more than ever and am so thankful to have him in my life! We make a good pair! We didn't fight with each other over this whole ordeal which I am even more thankful for.
5. I am utterly PARANOID now! Anytime I drive either one of our vehicles and it makes a noise I am unfamiliar with I say,"Uh oh, what was that?!". It will take a while but I know this will eventually fade.
6. We have a good vehicle that will hopefully run great for an additional 100k miles! We plan on driving the beast until the wheels fall off of it! We have more room for our kids and 4WD so we don't get stuck in the snow anymore (have you seen the road that leads to our house or our driveway? All this would make much more sense if you had.).
7. We must really be doing something right for Satan to be attacking us this much. We are trying our best to follow God's plan (the borrower is slave to the lender) and get out of debt. We will continue to trust God and know that He has a plan for us. It will all work out how it is supposed to.
Thank you for your time in reading our story of the beast. Have a wonderfully blessed day!
Proverbs 21:20
"In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oils, but a foolish man devours all he has."
1 comment:
Wow guys, what a nightmare!
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