My Car Story

Its tough to get transportation from point A to point B without your own car I kinda learned that the hard way around the age of 18.

After graduating high school and heading out for the first time in to the real world, I was struggling with transportation. So when my foster mom had to go out of town for a meeting, I was like, I can find myself a ride, no problem. Good thing we go to a wonderful big church. I had over 10 different volunteers who would help me out with transportation for one week. Boy was I stressed out all the time waiting for them to arrive on time. I had no cell phone on me either to contact and remind them to come and get me. Good thing, everyone showed up on time, it was me who had a big cow over it!

Best Graduation Gift!

This man, say his name was Terry, who's wife taught me art class in high school. Not to mention we went to church together for 3 months. After graduating high school and starting my first semester at a local community college, I received a called back from Terry. He said he's willing to buy me a car as a late graduation gift. I was like, you're joking right? ( I mean, I hardly even knew these people?) I had to speak to his wife to make sure he's not some insanely nice guy. I broke the news to my foster mom about it. She didn't believe it either?! LOL

Turns out it was a white 1993 Nissan Altima worth $3,000 back then. Probably is worth around $1,500 or less by now. I really didn't get it for free really. My foster mom wanted me to be responsible to pay at least part of it. Aww shucks...

The funny thing is, its like a child having their first pet. So I named my car Angel cuz its white, cute, and deserves to guide me through.

Stress! Stress! Stress!

I never got the chance to have much of a driving lesson and just recently got through my drivers ed class. Wish I could've done it earlier but hey, I went through 10 different schools! Gimme a break! So basically, I just turned 18, was an inexperience driver, and scared as hell on the road! I also starting working my first part-time job at a local pharmacy, and have to attend a community college full-time! Talking about stress all at once! Yeah, I had to force myself to attend school all over again.

Auto Insurance

Having the ranked as being an inexperienced driver and having to get a license means I'm screwed! I had to pay well over $200.00 a month or more with just a liability coverage alone with Nationwide. Good thing I had my pell grant check to help me out with this. The crazy thing was, Nationwide takes my insurance out of my bank account automatically either once or twice by accident?! So basically I gotta make sure I have over $500.00 every month from this lame part-time job as a cashier and go to school full-time. Tough fun times.

Crash Time?!

Yes, it was my fault. I took a different route home, looking for this church that my friend wanted me to attend with her. So I hit the gas quick to go across the highway, and at the other side was a short road with a yield sign. Couldn't stop in time and this huge van hit the corner of my cars left rear end causing me to spin around. It happened so fast! I remember looking up to see what had happened. The next thing I knew, some lady walked up to my driver side and hollar at me why I didn't see the yield sign?! I was so stunned as to what happened that I just looked at her confused. And I was like, are you alright? She stormed away to parked her car and called the cops. While I called my mom to come get me and a tow truck. That bitch claimed bodily injury even though I admit to the cops that it was my fault.

I had a horrible back pain and seatbelt burn for the next two days to recover and head back to school and work on the third day.

Repair my Broken Wings

Since I don't have any collision insurance, I was so screwed! I had it towed to a body shop, say, lets called it Richards Body Shop? He took over 3 or 6 months to have my moms van fixed one time. He was going to charge me $3,000 to have it fix!? I was like, are you @#$ me?! I might as well get me a new car!? Later I found out that this Richards Body Shop has been ripping everybody else off too! But, hey there's gotta be a better deal out there?! Luckily someone at our church use to work for a body shop. He and his wife was nice enough to asked in person to have my Angel repair. Those guys were the sweetest repair guys ever! They say they were willing to charge $800.00. In which I don't have?! When my next door neighbor heard about this, he insist on loaning me the money. I was about to cry how thankful I was! They had my Angel fixed in a week when the part finally came in.

Reviving My Angel

After my Angel has been revived, I still had to do a lot more repairs on it. It didn't take long til the battery died. Good thing the Generator and Motors repair was across from where I work?! I had to replace the battery. Good thing it was free since it had a warranty that I didn't know of?!

The air conditioner later died in the heat of summer!? I immediately got that fix for $200 some dollars. After that was done, the belt needed to be replaced. Had to pay over $100 for that to be done. Later I heard that was way too much to get just a belt replaced?! Yes, I also found out later that I need to have some brake fluids for my car. That probably explained why both my front and back brakes snapped.

There was a time when my car kept having this hesitation of slowing down on its own and wouldn't cut on some times. Hate to take it to the guy that got my belt replaced, but everyone said that he's a great Christian guy. Turns out, he done something to the back of the car. Which didn't help much either. Good thing a friend of mine was dating a marine guy who managed to fix my car. He said all it needed was a tuned up. I gave both of them a nice pedicure. Funny thing is, he said to let him know whenever my car ever needs a tune up.

The Sacrifice!?

I had to keep a car cover over my car every time it rains since I had a sunroof that leaks. So one night, I tucked my Angel to bed in it's blanket before it started pouring rain. I had parked outside the street by our house. The next thing we knew, we heard a loud crash. We ran out to investigate. I was shocked to see the same left rear end has been hit. We had no clue as to who did it. But good thing my neighbor saw the whole thing and already called the cops. She got the culprit's license plate number too. Turns out, it was some 19 year old girl, in her red 1994 pontiac who took off. The police forgave her reason for taking off. She ran to mommy or something. But really, the police had to drag her back to cough up some insurance information. She claims to have Geico Insurance. Which my Nationwide company was fighting to make sure that my car was covered by that girl. We were all waiting for Geico to respond back so I can get my frigging car fix! I waited for nearly 6 weeks to finally get a damn answer from Geico saying, she never had any type of car insurance?! Good thing I had good folks to take me back and fourth to work.

Found out later that I had uninsure motorist coverage from my side of insurance that I didn't even know of?! Sad thing is, they said that it's considered towed, even though I drove it to the company?! I still have so much to learn about all this mess!

A New Guide

I had to wait another week to get my check. Good thing I started working in the nail salon and making some handsome money every week. So combine that check with my weekly pay and my moms savings plus a loan, I immediately got a new car on my first car shopping. Who wouldn't after 7 weeks of being carless?!

I bought me a luxury 2005 Ford Five Hundred. I know that I don't need a med-size car, but fell in love when I first opened the door to the inside. It is going to be useful for all that space of taking care of my siblings later on. I still haven't come up with a name for this one?!

But I'll never forget my journey with my old car Angel. I learned and earned so much blessings from it. I had received so many different help from others through its recovery. It lead me to form bonds and relationship as I do help a few with transportation too. And no matter how much it is damaged, there was always hope of having it revived back to me.