Well, I said I'd drive my car into the ground before getting another car. Let me tell you about Friday and meet my new, old car.

Written 10/14/2025.Robert’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I got the call at 10:30 am Friday morning. I had dropped Hyundai Elantra off the night before and they gave me a loaner car for the day. $2,100 to fix all the brake problems and master cylinder. The car is worth $1,800 at best. If I got it fixed, something else would have broken.I told them to put it back together. I wasn’t fixing it. Time to get another car. I needed a car for Saturday.I knew that I wanted one of three brands, Honda, Toyota, or Subaru. All rated highly. Next, I didn’t want to spend much money right now, so I set the results at cars costing $10,000 or less.Subarus turned up, but very few other cars.I set the bar higher, $15,000 and got some good results. I also sorted based upon the best deals (vehicle offered below market rate) and found a Subaru that was interesting. I called on it. It was available, but someone was test driving it. I told the salesperson to let me know if it sold.Next, I put that make/model of Subaru into ChatGPT. It returned stats on typical issues with that particular make/model and repair score. The repair score was average, and I was looking for better (equaling lower repairs).I put in about 4 other cars, including a BMW SUV (bad repair score - repairs + cost to fix) and finally settled on a Honda Pilot. Mileage was over 100K, but Hondas will go for at least 200K miles. Everything else looked really good, including what chatgpt returned on repair scores and possible issues.I called the place where the car was being offered and talked to Jim. I asked whether he could go lower on the price it had been on the lot for 99 days. We had a brisk discussion. I also asked about financing, which he replied he had several options.I went to his website and put my information in to get financing options from the dealership.I then went online to look at other financing options. PNC bank supposedly had something. I called and had to go into a branch and scheduled an appointment for 2:30 pm at the local branch. I told the person on the phone before we booked the appointed specifically about the car, year, mileage, where it was being sold.I got to the branch and the person I was supposed to meet with wasn’t there. Another person helped me, which was good. The biggest issue was that they wouldn’t finance a car with more than 85,000 miles on it. So, because the PNC lady who set up the appointment didn’t know it meant that I had wasted over 2 hours of time.Jim called and told me I was approved to finance all of it (no money down) for 48 months and that since I did that, he’d hold the car for me to see it and start the paperwork.Off I went in the loaner car. I toyed with taking an Uber over but decided against it in case the car was a dud. It took about an hour to get to Crestwood on a Friday afternoon.I looked at the car. Seats and interior were pristine for being 8 years old. The exterior had some scratches, and the back cargo area had scratches, but that was to be expected. The car drove really well; everything worked and seems tight. I inspected the engine, underbody, tires, etc. All looked good.I went into Jim and he had already done the paperwork for me. He kicked the current family out of his office (they were still trying to decide) and I signed 8 pages and grabbed a key. He kept the other key because he had to move the car to a part of the lot I could access after they had closed.I also asked him to fill up the tank before I returned, which he agreed to do.Back to Naperville. My Hyundai was ready to be picked up. I paid via the phone and brought my extra set of keys because it was after 6 pm by the time I arrived. I had also made an appointment over at Hyundai to sell my car to them. I brought 2 big boxes to clear all the s**t I had accumulated and dropped off the loaner car and picked mine up. The brakes were very iffy (I had to push close to the floorboard before I’d stop), but I made it over to the dealership.The guy offered me $500, I countered with $1000. He said he had to talk with his manager, so went off to do so. I waited 2 minutes and walked into the manager’s office and exclaimed, “are you gonna give it to me (the $1000)?” The manager replied he could do $800, no more. I pushed but he wouldn’t budge, and I did NOT want to bring the car come, so I counted with $800 and a Lyft ride to Crestwood. He asked how much that’d be and I said $45. He said okay. So off I went to Crestwood to pick up my car with my 2 big boxes of crap.The good news is that while cleaning my car out, I found one set of keys that had been missing for about 8 years and another set of USPS keys that didn’t go to anything.I got my Honda in Crestwood and arrived home about 8:30 pm. I lost a day, but it was just one day, and I really love the car. It’s the first one for me with a backup camera. That is something I’m still getting used to. Oh, and it has a remote starter! How cool is that.Robert’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rslayton.substack.com/subscribe