belt tightening

[ocnblu]

Nope. But the silver painted wheels, black bumpers and grilles, and crank windows should be a clue.

[daves87rs]

I forgot the mention the dopey salesman, as he was writing up my "trade-in sheet", said, "That's a GMC Sienna, right?" I almost punched him in the nose right then and there. Then he asked me if it was a "work truck" package... anyone with half an eye open can see it ain't no W/T.

I think you should have just kicked his ass anyways.....You would have felt better after that.....

Anybody that blind needs a new line of work....

[daves87rs]

Friend of mine has a black 4-door Cavalier which was rear ended by a Mercury Villager. The Villager was totaled and all he needed was a new bumper (mind you the bumper was only misaligned and scratched not ripped off)...and the exhaust tip was slightly bent. Since the van was at fault he got a whole new paint job.

I still wouldn't want one, but they seem pretty tough.

They are.

[daves87rs]

The J bodies were horrible for looking great from the outside after a rear end hit, but hiding all sorts of frame rail/trunk floor damage.

My 87 RS was nailed while parked (hit by a drunk driver), and I had very little frame damage (mostly driver's rear).

My buddy's little sis got rear ended by an Escort (at 45mph), and we were amazed that that it did not much frame damage either...

But I know what you mean.. I think it just depends..

[daves87rs]

ocnblu and Dave87rs...

I honestly hate to hear of hard times for anyone. I myself am going through it as well. Part of that, though, is my fault. I just bought an 08 Vue to replace to of my vehicles. I had an 04 Saturn ION (modded but still great on gas) and my dad's 98 Chevy C1500 after he passed away. The truck honestly hurt me just sitting there. It gave us virtually zero major problems, but the cost of insuring both, gas for both, maintenance for both, on top of a new mortgage, and new addition to the stable, really made for some hard times. My wife is trying desperately to find a full-time job that pays anything more than minimum wage as an effective supplementary income and as well to try to save enough money to go back to school. I work in a hospital, and am thankful that my job is relatively stable for the next couple years.

But I won't lie, times are tough. Our house isn't a big one, but we couldn't put down 20% so our mortgage is considered high-risk. On top of that, I needed a larger vehicle than my ION, but something that didn't drink gas like the truck. Hence, the Vue. I got lucky selling the truck though, I tried autotrader and didn't even get a callback for a month's worth of advertising. What got the sale was a "for sale sign" that I purchased at the local convenience store for $3.50. Happened to be a guy that lives 12 minutes away from me who passes my house to goto work. He is a handyman who happens to do side-jobs on the weekends for extra cash. Saw the truck, came in to talk with me one day before work, and gave me $8,800 for it (CDN funds). I was asking $9,200 and that was highballing it too.

He actually shook my hand, and thanked me several times because it was "exactly what he was looking for". He couldn't do much work on the weekends as of lately, because his rusted out Ford Bronco was starting to give him major intermittent issues. This was 3 and a half months ago (in the wake of the soaring prices). You might be able to find someone like that. Would never hurt to try. I would say to try with just the sign in your front windshield, because you never know who is going to pass by and notice it. Autotrader, on the other hand, can get expensive, and the people on there are more than likely, going to compare your truck to several others based on price alone. Visually seeing it in person though may spark that "gotta have it" impulse buy.

Good luck to both of you. I hope everything works out. Just keep your head up high, and things will improve. They always do.

Thanks.

I can understand the job thing..my wife hopefully should be back to work within the week.....

We wanted to buy a house ourselves ( for our little guy), but not able to....it is quite rough around here....

Sounds like we are kinda in the same boat there.....

Hopefully something good comes along for me....and I hope your wife finds a good job.

I guess the only good thing right now is that the housing market is pretty bad.....so we should be able to find an affordable house for the three of us.. (next year)

Sorry about your dad....I can bet selling the truck was hard.......

Hopefully things work out good for the both of us....