Good-BYE, July!

Goodbye, July, you wretched little month! This has been some kind of awful month at our house. I mentioned a few posts back about us having to pay $2400 to fix my Camry. Well, as they (Christian Brother's Automotive) were completing the work on the engine, they realized that the bolts were stripped and they couldn't put the engine back together. So they told me it would be an additional $4000 to complete the task. I told them to stop working on the car because we probably wouldn't pay that. I called around to several shops (including Toyota) and the best deal I found was to completely replace the engine with a used Camry engine for $3500. We had Christian Brother's take out what parts they could to get our bill to a reasonable amount. They got it down to $1200. Not so reasonable for a car that won't run in my opinion. So our options were to pay CBA $6400 to finish the job, pay $1200 and tow it to another place only to pay $3500 to get a used engine put in it, or to hand over the title and walk away.

Believe it or not, I pushed and pushed to get this car fixed. I know I sound crazy, but over the last few weeks I've either been researching helmets, or Toyota engines. We could have the car towed from CBA to this shop in Fort Worth and have the engine replaced for $4700. That totally stinks, but that is still better than buying a new car or even a decent used car. Replacing engines is evidently a common practice. The car blue-books for just over $7000, so I just thought there was a profit to be made on the car. I felt like we would have more options of we just got it fixed. Every person I talked to said DO NOT HAND OVER THE TITLE. Our problem was that everyone was saying don't do it, but no one really wanted to invest their own money in this car. Matt felt like it was too risky... so we handed over the title. The mechanic in Fort Worth who offered to replace the engine actually paid the tab at CBA and personally came and picked the car up.

What a crazy nightmare it has been. Satan has been all in this situation, having a hay-day with my emotions. GET THEE BEHIND ME, Satan! We are going to buy Matt's grandmother's car for $2000, so things don't end up as bad as they could've on the pocket-book. She has been looking to get a new car for a while. Her car (a Camry) is 9 years old, but it only has 39,000 miles on it. SA-WEET! I'll post a picture of it when it gets here. It is currently in Florida. Matt's parents have been very gracious to let us use one of their cars for the time being.

This situation has seemed to work out pretty well, but I'm still welcoming August with open arms!