funny? not funny.

For those of you who have heard stories about my Dad before, you may see the humor in what happened this weekend. Of course, all of you will see the horror.

So, mein Vati calls me on Saturday, and tell me that my mom will be taking over my Grandma's car, now that my grandma is in a nursing home. This means that they will have an extra car-- a 1999 Mercury Mystique with only 50,000 miles on it. If I were to sell my 1998 Ford Escort ZX2 with 100,000 on it, he would be willing to give me the mystique for the amount I get for the ZX2.

Too good to be true, huh? Well, my dad generally comes through, so I told him I would list the Escort on my.bgsu and see if I could get it sold. I listed it for $3400, the fair value on Kelly Blue Book. Well, within 3 hours, I got the first call. I told my dad about it, and asked him what the lowest offer I should take would be (since he would be taking the money from that in exchange for a 1 year new, 50k fewer miles vehicle). He said $2995.

Well, today, somebody came over and offered $2800 cash for it. I called my dad, again, and he said to go for it, since they were offering cash. I figured I would give him the difference out of pocket. So, I met them, got the $2800 in cash, and signed over the title today, Sunday. Fast. huh?

When I got back, I called and told him. Again, he said it was good, it would be about a week and he could bring the Mercury.

A little later, he called and said it might take a bit longer, the engine light had gone on. Then he said he had the parts to fix it, but he had to work some things out. Then he said that my mother came home and said she thought he knew that she had changed her mind--she doesn't want to give up the car.

So my dad says "well, maybe we can get you Max's car (another ford escort ZX2 that was recently hit and has a smashed up front quarter). Of course, I would wonder what Max would drive then. His second offer was the 1997 Ranger pickup he was storing in my gargage. The one with pick-up truck gas mileage, a battery that dies every week if you forget to take a drive, and a smell that is not helpful to my sinus problems. Finally he said maybe we could have his new 2006 Aveo (which, despite the fact that that would be a great deal for me, would probably cause hard feelings, so I have to turn that offer down).

So now he is thinking about it. I have no car, and I took a lowball offer for a car that I just recently had almost everything fixed up on, new brakes, tires, rotors, tie rod ends, a transmission flush, etc.--and at this point, I only have a very complicated family mess to deal with.

Pretty funny, huh?