We were crestfallen. Bear in mind that Mrs. M and I are freelance contractors; some months are pretty hand-to-mouth for us. Sixteen hundred dollars is a near-insurmountable sum from our perspective.
Naturally, we did what any red-blooded Canadian couple with a five-month old son would do: We called our parents. We would have said, "help!" but Mrs. M's parents didn't give us the chance. "Did you hear back about the car yet? We want to help," they said.
Cool.
So they offered us a sum substantially MORE than $1600 to either repair or, as they suggested, buy a newer-model used car.
But wait, that's not all.
I spoke with my Dad about it (My mom gives us tons of support in many ways, but isn't able to financially, god luvver, much as she wishes she could) and he says to me that he doesn't think buying a used car is a financially sound idea.
My father is an accountant at heart. He's very successful and is the vice-president of finance of a large local facility, but when it comes right down to it, it's all about the bottom line. So I prepared for a long lecture about how irresponsible it was to spend money, any money at all, throwing good money after bad, and why the hell hadn't I ever gotten a degree? (No, he's not that bad. But the 10-year-old in me remembers every fiduciary responsibility speech I've EVER been given.)
"I don't think buying a used car is a good idea," Dad began. "You'll only end up having the problems you have NOW all over again in three or four years."
Crap. He wasn't going to help out. I couldn't blame him; don't throw good money after bad and all that, rationalize rationalize-
What he said next blew my mind.
"So I think you should have a brand new car. Use the money Marci's parents have given you as a down payment and I'll take care of the monthly financing."
I gaped. Marci gaped. Peter gaped. Well, he was only four months old. He ALWAYS gaped.
Dad, however, smirked. "I don't want my grandson being driven around in an unsafe car," he sniffed.
(And that is the key, Agents. HAVE MORE CHILDREN. See the blessed rewards that come your way when you provide your parents with grandchildren? It really is miraculous.)
So, oh my god-- we were getting a FREE CAR. A BRAND NEW CAR. Is there ANY better news?
As we were about to see, even something that sounds so wonderful can have hidden pitfalls. Stay tuned!
I haven't posted in a while. Why? Because I've been waiting for a saga to unfold. An epic tale of consumerism gone awry, a breakdown in the system of cash for goods. Seemingly longer than the time between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, this is a story that has been a whole MONTH in the making.
Yes, it's high time I told The Car Saga.
This story began on the fifth of June of this year. We were driving our 1991 Dodge Spirit back from Banff, after a pleasant overnight stay in that town courtesy of the Welcome Wagon folk. Hey, free hotel room-- why not get away for a night?
On the way back, our engine boiled over-- steam everywhere, smack dab in the equal distance between Calgary and Banff. We couldn't understand why-- we had plenty of fluids, and our car was patently not leaking any, though in my frustration I sure was-- and realizing that calling for a tow would prove prohibitively expensive for two contractors (and also having a four month old baby in the car), we opted to just add coolant and hope for the best.
We "leapfrogged" our way back to Calgary-- waiting for the engine to cool down, adding more coolant, and driving until it boiled over again-- until we finally came to rest across the highway from a Petro-Canada station just outside the city.
God bless cell phones, we were able to call Marci's parents to come pick us up (and also ask her mechanic Dad to have a look at the car.)
The car's radiator had a hole in it the size of Arkansas, and my little "leapfrogging" trick had managed to burn out all the valves in the engine. The car would never start again-- a classic case of the Spirit being willing but the Dodge being weak. Ba-dump-bump.
So we towed it to a friend's garage -- OK Tire on 16th Ave and 42nd Street N.W., the least I can do is give them a plug-- and they said they'd look at it and assess the damage.
The next day they phoned us with the news: Car repair would cost $1600.00 at least -- new radiator, belts and hoses-- and that was just the stuff they could SEE without taking the whole engine apart. We were now faced with the realization that we had NO car, and that any repairs to our 1991 automobile were going to cost more than the car was worth.