Within the span of just 10 months, I was being told that I needed another rebuilt engine. Now, in a car I didn't even own. Estimated cost this time: $5,000.
This past year had been more than a tragedy to my transportation budget, it had been an all out disaster.
My little '81 Ford Escort, always a mechanical mess since the day I bought it 4 years earlier, had really started to burn oil at an alarming rate during the previous summer. I brought it in to a mechanic and was told I needed a new engine. Cost: $3,000. Though I could have got another car for that I agreed to it and put it on my last remaining credit card, an American Express card. But even after the "new" engine (which looked amazingly like the old one) the car never worked right and would frequently stall. By December, it was virtually undrivable. Again.
After securing full-time employment at Amego in January, I needed a better car since it meant a commute to Plainville, Mass. everyday, about 15 miles each way from my East Providence home.
Being low on cash and not expecting to be able to obtain credit since my credit card crash n' burn fiesta the previous year (including the death of the AMEX card since I didn't payoff that $3,000 charge), I was forced to look into the lowest-of-the-low price market for a car. Amazingly, I found a private owner deal in the classifieds of the Providence Journal selling a car in my rock-bottom price range. I checked out the car and, though it looked like shit, it ran fine. It was a 1979 Mercury Monarch with bald tires, a small crack in the windshield, no radio and the light blue paint job had faded to a splotchy mess from sun and salt damage. The engine started every time though, and that's what I needed. He was asking $550 but I got him to drop it to $500.
So now, for the first time ever, I owned two cars simultaneously. Woo hoo. Unfortunately, they were both pretty much pieces of crap on wheels!
The Monarch was ugly, but she served me well. During the early spring of this year I was able to commute to both my jobs (yes, I was actually working 2 full-time jobs for a while...yes me, Mr. Slacker! Go figure!) and it never stalled or burned a quart of oil a day like the Escort.
My financial standing improved as the months went on, so I decided I could make do with just one job since I had gotten promoted at Amego. I dropped the day program aide position in Cranston. I decided that I might want to get a better car, this time, one that looked decent, was safer and, gee, maybe had a radio!
I went to a local Mitsubishi dealership since I liked the styling and the price of the Mitsubishi Colt. But, the financing fell through, despite the fact I was willing to throw down a sizable down-payment.
That's when I saw an ad in one of those free car buying guides. It was for a "Lease By The Week" place in North Attleboro. They accepted anyone. No Credit. Bad Credit. Repossessions. Didn't matter. If you had a pay stub and verified home address, you drove! I went down there and they really seemed eager to put me into this red 1985 Chevy Cavalier. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but the look and ride of it was great so I thought, "Sure, why not!".
So now I had 2 cars I owned and one I was leasing. Luckily in Rhode Island (at the time) it was not mandatory to carry auto insurance so I wasn't paying insurance premiums on the Escort or the Monarch. The Cavalier had insurance included in the astronomical weekly payment of $88.
Now as summer came, the whole transportation scheme I had in place began to rapidly crumble. First, I noticed one day while getting in the Cavalier to go to work that the Monarch, parked a few parking spaces over, had a flat tire. Shit. That was my backup car in case I needed it. But since it wasn't a high priority I neglected changing the tire. A week later, the car was gone. Apparently someone else in the neighborhood noticed it was virtually abandoned so they decided, I guess, to take it. Probably drove it away on its flat, after hot wiring it. I reported it stolen but I never heard anything more about it from the police. There went $500.
Then, unbelievably, the Cavalier started to give me problems. I brought it in to the same repair shop I had brought the Escort to last summer. Their diagnosis...Surprise!...I needed a new engine. Again!
It was a lease though so I called the dealer. Their response: I was responsible for maintenance, including repairs. No warranty. And no relief from the weekly payment obligation and the 2-year lease duration minimum. What's more, these "goodfellas" gave me the impression that they were "connected" and that I might find myself with a couple broken legs if I didn't keep my end of the "deal".
So I coughed it up. This time though, having no credit cards left, I had to pay cash. So they "fixed" my car (and this time the engine did actually look a little newer) and I wrote them a check for $5,000. And, a rarity for the times, it didn't bounce. But now, I was dirt broke. Again.
Why I trusted this repair shop is to this day beyond me. They were a sweet-talkin', down-to-earth styled husband and wife operation, and, I stupidly believed them.
Eventually, after I lost the Amego job a year later I couldn't afford to keep paying a high weekly lease on a now aged car and brought the car back to the dealer, effectively breaking the lease. (I timed it so I'd drop off the car after hours so I wouldn't face them. Also, I had just moved into a new apartment so they couldn't hunt me down.)
I still had my Escort though. That is until I drove it home one bitterly cold winter night and seized the engine, killing it, finally, with a dramatic shudder and billow of burnt oil smoke.
This past year had been more than a tragedy to my transportation budget, it had been an all out disaster.
My little '81 Ford Escort, always a mechanical mess since the day I bought it 4 years earlier, had really started to burn oil at an alarming rate during the previous summer. I brought it in to a mechanic and was told I needed a new engine. Cost: $3,000. Though I could have got another car for that I agreed to it and put it on my last remaining credit card, an American Express card. But even after the "new" engine (which looked amazingly like the old one) the car never worked right and would frequently stall. By December, it was virtually undrivable. Again.
After securing full-time employment at Amego in January, I needed a better car since it meant a commute to Plainville, Mass. everyday, about 15 miles each way from my East Providence home.
Being low on cash and not expecting to be able to obtain credit since my credit card crash n' burn fiesta the previous year (including the death of the AMEX card since I didn't payoff that $3,000 charge), I was forced to look into the lowest-of-the-low price market for a car. Amazingly, I found a private owner deal in the classifieds of the Providence Journal selling a car in my rock-bottom price range. I checked out the car and, though it looked like shit, it ran fine. It was a 1979 Mercury Monarch with bald tires, a small crack in the windshield, no radio and the light blue paint job had faded to a splotchy mess from sun and salt damage. The engine started every time though, and that's what I needed. He was asking $550 but I got him to drop it to $500.
So now, for the first time ever, I owned two cars simultaneously. Woo hoo. Unfortunately, they were both pretty much pieces of crap on wheels!
The Monarch was ugly, but she served me well. During the early spring of this year I was able to commute to both my jobs (yes, I was actually working 2 full-time jobs for a while...yes me, Mr. Slacker! Go figure!) and it never stalled or burned a quart of oil a day like the Escort.
My financial standing improved as the months went on, so I decided I could make do with just one job since I had gotten promoted at Amego. I dropped the day program aide position in Cranston. I decided that I might want to get a better car, this time, one that looked decent, was safer and, gee, maybe had a radio!
I went to a local Mitsubishi dealership since I liked the styling and the price of the Mitsubishi Colt. But, the financing fell through, despite the fact I was willing to throw down a sizable down-payment.
That's when I saw an ad in one of those free car buying guides. It was for a "Lease By The Week" place in North Attleboro. They accepted anyone. No Credit. Bad Credit. Repossessions. Didn't matter. If you had a pay stub and verified home address, you drove! I went down there and they really seemed eager to put me into this red 1985 Chevy Cavalier. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but the look and ride of it was great so I thought, "Sure, why not!".
So now I had 2 cars I owned and one I was leasing. Luckily in Rhode Island (at the time) it was not mandatory to carry auto insurance so I wasn't paying insurance premiums on the Escort or the Monarch. The Cavalier had insurance included in the astronomical weekly payment of $88.
Now as summer came, the whole transportation scheme I had in place began to rapidly crumble. First, I noticed one day while getting in the Cavalier to go to work that the Monarch, parked a few parking spaces over, had a flat tire. Shit. That was my backup car in case I needed it. But since it wasn't a high priority I neglected changing the tire. A week later, the car was gone. Apparently someone else in the neighborhood noticed it was virtually abandoned so they decided, I guess, to take it. Probably drove it away on its flat, after hot wiring it. I reported it stolen but I never heard anything more about it from the police. There went $500.
Then, unbelievably, the Cavalier started to give me problems. I brought it in to the same repair shop I had brought the Escort to last summer. Their diagnosis...Surprise!...I needed a new engine. Again!
It was a lease though so I called the dealer. Their response: I was responsible for maintenance, including repairs. No warranty. And no relief from the weekly payment obligation and the 2-year lease duration minimum. What's more, these "goodfellas" gave me the impression that they were "connected" and that I might find myself with a couple broken legs if I didn't keep my end of the "deal".
So I coughed it up. This time though, having no credit cards left, I had to pay cash. So they "fixed" my car (and this time the engine did actually look a little newer) and I wrote them a check for $5,000. And, a rarity for the times, it didn't bounce. But now, I was dirt broke. Again.
Why I trusted this repair shop is to this day beyond me. They were a sweet-talkin', down-to-earth styled husband and wife operation, and, I stupidly believed them.
Eventually, after I lost the Amego job a year later I couldn't afford to keep paying a high weekly lease on a now aged car and brought the car back to the dealer, effectively breaking the lease. (I timed it so I'd drop off the car after hours so I wouldn't face them. Also, I had just moved into a new apartment so they couldn't hunt me down.)
I still had my Escort though. That is until I drove it home one bitterly cold winter night and seized the engine, killing it, finally, with a dramatic shudder and billow of burnt oil smoke.