17 Nov 1994 Pontiac Grand Prix
Since I liked the older Grand Prix so much, I decided to get a newer version of the Pontiac Grand Prix. This was a 1994 SE version. It looked unlike many cars out there, and I really liked that. This car like the older Grand Prix, also felt like I was sitting in a reclining seat. But at least these seats felt like they were from the late late 80s! I enjoy driving this car around everywhere I went it felt sporty yet comfortable. I didn’t feel I looked like somebody’s grandfather in it. This was also the first time I had bought a One-year-old car. I realized for the money, I could get a much better car, if I got a one or two year old car. It was brilliant!
It looked unlike many cars out there, and I really liked that.
It was also my introduction into why you never buy a rental. Yes, i didn’t really know what i was doing, you’ll probably catch that theme a lot, and I got a former rental. Around 70,000 miles things started to go wrong in the car, that I could have fixed but I decided not to and moved on from that car.
It was also my first time really selling outright a car. And I learned another lesson, i’m not sure that’s for me. An older lady, and I say in her 60s or 70s, came and looked at the car with her son who was in his late 30s early 40s. I tried to tell her several times this wasn’t a car that she should purchase because it just didn’t make sense for her period but, it was pretty obvious that the son wanted the car and the decision had been made. Even though it was her car, he was the one that wanted the car. I sold the car, I didn’t feel great about it, but it was done. Until about one year to the date, when that nice old lady brought the car back to me at my office and complained about all the repairs she needed to do on the car. She needed to do brakes, she needed to do tires, she had an alternator that went, she needed a new battery. I wanted to feel even worse about it, but much of what she was talking about were maintenance issues, not that I had sold her a lemon. Let me it also turned out that her son had driven the car almost exclusively. While I did feel badly about the situation, I didn’t feel like any of it was my responsibility, certainly not a year later.
So, my personal lesson was, don’t sell the car outright 🙂