RIP Gracie Lou

Well, as you may have guessed by the title, Gracie Lou is not of our world anymore. She's definitely a part of SOMEBODY'S world, and I'm fairly certain that somebody is cursing our existence right now... tee hee. We'll get to that.

First, as many people know, Jeff likes to research cars on the internet. As he's been driving Gracie Lou for the past month or so, he's been on research OVERDRIVE. We've talked to people in California, Minnesota, and the eastern coast discussing the finer parts of different vehicles. Finally, he found one at a nearby CarMax that he wanted to take for a drive.

Let me preface by telling you the first time we looked at our now-car, it was way past my bedtime. Jeff got a phone call as I was falling asleep on the couch, and he helped me put on my shoes as he loaded my sleepy butt into the car. The saleslady was not impressed when I told her I wanted to drive it during the day so I could tell if my view was truly blocked or if it was the "goofy $^%#" they put all over the windows.

We decided to do another test drive on Friday while the sun was still up. Well, as typically happens in our lives, we ended up having plans on Friday that we had forgotten prior to driving the car. We arrived immediately before closing (and very close to the point in time where the saleslady went into stalker overdrive trying to get the sale). We test drove it again and decided it couldn't hurt to have Gracie Lou appraised.

Well, Jeff and I have come the agreement that it was dark, near the end of the evening, and the worker did not feel like appraising Gracie Lou thoroughly (or even possibly at all).

Let me back up and tell you about Gracie Lou's recent rapid descent out of our lives. First, I'm fairly certain everyone knows about the cosmetic damages from when I ran into a pole in the parking garage, and the cracks in the window from passing dump trucks... oh, and the smell. What was that smell, really?! However, I'm not sure everyone knew of the leaking coolant (even after spending hundreds of dollars to repair it), heater gone out in the dead of winter, and the check engine light which would come on at least once a month that typically meant more hundreds of dollars down the drain. In addition, Jeff hit a pothole that led to bubbling of the tires.

The appraisal process were supposed to have been very thorough. He was supposed to have driven the car, taken it to a well lit garage, and checked it over. We have reason to believe he did none of these, because the appraisal came in WAAAAAY over what we expected and took less time than it usually takes to start Gracie Lou. Needless to say, when we saw the numbers we quickly signed anything put in front of us and giggled to ourselves on how upset CarMax would be come daylight.

We hadn't planned on it, but we ended up driving a white 2005 GMC Envoy Denali home that evening (actually, around 11 that night). So far it has treated us wonderfully. Best of all, no check engine light on and the heater works. :)

Hope all is well with you and yours. :)