Those were the days …. And then there is Now …..

Please, oh please, take me back to the good old days of the $100.00 wonder cars. Those great cars that looked rough and the mileage was some figure that no one could verify because the odometers didn’t go that high. They could last you anywhere from one day to five years. But heck, for a $100.00 (and often less) you would take a chance and it would get you by.

Today’s $100.00 wonder comes in at around two grand. Sure, there are cars out there for less ... and those are REALLY scary!

Ok, so now we have established the baseline. $2,000.00 will get you a car that generally has around 150,000 to 200,000 miles on it and it is guaranteed that grandpa didn’t put those miles on. That is a lot of money for a car that might make it one day or five years. Big crap shoot!

Working our way up to a car that has mileage that makes sense (maybe), looks reasonable and actually runs to boot, a person is now looking at $6,000 and up. And sure, everyone has that type of money just sitting in their wallet waiting to go to their nearest car dealership.

So, now we have established the first of the criteria, a person has to get a LOAN to get a car. But there is a catch. In order to get a loan you have to have credit of some type. Heck, even bad credit counts as credit of some type. If you don’t have credit, you can’t get a loan to establish credit. It doesn’t matter how good your job is, you still need credit to get credit.

So, now we have established the second criteria. If you have no credit, you will need a co-signer. And the co-signer has to have credit AND they seem to think the co-signer should have a job too. Geez, this is getting so complicated!

All my daughter wants is a car she can 1)afford (which personally I think is a very good idea to keep it in that range) 2) that looks reasonably nice (nothing fancy mind you, just not dented, rusted, crappy looking) as she has a job that it does make a difference, 3) is big enough to hold the photo studio setup she needs to cart around, but efficient enough to still get good gas mileage as her job requires a lot of traveling, 4) a car that will last that traveling she has to do for her job (Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Indiana and sometimes even as far away as Pennsylvania etc.) and 5) that will hopefully last long enough to make it beyond the final payment. Is that too much too ask?

YEP! It seems it is. There is a definite conflict here. Price versus the rest of the needs. Then add the fact that she doesn’t have any credit yet and needs a co-signer that has both credit and a job. Well, I fit one of the two. I have credit. Maybe not the best in the world, due to various circumstances, but I have credit all the same. Lucky me. But the job thing .... well, we all know what happened to that the day I told my boss of nine years that I have cancer! End of job! Vanished. Evaporated into thin air! Amazing how I could be so needed and appreciated for nine years and have it change in two seconds! (I’ll have to remember to write him a thank you note someday! ...never mind, I would probably be arrested if I did that!)

In my previous post I noted that my daughter had a pre-approved loan at a dealership, (which is another very long story) and that is where we went today. When we got there we met with the salesman that we had been dealing with on the phone up to this point. I will refer to him from here on as “Mr. F” (no I am not being a smart ass ... his name did actually start with F). My daughter and I had already checked out their used cars on their website and had an idea of what would fit in her price range. As we started looking around the lot, Mr. F. filled us in on a little information he seemed to have forgotten to tell us on the phone prior to driving the 70 miles to his car lot. The loan is only good for a certain type and name brand of car. AND he only has one car that fits the requirements.

My daughter and I looked at each other and we didn’t even have to speak to know what we were each thinking! But, because of the bind she is in right now (no car, a job that has to have a car, and only one day every two weeks that she can even look for a car, because otherwise she is on the road for her job) she decided to at least check it out. When we walked up to “THE” car, the look on her face was priceless. Problem one. Too small. Problem two, twice as much money as she said she wanted and felt comfortable to spend. When we asked what the interest rate would be? Mr. F. replied with “15.1% and the payments would be around $300.00 a month”. My daughter’s jaw dropped. Add insurance to that and she is looking at $450.00 a month ... maybe more, plus maintenance etc. Mr. F’s response, “well, at least it is a car that you can get a loan on.” Great! A loan that is way too much money, that most likely will become a major burden and end up in late payments or worse and I get to co-sign to boot! Wow, what a deal! NOT! By the way, the car was priced at $1500.00 over high blue book and they stated they couldn't lower the price because of THE special loan they were doing. Plus there were some major problems with the car. We didn’t just walk. We ran! Oh, we were nice about it. Thanked him and all that, but explained that she wants to make sure she can DO this and do it RIGHT. She is trying so hard to make sure she can afford the car and the insurance and that the car will fits her needs.

So now we are back to square one. No car. No credit. No loan. No immediate cash to buy one and no time to save to do so as a car is needed now. Not later. Later equals no job anymore. No job anymore….well I guess I don’t have to go into detail with that one!

So that was our day. If you are ever in Milwaukee looking to buy a car, we can tell you the names of a salesman and dealership you might want to avoid. Just drop me a line and I would be happy to provide the information.

We can also tell you the name of a dealership and a salesman that are great. Also in Milwaukee. (Part of the original long story that I haven’t told yet). Even though this salesman and this dealership have not been able put my daughter and a car together, the personalized care we have received has been fantastic. These people listen. These people care. These people will try very very hard to make something work. (The hangup we had is her lack of credit and my lack of job for co-signer status.) The dealership name? Saturn of Milwaukee. The salesman’s name: Brent Biesterfeld. And please, tell him Mary and Darci sent you. (The chemo-bald one and the tall one) No, we don’t get anything for the name dropping. We just want to let him know we appreciate everything he tried to do for us. There is another person there that deserves recognition too, Joyce in Financing. We can’t say enough good about these people. I never thought I would actually find a car dealership that I would ever recommend to anyone. But this one is different. Much different. Someday, we hope to be in a better position to be able to buy a car from them. Until that time, all we can do is pass along their names to others that may be in need of good care and a good vehicle.

My daughter just checked her voice mail on her cell phone and guess what. Mr F called and left a message for her. Quote "I have great news for you". Yah, I bet he does!