January 2nd, 2004
Have you ever purchased a used car? Well I have on several occasions and it is not one of the more fun things that I like to do. It ranks right up there with scrubbing the bathroom floor. Either you need a car, to which you can become desperate and then you may have to settle for something you don't like, or you end up buying one for more than you really want to pay or can afford. Then when you get the car, it is used and probably, but not always, has some mechanical issues to deal with. So when you buy a new car, you are actually buying some piece of mind as well so they say. But you will lose a few thousand dollars immediately when you drive it off the lot.

But any way, after our recent roll over accident that my wife miraculously walked away from unscathed, we needed another car. Now I had an older car that we were saving for our son to use and the fact that we had this car made our situation less desperate in that need. This older car is really nice and is a very reasonable mode of transportation. But being an older large car with the older carburetor that they have in those vehicles, you have to pump the gas half way and then hold it just so, in order to get it to start. My wife does not like the size of the vehicle or this starting practice, so she drove my pickup truck and I drove the older car.

We were looking for another car and we figured we could afford a certain amount for payments and we had a figure that we came up with of $7,000. One day about 3 weeks ago while looking in the paper, I found a car that I thought would be perfect for her, so I called the lady and asked her to tell me about the car and what condition it was in. We agreed on a price first as I used the Kelly Blue Book to help me decide what would be a fair price. I drove up 45 miles to look at the car and when I arrived, the windshield was cracked, the mirror was dangling, the interior was ripped and trashed and I just couldn't believe I drove all that way to look at this car that was not well cared for at all. I didn't even test drive it. A week later my wife was looking in the paper and saw an ad with a car priced in our range, but the ad did not state the amount of mileage on it. So I phoned the dealer up in Duluth and asked him if they had the car, he said no, that it had sold. But we also saw another car in the paper in the same ad and asked him if that one was still available, he put me on hold and then came back a few minutes later and told me that they still had the car there and that it only had 32,000 miles on it. I said great! I asked him how late they would be open and then told him we would be driving up to take a look at it. When we got there he went to go and get the car and he filled it up with gas and said that this car did not have a moon roof like the ad said, but that we could still take it for a test drive. And so we did. We did not care too much about the moon roof, as that is an option we could live without. After out test drive, we noticed some burns in the car and a few other minor things, but for the price and the low mileage we were going to buy it. When we drove back to the dealer, we walked inside to make our offer on the car and he told me that the car in the ad with the moon roof was sold over a week ago and that it should not have been placed in the ad at all. The car we drove was going to cost another 1300 dollars more than the price we wanted to pay. Ughhhh! Back home we went discouraged again after having driven another 45 miles there and back. I just prayed to God for Him to help us to find a really nice car that we would like and at a great price. I was putting it into His hands. He wants to help us you know, we have not because we ask not.

On New Years Eve we picked up Dawn's Dad at his house which is a mile from our home. Near his house is a used car dealer and at the very end of the lot was a car in plain view on the end of the row so that it could be seen very easily. Had it been in the middle or back a few rows, we wouldn't have seen it, but it was parked right out in the front and at the end. As we approached closer my wife and I both saw it and went, WOW, look at that nice car! Then we wondered how much it was? So we slowed way down and drove really slow as to see the sticker price through the windshield, and we saw it had a sticker price of $6995. Wow we thought. I stopped the car and got out and looked at it. It was even nicer up close. It was just the kind of car that I had been thinking about but only better, in that it had more options and was a 30th anniversary edition.

Seeing that it was New Years Eve, the dealership was closed, and it would also be closed the next day January 1st. So the quickest I could look at it and drive it would be January 2nd. So for the next 2 days I was really nervous. I don't know why, but I was. I wanted to know from God if this was going to be the right car. I asked Him to give me some sort of sign to let me know that this was the one. Nothing really came to me. But I asked a friend of mine at work who works at a dealership of that brand of car and who has owned quite a few of them. I told him about it, and he seemed to think that it was a very good deal. He told me that he would check with the sales agents at that dealership and ask them what they thought about it and he would get back to me. When I left work on New Years Day I also talked to another friend of mine at work and asked him if he knew the people who owned the used car dealership in town. He told me that he did not know their name, but as he was getting into his vehicle, he said that he bought his jeep there and that they treated him really fair and that he was very happy with his purchase. I took that as a good sign.

The next day, January 2nd, while on my break from work, I drove over their and asked about the car that I liked. He said that they had just gotten it in a few days ago and that it hasn't been here long at all. They also mentioned that they have never had this brand of car here before also. I took it for a test drive and I only noticed 1 small problem. As far as I was concerned, it seemed like a really good deal. SO when I went back inside, I asked him how much he would be willing to come down on the price of it. He said that he would check and if I came back after work, he would le me know.

I went back to work and I was still unsure about it, I knew I liked the car, but what if it breaks down a few days after I buy it. What if something happens to it? Those thoughts just kept coming at me. I don't know why, but I just don't like buying used cars for this reason. I was still looking for a reassuring sign. Then my buddy called me and asked me if I bought it yet? I told him that I drove it and I was thinking of buying it, but I was still unsure. He said that the dealership where he works, if they had that same car that they would be selling it for more than 10,000 dollars and maybe even 12,000. Wow, really I said. I looked up the price of the car on the Kelly Blue Book for this year and model and saw what the price would be from a private person if they were to sell it, verses a dealer selling it, which is always less. The dealers get to add to the price as they need to make a profit. The price I came up with was $8065. So even at $6995 it was already marked down from that $1070. The dealer price was $10,705.

I finally decided that I would go back after work and get the car and see what they would take for it. I took with me my check book and the special habitat license plates that my wife bought for her last car. We took those off when that car went to the junk yard. I wen to the dealer and asked him what he would take for it, and he had mentioned earlier that he really wanted to get full price because they had just got this one in. He threw the ball back in my court as almost any good dealer would do, and he said to me, "How much will you pay for it?" Oh, I hate that, I just knew he was going to say that. I would rather they give me their rock bottom offer first. Well, I had a back up plan. I told myself that the car was really what we liked, and what we were looking for. It was in the price range of what we could afford and I already new it was way below book value. So I told him that I would buy it for $6995 if he would cover and pay for all of the taxes. He got his calculator going and after pushing quite a few buttons, he paused and thought a second and said, !!. OK, sold. Then he said to me, that he needed to start doing the paper work and that he need to get plates for me. I then told him, what a coincidence; because we already had license plates of our own that we wanted to transfer onto it. Another sign I thought. The only thing he charged me extra for than the price of the car was a 5 dollar license plate transfer fee. Making the total of the car $7,000 even. If you subtract the tax of $455 I paid $6545 for the car. Had that same car been at the dealership up in Duluth, I would have paid over $4,000 more for it. The fact that this car made it to our town and put where we could see it, was just awesome. The fact that it didn't have any plates and we had our own, made it somewhat of a coincidence. The fact that it was the kind of car we were looking for mad for another coincidence. The fact that this car had a very small chip in the windshield where my truck has a chip makes this seem like we are having too many coincidences here. After getting the car home and looking through the manual, we founf the original owners sales receipt of what they paid for the car brand new. It was $22,717.20. Hmmmm A Twenty Two Thousand dollar car? Another coincidence? It was January 2nd, the 2nd day of the year. After I bought the car, I met with Rob and Mike again for our 2nd Bible study and 2 more brothers joined us today. One of the new brothers Steve had a Bible Case that was exactly the same as Mike's and in it's worn leathery look, even the wear and tear matched exactly. Someone at the study mentioned that the clock on the wall was not working and that no one was late to the meeting according to that clock. It was just a humorous joke but I looked at the clock and asked why it said exactly 2:00? He said it just ran out of batteries and he hasn't put one in it for a while.

Let me add this all up, Our 2nd Bible Study, that fell on the 2nd day of the year, with 2 new brothers added. 2 are named Mike who have been to both meetings. 2 have Bible cases that are identically worn and look exactly alike. A clock that is stuck on 2:00. I bought a car that when new was $22,000 that has a chip in the window almost where my chip in my truck is at. (My first sign from God, my awakening sign) After looking at and driving many miles to see 2 other cars, the first one a Subaru and the other an Oldsmobile, I look at a second Subaru in my own town of which they said they never have any of that kind and had to drive almost no where, I got a great price way below book value and my wife is super happy. Hmmm - I would say that there are no coincidences here folks. I believe that God brought that car right here for us to see and buy and we got what we asked for delivered right to us. I really need to start just trusting God more and more and just let Him help me like He wants to. Patience, that is what it took is all. Just keep on doing what He tells us to in His Word and He will answer.