Car shopping… ugh!

There are few things in this world that I loathe more than shopping for a vehicle. First off, they’re expensive, and I know next to nothing about cars and trucks, so I assume from the get-go that I’m going to get ripped off.

That’s not just “used car salesman” stereotyping. I have gotten ripped off before. Well, almost… I bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee about 20 years ago, and the oil light came on while I was on the way home. I had my fatherin- law look at it and he found several issues that I was not made aware of. As luck would have it, the car company (it was a West Memhpis-based one but they’re out of business now) couldn’t complete the sale without some additional documents. Rather than provide those documents, I went back and backed out of the sale… only to find out that they had already taken some of the parts out of my trade-in.

It all worked out in the end. They paid me for the parts (probably to avoid either a lawsuit or to shut me up about the lemon Jeep), and I eventually found a nicer little truck that I drove for a decade.

Anyway, my old car, which was my wife’s before she upgraded, gave out on me last week, so I reluctantly started looking for something else. As always, I think everything is overpriced… even when it isn’t. Fortunately, I came across a nice used truck on Facebook being sold by a friend from our old church. We made a deal yesterday and I am back on the road. No car-buying nightmares, and I feel like I got a good deal, so maybe… just maybe, my vehicle shopping anxieties are over?

Except that the next vehicle I buy will be because my teenage daughter has gotten her driver’s license…