The curse of the last car payment

We have one payment left on Larry's car....do I even need to tell you the rest of this story? I mean, really. Don't you already know where I'm going?


During dinner on Friday night Larry mentioned how his car needs an inspection when we renew the tags... in May. He reminded me that both the check engine and air bag lights are on. I knew this. The air bag light as been on for YEARS. There is a reason for this. The light came on a long time ago, while the car was still under warranty. They fixed it, but the bill would have been about $2,000. So when it came back on after the warranty was up we never bothered to have anyone look at it. Of course, this fact has slipped our mind. The air bag light is just a way of life now. Hardly even notice it anymore.

But for some reason, now Larry talking about actually having to get it fixed reminded me how expensive it is. The car is only worth $2,000. I really don't want to pay $2,000 to fix a $2,000 car. A car that if it lasts another year I will be shocked. Don't forget that the check engine light is also on. It's on for a reason no doubt.

Ok, well whatever. We will just get a new car. We have til the end of May to shop around, save money, get ready to buy Larry a new car.

Then on Saturday we were pulling into the driveway...
Larry: "It's March"
Me: "It's MARCH?"
Larry: "Yeah, March."
I walk over the car and there it is, MAR, in all it's capitalized orange glory, "Well that sucks!"

So we don't have til May... we have til March.

This same thing happened when we bought the van. We had just paid off Larry's truck the month before and then his car just stopped running. He was driving home from work and the car just quit. No more. All done. I was waiting for him to come home from work. He was late. And then I see him and his brother come walking around the corner. lol. That's never good.

So we went that weekend and bought the van. Larry took my car and I've been driving the van ever since.

But I really wanted to be ready to buy a car this time. Not under the gun to buy a car because we NEED it, but because it was the right time. I was feeling frustrated because it seems like every time I have to buy a car it's an emergency. I hate spending large sums of money like that. AND it seems like the car we are trading in is always worth nothing.

But, ya know, if Larry's car was still good then we would keep it. And we would keep it until it had no more value to us. Then I would be complaining that we drive our cars into the ground. So I guess I can't win. You can use a car up and then expect to get some actual trade in value for it.