Hello, BMW!

Yeah, we did it.  Dad gifted his old car to us since he's now enjoying his new 2011 323i.
So, we're the proud new owners of a 2003 BMW 325i.  Comments from others on why we did this have been mixed, some said cool, others said why?  The nice thing is, it's not their decision!
Hopefully we'll get more than a few years out of it...  Dad kept it in pretty good condition, and it has low km's on it (118000).  Lower than any of our cars now, if you can believe that!
So, we'll be selling off the older Caravan, hopefully soon.  The only thing we'll miss with that van is the captains chairs in the middle row - the other one has 2 benches, which kind of sucks with 2 car seats beside each other.

Good bye, Honda!

Forgot to mention that I sold my car the other day.  A guy emailed me on Sunday and said that he "could come tonight with cash, but I had to be flexible on price", so I said I am, and to come and see it.  He didn't come on Sunday, so I thought it was another cold lead - the 3rd one so far.  Anyway, at Volleyball on Monday night he called the house when I was at volleyball and said he was coming to look at the car.  She gave him my number, but I didn't hear it at the gym.  I checked my phone half way through volleyball and I saw that I had 14 missed calls mostly from Home.... so I panicked a little thinking something was wrong with Des or Vi and called back.  Anyway, I get the story that this guy is coming with cash and wants to possibly take the car tonight, so I cut volleyball short to get home to meet him -- He didn't show up until 11 pm!  I didn't need to rush home....
Anyway, he brought a friend and his brother.  The friend was a mechanic, so picked the car apart.  I told them flat out that it needs a lot of work, but I didn't know what because I didn't have it checked out for safety.  All I knew was it needed brakes and front bearings for sure, the rest I didn't know.  Well he haggled me down for a while and we finally settled on a price.  The mechanic thought it needed $2500 to safety - I didn't disagree as the mechanic at work told me probably at least $1500-2000.  Anyway, he said that he'd agree on $1500 on condition that I take it to his shop and get it on the hoist for them look it over.  If they didn't like what they saw, then they might back out.  Or, they take it home now, no questions for $1000.  I thought $1000 was a little low, so I said, how about $1200 and you take it now.  They agreed.  So then they started looking it over some more and found another "problem" with it that would be another $200 to fix (the rear tail lights seal was broken and water was getting in the lights), and haggled again.... I said, take home now for $1100 (and thinking to myself, and get out of here - it's midnight!!)  He agreed again, this time a done deal.

Anyway, I knew the car was needing a lot of attention, and it's a far cry from the $3500 I was asking (which was high) -- but I was hoping to get about $2000 for it.  Oh well, not our problem any more!

cars

Oh, how I hate (old) cars.... took mine to the shop today for an oil change and to diagnose a noise in the front.... Power steering rack is gone and leaking everywhere, and BOTH front bearings need to be done.  I asked him how this is possible since I've already had 5 bearings done on the car in the last few years, and 3 of which were by them.  One of those fronts has been done TWICE already, and will be THREE times now.  He said he doesn't know why this car seems to be burning through bearings like this. Sweet.  I'm so glad we decided to keep this car.  Great timing too since we just bought a new washer and dryer, and Echo's going for his checkup on Friday which usually costs about $500 (because heart-worm pills, etc).

I guess I'll also keep the winter tires on all summer again -- I was looking for a cheap pair of summer tires....  not now!

Update:
I told them to hold off on the bearings as I can deal with a little road noise if they're not going to fall off...
So it should be cheaper, but it still doesn't feel good to spend that kind of money!