Car-ma

I had a car named Gunther. A 2004 Buick Rendezvous that we bought when we found out we were pregnant with Madison. We traded in Tracy's 2002 Chevy s10(Tom) for it. A few months later we realized what a mistake that was, but what do you do? Gunther was amazing for about a year. Then... problem after problem after problem. All together in the 5 years that we owned it we put about $5000 dollars into repairs on it. And that's WITH the extended warranty. I told Tracy we were going to fix our credit so that if it ever broke down again we were just going to trade it in and be done with it. About two months after our credit was back to an acceptable level, his check engine light came on. I took it to have it read and what do you know... a gross leak in the evaporative emissions system. This could be anything from a loose gas cap to a fuel system error. I was not pleased. I called Ken Garff to see if this was covered by my warranty and sure enough.. it was not. His check engine light went off later that day but I was sufficiently spooked enough to want to trade it in and be done with it. Surprisingly it wasn't hard to talk Tracy into applying for a loan. I'm a very anxious person. I can't deal with going to a car dealership and working out financing there. So we applied online and got an amazing deal.
They literally sent us a blank check so we could spend up to a certain amount on a car and just fill in the check. It was awesome. It felt so good to not have to worry about getting approved, or interest rates or anything.
So I started looking. I knew right away that I needed a comparable vehicle. We go camping every year and I know how much camping stuff we have. A car just wouldnt cut it. I needed an SUV.
I quickly narrowed it down to two. The Jeep Compass or the Ford Escape. I've been interested in both of these vehicles since they came out. So then the heavy research began. Gas mileage, horsepower, cargo space... I could quote these figures to you along with MSRP for certified preowned, trade in values, and features they each offered.
One condition of our financing was we had to go to a "preferred" dealer with our lender. Not a problem since practically every dealership in Salt Lake was on their preferred list. But two caught my eye in particular. Carmax and National Auto Plaza. I started comparing their prices for both vehicles I liked and quickly found one that I just couldnt stop thinking about. It just stuck in my mind even though it was about $2000 more than I wanted to spend. Well within our loan parameters, but more than I personally wanted to spend. So I kept searching. And I kept going back to it.
Finally, I emailed the dealer to see if they even still had it. I mean who knows how frequently they update their website right? It was probably already sold.
Except it wasn't.
And I knew it was supposed to be mine.
So I bought it.
And it was great! I walked into that dealership, took it for a test drive and then went inside. The salesman immediately started talking about financing, at which part, I pulled out a blank check and said "work the numbers and I will sign this" His eyes almost popped out of his head. It was awesome. So they worked the numbers, and we got a KILLER deal. The car had been on the lot for almost 3 months, and it was the end of the month. They didn't want to pay their insurance and dealer fees on it in three more days, so they dropped the price. and then they dropped the price again.
And I drove home with this:






Meet Molly.
My 2011 Ford Escape Limited.
And baby is she loaded! She's practically brand new. Whoever had her before me hadn't even opened the floor mats OR the owners manual. Everything is perfect!

So naturally, since I did something for myself... something bad had to happen (hence the title of this post)
Our computer died. At first we werent too worried, Tracy's had to replace power supplies for computers before. But then it hit us... Tracy's a multimedia major at school. ALL of his homework and software was on the computer, I'd just taken my sister in law's engagement pics... those were on there too. so he took it apart... and guess what? it wasn't the power supply. It was the motherboard. Our computer was toast with three weeks left in the semester and finals RAPIDLY approaching.
Awesome.
So we sucked it up... and bought a new computer too.
Goodbye money. It was great having you for a little while!