the new car that wasn’t
As I mentioned in my last car post, we’re not actively looking for another car but we are keeping our eyes out if the right situation appears. Well, this weekend, we thought that situation had come. On one of my local email lists, someone posted a four-door car with air conditioning for sale. The details sounded right and the price was right. We went to check it out, had one small concern with it that we decided was worth accepting for the price, and agreed to get the car pending the safety inspection.
The sellers and I agreed to split the cost of the inspection and they got it done today. Since Maryland loves to nit pick all the details on safety inspections, I wasn’t surprised to hear that the car failed — I doubt any car ever passes the first go round. But the list was rather lengthy and touched on the one concern we had with the car - the transmission. In all, to get the car fixed would have been $1,000 in repairs. The sellers were willing to drop a few hundred dollars off the price, but it still took the car out of the “right price” category for it. If we were confident these repairs would resolve our transmission concerns, we would have probably gone for it. But since it included a long list of nit-picky detail that safety inspections love to hit on and just a couple minor tinkerings with the transmission, we took a pass.
I’m a little disappointed because I got very excited that our car woes would be satisfied, but I’m also not interested in throwing out money to bring another vehicle with issues into our life. Sometimes you’ve just got to let things be and I’m glad that the partner and I were both willing to walk away from this situation without trying to talk ourselves into it. It’s nice not being in a position where we *have* to take action.