Buying a new car, er…truck

DadOfAllTrades has never owned a new vehicle.  He has happened upon many a car from an uncle, friend or acquaintance without so much as a whisper of car-based inquiry.  And he likes it that way.

Since he can work on everything engine related, used cars don’t scare him.  The only thing he does not like is having to fix gas line problems, so he farms those out.  But all in all, he has maintained our fleet superbly.  It is a relief to know that once I hear a funny noise, the problem will be fixed asap.  I may have to drive his car for a day or two while he works on mine, but we do not have to hand over the keys for an expensive repair.  This fabulous skill is why we have not had a car payment in over 7 years.

This winter we had a random conversation regarding our fleet and I mentioned that the next vehicle he buys, or happens upon as it may, needs to be able to tow.  We want to take the aluminum rowboat to the local reservoir to fish and one cannot do that with a Honda Accord.  We had also discussed using this year as a camping year- borrowing SIL’s pop-up camper and making a cheap week out of vacation time.  This being agreed, he began a hunt for the perfect truck.

He is the type that will mention something and then appear to have forgotten.  I don’t think I heard the word “truck” from his lips again until April, and I was afraid that June would roll around and we would have to tow the camper to Michigan with our own legs. 

But he tells me that he was busy asking his work buddies about the trucks they were driving and the trucks they had owned.  He was perusing the AutoTrader website while I was at karate.  So he begins looking for a used truck, one of the small to mid-size variety.  Like a Toyota Tacoma.  He felt we needed an extended cab with a decent amount of legroom as the boys cannot ride legally in the bed of the truck, and they are not getting any smaller.  He searches the dealership websites diligently behind my back.

So he asks friends for car salesmen names and heads out one Tuesday after work.   In the course of four hours he has driven three trucks and received three quotes.  Brave man.  After putting foot to pedal, he claims he likes the bigger truck better.  Hmm.  We discuss the options that night after the boys are in bed.  How would life be with only two vehicles?  What in the world? you ask?  DadOfAllTrades likes to have a contingency plan by having an extra vehicle to drive if one of the fleet goes down.  Buying a new truck would mean trade-ins and not having a back-up-plan.  It may mean having to rent a car if mine breaks.  I am ok with that.

DadOfAllTrades heads back out the next night with the other possibility of trade-in and stuns the salesmen.  If, with the trade-ins and whatever rebates, they can get the price down to a specific dollar amount, then they have sold a truck.  He says they stared at him for a long 5 seconds then got to their feet and started running.   It was fun for him to watch them make the deal happen.   Two hours and many texts later he signed on the dotted line! 

We now own this masculine baby:

I want to name him Tito, or maybe Vincent,  like a mafia name, but DadOfAllTrades says “No names”. 

Darn buzz kill.