Rags to Riches!

In case you haven't read one of my recent posts about my old car, click here.

Now that you are up to speed, let's just say that I went from rags to riches!! Or at least that's what it feels like. Last week, I got word that my 1993 T-Bird had seen it's last day in my driveway. Time for a new motor means new car for me !! Yippee!!! Obviously we were not financially planning on this but the Lord has a way of working it all out. It was a bumpy ride to get to the finish line but I'm now driving a four-door 2005 Ford Taurus (similar to the pic above) and it's only got 20,000 miles on it which is great. Our mini-van is getting up there in miles because we've taken it everywhere. Now with the Taurus, we can pile us all in there for those short rides like to church and back which we did on Sunday. Better gas mileage than the van and keeps the van from turning over 100,000 miles anytime soon.

I certainly was not planning on getting such a new and frankly nice looking car like this. Because of the Employee Pricing plans out there for new cars, the dealerships are getting alot of low mileage trade-ins for those who are looking to get in bigger cars for cheaper money. So I took advantage of it and got a good deal. To make the long story (that my wife and some family have had to endure!) short, the funniest part of the deal was hearing the words from the dealer man:

Well, Mr. Vaughn, the only way we can make this work with what you are wanting to pay is to give you $1500 for your trade-in.

Gulp!! "Excuse me?" I thought to myself. I had a hard time getting that T-Bird to reach $500 on a Kelly Blue Book value. I know it was simply to make the numbers work but it was funny hearing those words after all we've put into that car financially over the years and for all the pain it has caused us recently. It was if the Lord was giving it all back to us in a weird sort of way. I was certainly singing praise songs as I drove away from the dealership.

Part of the negotiated price included them taking out the tape player and replacing it with a CD player. The next day I got the call from the service manager and he said he had some bad news:

Well, Mr. Vaughn, the problem is we can't take the tape player out because it's tied to the airbags. The only other option we can do is to put a 6-disk CD changer in the trunk."

It was hard to sound professional and say "Well, if that's all you can do, let's do it" while giggling inside thinking of how this couldn't get much better. The T-Bird never had a CD player and now I'm getting like 6 of them in one car!!! How hilarious is that !!

Anyway, I am thankful for the Lord walking with me through this process. For those that don't know me well, you must know that I'm not one of those guys who enjoys the "horse trading" part of the car-buying process. I never thought I would be good at that. I think I'm too nice in those situations. But, because of a dealership mistake, I found out alot about myself. When pushed to the limit (which the dealdership did initially), I was able to make some demands as part of the negotiation process that I don't think I would have ever done on my own. Not that the Lord is good at buying cars (stop, insert the irreverant comment here!), but He is the one who provides you strength when you need it.

It brings me to Philippians 4:13 as I close. Here it is from The Message:

Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

So true. God bless you all,

SJ