It has been months after I got my license. I have been trying to get a new used car for myself for a long time. After months of research, I have narrowed my choices down to a Toyota Corolla, or a Honda Civic. They both are both very reliable vehicles. They also are great on gas. So, what I did was that I would go on Craigslist every day after school for about 30 minutes. The average price for these cars were about the same. But, I preferred the Civic because, it is more fun to drive. We have looked at some civics over the months. But, all of them had problems. Some were not smogged, some were salvaged, and others had too many miles on them.
My dad had a work friend who was also a mechanic. That man helped us find the cars and gave us tips on what to look for and how to know if something was wrong. He was very helpful on this mission. It was a Tuesday afternoon. I had given up on buying this car. Every day, my dad picked me up after school. However, he wasn’t there on that day. My uncle took me home and I asked him why my dad wasn’t there. He told me that my parents had left to look for this Civic. I was very excited and scared at the same time. After I took my sister home, my parents came with no car. I asked what had happened.
My dad told me that his friend had gotten there before them and picked up the car for us. I was very happy. So, my dad went to the bedroom to rest. After about an hour, my dad gets a call. It was his friend on the phone. I asked my dad what he said. He told me that the car had been hit when the friend was doing a test drive. I was sad and heartbroken. I didn’t even see the car and it was gone. My dad called his friend and asked if he needed a ride. The friend said he had friends already on their way. My dad felt bad that he had to drive all the way there for nothing. My mom had the same reaction.
She felt so bad for the owner that she told my dad to call him and see if he was okay. So, my called the guy. A woman answered. The woman said one thing ” the car is sold”. My dad was confused, he asked her to give the phone to the owner of the car. My dad told him that he genuinely feels sorry that the car was in a car crash. The owner was confused. He said that he sold the car to a man. The buyer that he described matched the description of my dad’s friend. My dad was furious. He apologized to the person on the phone and got his car keys. My dad went straight to his friend’s house. There was nothing.
So, he went to his friend’s brother’s house. There were a couple of people there looking at a sliver car. My dad said that’s the car. They parked the car and wet to the house. The people there were really nervous. My dad’s friend came out of the house. He had this guilty look on his face. My dad asked why he lied about the car. The guy responded by saying that he was going to clean it up and surprise us. My asked him for the keys and thanked him for all of his help. My parents came back home with two cars. One of them was a silver Civic. I hugged my parents and thanked them. I knew that they went through a lot for that car.
After weeks, my dad’s friend called us and asked us if we want to sell the car to him. We knew at that moment that he wanted the car all along and that he almost got away with conning us. At the end, we learned some life lessons. The first lesson was to not fully trust anyone you don’t really know. If my dad hadn’t trusted this man, he wouldn’t have taken advantage of us. The second one is that throughout a purchase of something like a car, you have to be physically there to do it. The third lesson we learned was that no matter what someone does to you, don’t do the same thing to another person. Be the better person.
