OK gentlemen, a brief summary of my car search to tie this thread up.
Arrived on Tuesday, 5-27 after a day long flight. Tues. night: crash.
Wed.: Visit a few cars from my Craigslist compilation. It's pretty short. Note: Many VA cars have many miles; perhaps due to the distance between cities; distance between home and work. I see a couple of drivers, mostly beaters, cast off from Navy personnel now in the seas around Iraq. One example, a '92 Camry in a used car lot is in fairly good shape despite having 300K miles, but it drives smooth and everything works. This one ends up to be option no. 2, believe it or not. One seller is a no-show and end up wasting my time driving to their location.
Thursday: Visit a couple more. Craigslist, at least this week, has fewer cars with my specs during the midweek. Last weekend picks are gone. Now I'm left with a weak selection; mostly cars not sold during the previous week (Chevy Impalas, large trucks, parts cars. The pickings are looking very slim. Most are rough examples with issues requiring more time to resolve than I have. I don't even have time for a PPI due to the required turnaround time. End of the month and many folks need their yearly inspection tags.
One seller has a new ad on Craigslist this morning; a '96 Honda Civic in my price range, but it's in Richmond, about 1.5 hours away. I call and make an appt. for noon.
The car has a few dents and 212K miles. Interior is fine and the A/C works. A brief test drive shows everything working. I'm running out of time, and I'm scheduled to pick up spouse and daughter at the airport later that night. On Sat., I'm leaving and everything has to be set. so we strike a deal at $1900; leave $100 deposit and make the 1.5 hrs. drive back to Norfolk airport to pick up the ladies.
The car and owner's friend:
Friday: We roll out to Richmond to meet the seller and consummate the deal. That was the easy part. Then, VA DMV issues appear. They require sellers to turn in plates upon transfer of ownership. We had hoped to register the vehicle in CA and add onto our existing AAA insurance policy. However, that would take a few days and we wouldn't be able to drive w/o plates. AAA in VA is a separate franchisee and operates differently. We end up registering and insuring the car in VA. Remember your last trip to the DMV? It took a long time for us too, and that was in Richmond.
In fact, we had to visit the Norfolk DMV on Sat. AM to finish the transaction. Wife and daughter made the visit Sat. AM while I spend the morning checking what I could including "fixing" the wiper switch that decides to be ON more than OFF on the drive back to the hotel. Since I'm to fly back in a few hours, there's no chance to replace it. Instead, yanking the circuit fuse "fixes" the problem. I show daughter how to replace the fuse in case it rains. Clean and reoil the spiffy K&N-type air filter (hotel AC dries the fiilter element quickly); check and adj. tire pressure: 3 were at 50 psi; one iat 20. Reset all to 35 psi. Now she's set. We spend the next 2 hours practicing the drive from her temporary home to work.
Prerequisite engine shot:
It''s a decent 20' car:
Epilogue:
Sat. 3pm. (EST) I'm on the flight home. Like the flight to VA, I feel like amputating my legs on the flight back due to lack of blood circulation in the tight confines. Equally pathetic, I look forward to the complimentary bag of 7 peanuts and glass of water. I arrive home Sunday, 2am PST, the result of a layover and flight delays - a 12 hour journey. I'm dead.
But everything surprisingly and luckily turned out well. Thanks to all for your suggestions. My daughter has been on the job for a couple of weeks and adjusting nicely. Her commute to work is only 10 miles and her landlord is nice and accomodating. She dropped the car off at a garage recommended by her landlord where they changed the coolant and oil and checked the brakes. Clean bill of health. Car is good for 3 months, maybe more.
The next challenge won't be so difficult, but it might also be interesting - an attempt to sell the car, hopefully timing it right before her return to school in the fall. Since gas prices have skyrocketed, she shouldn't have any problems selling it unless people give up driving altogether. Might even make it in the black financially since econo-cars will be even in more demand 3 months from now.
Some of you guys suggested a drive back home. However, her tight schedule won't permit it, but I might consider it. If this Honda gets 35+mpg and lives beyond 3 monts, it'll cost about $300 in gas for the ride back to the west coast where it'll be gold by the time gas rises to $6/gallon by summers end.
But I could be pushing my luck.
Sherwood