maryalene
04-30-2007, 10:32 PM
He's buying a truck. Or at least I assume he is since it is now 1 1/4 hours after the dealership was suppose to close, and he still isn't home. His current (maybe now old) truck has been a nightmare. It started out as a 5 year lease that we tried to finance our way out of and 8 years later we are still paying on it. It is a '98 and before it hit 100,000, it needed a new engine and transmission. Its also on its second alternator, third starter, fourth O2 sensor and the axle snapped and the wheel fell off while my husband was driving it. It can't stay in alignment and the brakes and exhaust have been repaired/replaced numerous times above what would be expected for normal wear. I credit the truck with single-handedly starting the chain of events that caused our debt to spiral out of control.
Still, I have always worked under the assumption that by gol, everything in the truck has been replaced twice over, so nothing else should go wrong. Well, yesterday, it just wouldn't start out of the blue. So we got the starter replaced (again) today and then headed to the dealership tonight. I was really hoping to never finance a vehicle again so part of me is a bit bummed. But another part of me thinks that the truck is cursed and maybe once we get rid of it our financial luck will change. ;)
But that brings us back to me sitting here while my DH buys a truck. I think (actually, know) I underestimate my DH, and I know he is capable of making sound decisions. But the control freak in me is having trouble letting go - that and the fact that the last truck he bought apparently was made in hell.
We all went together and settled on a '98 F-150 for $6900. But then, it ends us that they will only give us $2000 for our trade-in (which we owe $4000 on) and the credit union won't finance above 110% of the vehicle equity. So they wanted us to look at this '02. The kids were being horrendously bad so I left to bring them home while DH stayed to look at the car. He called about an hour ago to say that they were going to knock $4000 off the truck price and give us another $500 for the trade-in. It'll end up being $10 more a month than we had agreed was our max price for a 66 (egads!) month loan. I told him I would walk if it were me, and personally, I think we should try to sell the truck through a private sale. I told DH that it made me nervous going above our max price, but that I would leave the decision to him.
So here I am, alone in the dark quiet house (is that dramatic enough?) waiting to see what DH will drive home in and if new car fumes temporarily robbed him of his sanity. Thank you for keeping vigil with me. I can only hope that Dave Ramsey and the thrifty gods are smiling down on us tonight!
Still, I have always worked under the assumption that by gol, everything in the truck has been replaced twice over, so nothing else should go wrong. Well, yesterday, it just wouldn't start out of the blue. So we got the starter replaced (again) today and then headed to the dealership tonight. I was really hoping to never finance a vehicle again so part of me is a bit bummed. But another part of me thinks that the truck is cursed and maybe once we get rid of it our financial luck will change. ;)
But that brings us back to me sitting here while my DH buys a truck. I think (actually, know) I underestimate my DH, and I know he is capable of making sound decisions. But the control freak in me is having trouble letting go - that and the fact that the last truck he bought apparently was made in hell.
We all went together and settled on a '98 F-150 for $6900. But then, it ends us that they will only give us $2000 for our trade-in (which we owe $4000 on) and the credit union won't finance above 110% of the vehicle equity. So they wanted us to look at this '02. The kids were being horrendously bad so I left to bring them home while DH stayed to look at the car. He called about an hour ago to say that they were going to knock $4000 off the truck price and give us another $500 for the trade-in. It'll end up being $10 more a month than we had agreed was our max price for a 66 (egads!) month loan. I told him I would walk if it were me, and personally, I think we should try to sell the truck through a private sale. I told DH that it made me nervous going above our max price, but that I would leave the decision to him.
So here I am, alone in the dark quiet house (is that dramatic enough?) waiting to see what DH will drive home in and if new car fumes temporarily robbed him of his sanity. Thank you for keeping vigil with me. I can only hope that Dave Ramsey and the thrifty gods are smiling down on us tonight!