SOLD!!!

Put an ad in Craigslist and got like a gazillion responses in no time. The first guy who had a look at my baby ... decided to take her. But had some crazy moments ... before I finally sealed the deal today.

I'd put an ad asking for 5.9K. Of all the people who responded, there was one guy who despite my laziness to call back respondents kept calling me and leaving me his number. So finally decided to call him (let's call him Mr. V). He said he didn't have a car and he wanted me to come to his house and show it to him. There were two other people living close to each other with similar requests. So finally decided to spend one weekend day showing my baby off to potential buyers.

Mr. V wanted the vehicle checked @Firestone. Although I'd heard a lot about Firestone screw ups, decided to go for it. One big blunder. After a lot of checks and balances ... dude came out with a report saying about 800$ worth of repairs most of it was general maintenance I'd just done a week back. I showed Mr. V the receipt. There was still a couple of minor things to be done. So he wanted me to reduce the price. After a lot of bargaining we finalized the deal @ 5500/-. Maybe I could have gone for more ... but didn't have the patience to go around showing it to more people. I'd almost spent 2 hours there by then and traveled 35 miles to show this guy my car.

I said I'd confirm the deal in a couple of days and as we were driving out ... my car started making a rattling noise. My worst fears about Firestone had come true. As I braked the front tyre rim fell off. :o

Slowly drove it back to Firestone and after an hour or so ... they finally fixed their screw-up. They hadn't put the tyre back on properly. Thought my problems were over??? Nope, by the time I reached home - Right rear tyre rim had fallen off. :(

I was worried dude might say he doesn't want the car now or he wants me to pay for the Rim. He luckily didn't. Over the next couple of days he kept calling me asking me to reduce it by a 50 to 100 dollars for one reason after the other.

First it was I have so many expenses - Insurance, Taxes, Family, and lots of other bullshit. I told him, dude - let's not discuss our finances. Deal has been finalized. I had lots of other ppl that wanted to buy my car. That silenced him.

Next day, he called and said - I thot we'd agreed for 5.4. Since he'd given me a token amount of just 100 bucks, I really at one point thought he might have found another car and was talking himself out of this deal.

Then it was - I need to replace the Wipers. In another 10K miles (atleast a year away), I'll need to replace the Timing belt. :) The clincher was - You will get it water serviced and give it to me right.

I said "What is water service dude?". That thing they do in gas station and all right. "Oh, Car Wash!!!". I thought there was a new form of alternative medicine for cars similar to Water Therapy for Humans. I said "Dude, I got it done last week. If I have the time, I'll get it done. Otherwise whatever amount you are supposed to pay, reduce it by 5 bucks and give me the cheque." :) That silenced him.

And just after my last long drive - almost went around Columbus picking him up, getting him the title, then his license plates - had to give him a 1/2 hr crash course in my car controls. Man - the way I got so many responses to my ad, I thought selling a car was easy. Phew!!! Am I relieved now or what? First thing I did after getting rid of him was going and dropping his cheque.

Coming up - The close shaves I had while driving the car after the deal had been finalized over the weekend. I was convinced - my tryst with DEF-2606 was done!!!