subject: buying a used car with bad credit in Yuma [print this page] You know it is pretty bad when you have to drive 213 miles across desert to start a new job, because there are no jobs closer to home. You know what is worst than driving for 3hrs and 33 minutes in an Arizona desert in the summertime. You guessed it. Having the car break down in the Arizona desert in the summertime. Well, I was able to coast to the shoulder, and made the mistake of rolling down my drivers' side window. It was like opening an oven that was set for 300 degrees. The once cool interior of the car was now being flooded by what the weatherman termed as, "The temperature reading for the day should be around 112." Yeah, that's right. 112 degrees. I know...I know. I ask myself why I still live here.
Got the hood opened, and of course, I... wore... gloves. Looked around to see what could cause the car to die out like that. As my hands moved wires and removed caps, I heard a vehicle pull up and stop several paces in front of my car. Turned to see that it was the highway patrol. Thank God I'm saved. Got a ride into Yuma, luckily I broke down 3 miles outside of town, and called for the nearest tow truck company. finally, got the car in the mechanics garage went across the street to get a bite to eat. On the way back to the mechanics, I found a twenty dollar bill on the sidewalk. I thought my luck is starting to turn around. Then the mechanic said with a smile, "It's going to cost you $1,200 to replace that timing chain." Ah, say again? I whispered, as I slumped into the waiting chair.
As I sat in the chair my mind was racing, frantically thinking, and figuring. I bolted out of the chair and asked the mechanic if he had a inexpensive car he could sell me. He said, "No, I just fix them." I was talking aloud, to myself I thought, saying..."I need to be at my new job, a day from now." "I only have $700 to my name." "It would be better if I bought a used car than to be without a vehicle." The mechanic replied, "Six and one, half dozen of the other." "What does that mean...what does that mean, I asked?" "Either way...you got to do, what you got to do," he said.
I got to find a way to get to work. The recession has really taken a toll in the industry I work in. I'm a construction worker and I came out here, from Phoenix, to work on a solar power plant. I am blessed to get this job and I can't blow this opportunity being so close. I mean, $25 an hour is some good money to be making now. I had my head in my hands hunched over in the waiting chair, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the mechanic, handing me an ice cold plastic bottle of water. He said, "look buddy." "There's a place that just opened up that can probably help you out." He told me of a used car dealership, in Yuma, that could help people with bad credit and who were employed. He offered to give me a ride there.
The mechanic dropped me off at the dealership, leaving me with a fresh bottle of cold water. I met the salesman who confirmed pretty much what the mechanic had told me earlier. He called my foreman, who was in town, and confirmed my employment with that company and said, "Looks like you will be driving tomorrow!" "Now, all you have to do is pick out the car." You know, that salesman drove me to the hotel, picked me up the next morning, drove me to the bank and then to the dealership. Got all the paperwork done, thanked the salesman, and drove away in my new truck. Well, new to me.
