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So!That was Monday, we got home and the next day I went straight to the car charity place.It was about 30 minutes drive away in a place called Compton. If anyone knows LA , Compton is the ghetto, the hood, the place young ladies do NOT go. But I didn't know!Well you live and learn.
So I arrived and asked one of the sellers for help, no one seemed particularly interested in helping, Chris was with me as he had the morning off work and I recon they took one look at us and thought 'tourists'.
We spent an hour looking round but neither of us knew what to look for and after a while I picked a white Toyota Celeric, purely based on the fact that I was told years ago to go for Japanese Cars and this one looked ok.It was $2000 but they reduced it for $1500 for me so I thought that was a nice gesture. I learn now, that's normal but it seemed nice at first.
I tried to explain my situation to the guy helping us, that I just moved, I needed one that will last, I'm only little, blah blah he nodded and just shoved me on.Chris left to go to work and I drove to the bank to sort out the money transfer, get a check written and pay for the car. As I had my rental car with me I couldn't take the car straight away, I said I would pick it up the next day and please could they replace the battery as it was dead. (they said most cars battery's were dead there as people would just leave the car on and kill it after)
Feeling a little scared about the whole car payment thing, I opted to pay $200 extra for a two day insurance which allowed me to bring the car back after I bought it , up to two days later in case it wasn't any good.
Well the next day the plan was to pick up the car in my rental car with Chris, then I would drive the new car with Chris driving the rental and we would both drive after purchasing the new car to the rental car company so I could get my money back early and then I would drive Chris to work.
I knew it would take a while to have the paperwork all sorted and I did try to explain this to Chris but he was convinced it wouldn't take as long as I had expected so we got there for 11.30 and he had work at 12.30. hummmm.
Well, unfortunately it did take a while to sort the paperwork out andwhen I finally got the car Chris informed me he needed to go to work RIGHT NOW and so I would have to leave the rental car at his work all day.Paying 100 dollars a day for the rental car just to leave it at his work was not really pleasing to me but there was nothing I could do. I had to be grateful he came with me at all.
So after much stress with the rental car situation, I drove behind him to his work on Sunset Boulevard and took the car immediately to the mechanic next door to Chris's work as I wanted to have it checked out immediately for any problems..
This Armenian ( I think anyway.. he said he was from a place near Russia? ) anyway, this older dude was behind the counter of this little home run mechanics and I asked if he could look through my car for me, he seemed nice, like probably the second nicest person since the Russian lady at the car rental place.He said it wouldn't be a problem, would probably take an hour and so I sat and waited.
Waiting with baited breath I hoped and hoped that nothing was wrong.
He came back in ten minutes.Not a good sign.
'Sweety' ( he said in a strong Russian accent)
'Sweety, have you already paid for this car?'
Again, not a good sign.
I answered yes but I was able to take it back if there was something wrong with it. He then interrupted me and told me take it back immediately.It was completely 'f+cked'
Suddenly I realised I had invested 1700 into a car that was beyond repair, and what if the rest of the cars were all like this? What was I suppose to do?I didn't have any more money to go find another car in another place. I was being charged here there and everywhere for charges America just makes up and charges you for and my money was drastically running low, very, very low. It was Wednesday and I had only til Friday to get a car, how long was this process going to take? Each time I had to put petrol (gas) into the new car and arh it was costing me a fortune.
All this emotion happened in 2 seconds from being told to take the car back and my eyes filled with water. The tears started dripping down my eyes and the Russian was a little taken back. I realised this wasn't the place to cry so concentrated really hard on breathing slowly and deeply and not to panic.
The Russian realising I was on the verge of being very upset, said that the check over was free, and to bring the next car straight to him and he'd look it over again for free.He took me to the car and showed me the underneath.It was completely covered in thick black oil.He lifted up the bonnet to show me the engine; I had already done that with Chris but obviously neither of us knew what to look for and he pointed out all the things that were wrong or going wrong and said it would cost over $1000 to fix it.
I thanked him very kindly, so grateful for his honesty as he could easily have just said I needed to spend a grand and there was nothing I could do and I would have believed him. So I got back into the car , still holding my breath to smile and wave goodbye I drove to the nearest carpark, about 2 seconds away and turned the car off and completely and utterly collapsed in hysterical tears.
This is not for anyone to feel sorry for me,as in hindsight I am now fine.This move is a learning curve and that's what I am doing, learning but at the time I was distraught and the tears poured.
I rang my old housemate Andy as I thought he might have some ideas and I figured it would be better to blub to someone first before talking to my Dad so he didn't worry too much.The minute Andy picked up the phone I balled my eyes out, I'm surpised he even understood me but he did a great job at talking me through it and calming me down.I thought I was ready to call Dad.
Dad picked up the phone and the second I heard his voice I crumbled and couldn't speak for the crying for a good few seconds.So that preparation was useless.
He was very soothing, I wanted to get away, telling him this was way too hard to do all on my own but he reminded me this was what I wanted and CAN do it. Im just shocked that's all. Things will work out, I'm not an idiot and have my head on straight I just need to be brave and to carry on.
It worked, I was much better. In hindsight I'm very embarrassed to admit I went into a fit of hysterics on the phone to them and like I said its not to gain sympathy just to point out the truth, this is hard, its not all bells and whistles.This takes balls. But , I'm alive so have to be grateful.
So I drove with a hard determination to tell this charity people exactly what I thought of them.I was going to be ruthless, mean, hardcore.
I drove straight to the front desk, slammed the door to make a scene, stormed right up to the front desk rang the bell and when a Spanish lady came out and asked in a drawling accent 'Can I help you' I was all ready to give her a piece of mind.
Instead, I started crying. Again.
Oh GOD!! Whats wrong with me??? Had I not cried ENOUGH?????? Not beign able to construct a proper sentence the girl started yelling for assistance and a whole bunch of them all came out to look at the crying English girl.
The head boss came over and took me under his arm and escorted me outside. I tried to explain my situation and that I needed a car that was going to last , I didn't care about the look.He spoke gently and told me he was so very sorry that the car was sold in a poor condition, tried to explain that they sell more hen 140 cars a week and so outgoings are very fast and its hard to check all but he was going to give me a personal assistant to go round and find me a new , much better car.
I started sniffing, the tears were slowing down.
The head boss told the assistant to let me look at any car that was $3000 and under and he wouldn't charge me any more. His assistant was unbelievably attentive. He spent an hour and a half going through every single car that looked good, turning on the engines, getting extra battery if they needed it, (all needed it)checking the lights, the electrics, everything.
Two really big massive black dudes came up and tried to interrupt, talking like gangsters and throwing money on the ground in a fit cus he wouldn't lower the price of the car by $200.After a minute of listening to them backchat I started giggling as I had never encountered real life gangster talk this strong before.I was always under the impression this type of sillyness only happened in 'pimp my ride' and for comical purposes only.
Nope.
So I finally found a mazda 626.It was nice, I got in.It felt good. I turned the key.It started first time. The very first car ever to start and I knew it was the one.
We checked everything, it was all working fine, the miles were lowish, 133'000 air conditioning, however when i looked behind me the windows looked really dirty, but i later learnt that was just the fact they were all heavily tinted LOL and so I picked that one.
Priced at $2900 they brought the price down to $1500 for me and so I didn't pay a single penny more.The head guy was brought over and he made his own mechanic take it for a test drive first and look over it before giving it to me. They really made a huge effort.
The guy who spent an hour and half solid with me was sweet and demanded I took him out for ice cream to say thanks which I thought was an excellent idea. Anyone who wants ice cream is a friend of mine.
I took his number and when I was leaving the receptionist started chatting to me and while I was filling out the forms we had a little banter and got on quite well. She was Spanish too and said she liked my accent.
We were giggling at something when a really skinny 17 year old ish black gangster looking kid with the big baseball cap, loose clothes tassles hanging in places, massive trainers, (sneakers) walked in with his dad.He heard me say two words and butted in with 'hay you're not from round here ar ya'
I took a big breath, 'no, that's correct.'
I carried on filling out my forms.
'Well where are ya from?'
The minute I said England he started screaming out 'oooooooh cup 'a tea!!!! Cup 'a tea!!!!!'
Oh dear me.
Yes a cup of tea, that's what England is. Haha, was rather funny.
He then went on to ask if a 'pretty face like that comes with a number'
Oh for the LOVE.
I told him it comes with facebook.. (thinking I could take his details and then thrown them in the bin when he left)
However he replied with 'whats facebook?'
wow. Yeah. Ok, so I made some excuse and he went on his way.The girl at the front desk and I exchanged numbers as she was really kind and was wanting to meet up later when I was sorted.
It was too late to get it checked so I asked Chris to help me take my rental back and luckily I got two days charge back as it was only Wednesday.Chatted with the Russian lady on the front desk again and agreed to meet up the next week.
I just needed to get my car checked the next day and fingers crossed it was going to be ok.
T.B.C
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