Car Hunting Part 3: Out of Buick

Just when you begin to think everything's gonna work out, another challenge or hurtle is tossed my way. We had searched high and low, spoken with our trusted car dealers for days. Then we got a phone call saying that they had just received a car, in my price range, on a trade-in. It was a 2001 Buick Century. I know what you're thinking, that's an old person's car. But I can't pass up a good deal just because of my image.

I did some preliminary research on the car, reading fairly positive reviews and looking at some cool pictures. I had even spotted the same car in the school parking lot, and without looking too much like a hobo, I peered inside. It looked like a great vehicle! It had bench seats, power everything, and a good bit of power. This could be "the one."

Thursday, I rushed home to check out the car. I had held some preconceived notions about the Buick line of cars. I, too, had thought of them as "old folks" cars that were bland and outdated. But once I set my eyes on this thing, I was pleasantly surprised! I was most excited about the crushed velvet interior, which to me is the fabric of the gods. I really didn't even know that was an option for a car interior anymore. To make the situation even better, the car only had 61,000 miles on it.

Dad and I took it for a test drive. Everyone road smoothly, it had power and a radio with a ridiculously large LED (which I assumed was for the old people that would most likely drive the car). The only problems we encountered was a consistent thumping while driving it. We found out later that the rotors just needed adjusted, which wasn't a big deal. We took the Century back to the dealership and began the negotiating.

They originally said $6500 out the door. That might be nice for some people, but not for us (since we had said the highest we'd go was $5500). It was a nice car, however, and it would be hard to find a deal this good in the limited amount of time I had. Dad was able to talk them down to $6300 out the door, with a few added mechanical incentives (like giving me my CD player out of Tiger). Everything seemed good to go, all we had to do now was wait for the car to be run through the shop for final tests. Dad and I went home, excited about the new car I would soon have to make payments on...

Then we got a call this morning. Apparently the Buick had a bad air intake. This spelled "bad" with three a's. A repair like that would take upwards of seven hours to complete, and would cost $1200 with labor. This also meant that I wouldn't be getting the car before I had to go back to Seton on Saturday. To make everything just a little worse, both the dealer and the manager were off, which means we wouldn't be able to talk about what to do. As it stands right now, no one is touching the car.

I have a few options to think about, and discuss with the dealership. I've already stated that I refuse to spend over $200 on fixing this car. Any more than that, and the price would leap over the $6500 mark that we fought so hard to avoid. The salesman already told us that if we chose not to fix it, that the car would probably be sold at an auction. I could negotiate with them to lower the price of the fix, or I could just continue looking for a different car (both at the dealership and elsewhere).

And so... we wait. We wait to hear back from the dealership, as I wait to get any sort of car I can call my own. In the meantime, I continue to take to the road in Dad's Sentra (which he keeps trying to sell me... and as gracious as an offer that may be, it's really too small and weak for my tastes). I roll on.