hi i'm alive, i have been car stressing and so... not here. i was SO READY to be done car stressing but the universe said NOT TODAY.
basically, my car has been acting up for yeeeaaaars. but now there's a new thing breaking or malfunctioning every other week, i'm at 298k miles, it's TIME. that car is so stressful to drive because i'm always on edge about something else going wrong.
so i was looking at this one specific car. but it was a liiiiiittle out of what i was sure i'd be able to afford. and also it was just eternally not in stock because as the cheap car of the company, everyone was just buying that shit. so basically the only option was wait and hope one pops up and jump on that shit, or order it.
so last september my dad was all set to order it, and he decided that since i wasn't positive i'd be able to afford it, he would order the minimum of what he would want in that car, and then if i couldn't afford it, he'd take it instead.
so. what he ordered was $12k more than what i wanted and i was like welllllll definitely can't afford that now.
so. turned to used cars instead. most of what i've been finding is a similar price to the car i originally wanted to get. which.... nah. so i've been back and forth with my dad for the last week about what he's willing to give me for a down payment, because i make $14/hour yo, i don't have shit. at first he was offering me 12k and found me a car at the dealer he goes to. the car was $31k which is waaayyyyy out of the range of what i can afford, even with a 12k down payment. so i looked at the dealership where my brother is a mechanic and found a used car for like $23,200, talked to my dad, and he said he took back the 12k offer and said he'd give me 5k. which brings $23,200 out of my range.
so. i stressed and agonised and searched and talked to my dad again like "look, i'm not trying to buy a car that's going to have me constantly in danger of not making enough money to make my monthly payments, and i'm not looking to buy a car that's in barely better condition than my current one and is going to die in two years, and those are basically my options so idk"
so. he basically said "wellll would it help if i do $7k for a down payment instead?" so like. yes, obviously every little bit helps.
aaaaaaaaaaaand then i found it. the perfect car. it's a hybrid, about 7 years old, 81k miles on it, so it's been driven a decent amount and the previous owner wasn't letting it sit around a ton most likely. $14,200. with the 7k down payment, that was going to make my monthly payments about $180/month for five years. aaaaaaand. i did a lot of math and figured out that driving that car would cost me about $90/month in gas, whereas my current one is costing me $150/month. so. there we go. there's the majority of my monthly payment right there just in the difference in what i'm spending on gas.
sooooo today i did the thing and called the dealership and scheduled an appointment to test drive it (i am terrified of phone calls okay, major panic mode right there lmao), got my brother to go with me so he could do his mechanic thing and take a look at it aaaaaaaaaaaaand we got there and they were like "........oh, yeah, someone was supposed to call you, we were getting it ready to test drive and it put up a hybrid engine warning light, so we had to take it back to the shop to see what's going on, and if it's super expensive to fix, we have to just scrap it, but if you want i can keep you updated"
so. that's fun lmao. just my luck. i'm gonna hope it's something they'll fix because DAMN that is literally exactly what i need in a car right now.
i guess i continue the car search just in case, but idk. i'll hold off on actually buying on for another two weeks or so in case they're able to fix that one... otherwise... idk, i gotta find SOMETHING. but yeah, hybrid is clearly the way to go, if most of my monthly payment can be covered by $160 that i don't have to spend on gas? that would be AMAZING and then i'm not super fucked over.
