I honestly believe that if I had a decision to make and the result would be good either way... so in essence, two good decisions... I would still manage to make a bad decision... Here is my recent flub up..
I have been looking for a car for a couple of weeks now. I couldn't really spend more than $4,000 but I really wanted a Subaru Forester. On consumer reports, the Forester is the most popular car listed and I have wanted one for years. Last Sunday I missed out on a 2001 Forester with low miles. If you are shopping on KSL you have to be quick on any listing and by the time I got around to calling, it was already snatched up. So needless to say, I have spent all of my free time the past few weeks camped in front of the computer, refreshing the KSL classified car page over and over and over and.... well you get the idea.
This whole car shopping thing has made me super down for the past couple weeks. I hate it. So yesterday, I just wanted to find something and put an end to it. There was a Subaru Outback in Logan that was a great deal but had some body damage and a few minor mechanical issues and a Forester in Hyde Park that my mom had already taken for a test drive. So we decided to go to Cache County and find a car.
We test drove the Outback and despite the issues I described, it was a pretty good car. It drove really smoothly. I liked it a lot and in retrospect should have made him an offer right then. Mike - the owner - said that the reason he was selling was that he was going through a "marital transition" :( . Having gone through one recently myself - in which I lost my first Subaru, I could definitely relate and I felt badly for him. The Outback was dirty and dusty and not overly pretty inside. But as I said, I liked it and we could have fixed it up to be a great car.
Instead, we drove to Hyde Park. The Forester also drove well, except it did have a weird shimmy when you brake. Also, the previous owners obviously locked 2 very naughty dogs up in the car for an extended period of time and they proceeded to dig out the front seats, chew on the seat belts and I suspect tear up the middle console - as part of it is missing. Other than those things it seemed to be a great car. They were asking $4,999 - we told them that we had to have it out the door for $4,000. They made the deal and despite my moms and Rodneys hesitation we took the Forester. We could have bought a warranty for $200 that would have covered major repairs on the car for the first 3,000 miles or 3 months, but I felt like that was a lot of money to spend on a 3 month warranty. Second bad decision of the day. On the way out of Logan, Rodney called the guy with the Outback and told him that we had gone with another option.
About a mile up Sardine Canyon the car overheated. We called the dealership and got into a big fight with them. All indication points to a blown headgasket which is a MAJOR repair and will probably cost close to $2,000 to repair. Since we didn't buy the warranty and Utah has no protection from this kind of thing - we are stuck with the car. I am pretty sure they had to know that the car had a blown head gasket since they drove the car from Salt Lake to Hyde Park and there is no way that car made it without overheating. Why would we think that a car dealer had integrity is beyond me. Mike? The Outback owner? Now he seemed like he had integrity... Like I said - leave it to me to ALWAYS make the bad decision!
P.S. Steer clear of Express Motors in Hyde Park, UT.
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