Car Bomb

Finally! My car is gone! Sure, I had to basically pay someone to take it, but I wasn’t having much luck otherwise, and simply getting rid of it saves me major cash. How much? I pay $415 monthly for the privilege of simply possessing the car. Then there’s the $160 per month just in case fee. I won’t count gas, because I haven’t filled the tank for three months; further proof a car is unnecessary in Chicago.

How did this happen, after two months of trying to sell it private party? Ryan and I drove down to Bloomington, where we attempted to find a location which would remove the locking lug nuts from my wheels. Why couldn’t we do this ourselves? Because Car Star employees lazy fucking idiots. Not only did they put a 2000-series hood on my 2003 Eclipse (which has a slightly redesigned front-end) but they didn’t wet-sand the paint or the overspray from the repairs. They also used a fucking impact wrench when re-attaching my wheels, destroying the key for my locking lug nuts. That was of course, after they filled my front tires to over 60 psi. I say over, because my gauge couldn’t measure past that number, so it was likely higher.

Well, Walmart didn’t have a key, and it was after noon, so no dealership service centers would be open. On a whim, we took the car to a rather shady Mitsubishi dealership, where not a single vehicle had a sticker or price displayed. Oddly enough, when they “appraised” the car, they didn’t check the vin, check under the hood, or even in the trunk. They just drove it around the dealership a couple times, where the bad brake drums would have been made painfully obvious, and asked my price. I said I wanted $12,000, but would settle for $11,000. Ryan didn’t expect them to offer any valid amount, otherwise I would have haggled more skillfully. When they came back less than five minutes later and offered $11,000, we were both shocked. In the end, I paid $880 to cover the difference, and succeeded in unloading that cursed vehicle. Good thing too, as my insurance was up for renewal, an amount exceeding what I paid the dealership.

Then I was faced with another problem: I was now stuck in Bloomington. Jen was kind enough to drive down and retrieve me, otherwise I would have resorted to the train. All in all, a highly surreal weekend. Now if only some sucker kind soul would buy my house, I’d probably crap myself.

Until Tomorrow