Timing

In the midst of my financial issues, God sent a blessing. We've been struggling with transportation issues for a while. Alli's car has been off the road since November. Boy Wonder's car is a stick and Alli can't drive a stick. My van is, at best, becoming unreliable. It's well past 140,000 miles and needs it's third transmission. I do have a wonderful mechanic who is doing all he can to keep the current transmission hanging in there. I've come to terms (I think) with the fact that I'm financially better off to go ahead and put another transmission in when it finally dies. A new transmission is much cheaper than a new van! Especially when you consider that I've replaced almost every part of my van in the last two years.

Anyway, Beth's counselor brought her home after yesterday's appointment and came in to talk to me. Her 21 year old son is going to start driving to college in another city and they are getting him a new car that is better on gas mileage. That means they will no longer need his current vehicle - a 99 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's old but they've taken care of it and have had zero problems with it. She thinks the only thing it might need is, you guessed it, a new transmission, sometime down the road. She even has a family friend who is willing to help maintain the existing transmission to keep it working as long as possible. She was thinking I might be interested in buying it for Beth (actually letting Beth get a part-time job and paying her for it).

With my current financial issues, the last thing I need to be thinking about is coming up with $3,000 for a used car for Beth however, the counselor says they have no pressing need for the cash up front. Her parents are helping her son buy his new car and they are more than willing to owner-finance it and let Beth/me make payments. She said even $50 a month would be fine. I'm leaning towards buying it but it would be ME buying, not Beth. It would be with the understanding that, for now, Alli and Beth would share the costs of maintaining it and share the driving time with it. Ultimately, when Alli and BW move out, it would be all Beth's. I think this will work.

Beth doesn't need a car full-time. Her school is by my school and they are both far, far from our home. In this time of unheard of gas prices, we don't need to drive two vehicles 20 miles each way every week day. We'll continue to ride together whenever practical. However, with Beth searching for a job, those days will be numbered. Alli doesn't need a car full-time (at least not one funded by me), either. She will have to make do with using this one when it's not in use or plan ahead and work around my schedule and Beth's for when she does need it.

All in all, I think a second car will really help our driving situation. This vehicle sounds fine. The financing can't be beat. We're going to look at it this weekend and I'll probably have our mechanic check it out. I trust this lady completely. She's been a friend for several years and wouldn't intentionally lead us astray. Like she said, she doesn't need the money right now. (A position I've never been in, for sure!) She wants to help someone with this car and said Beth immediately came to mind. I would ordinarily think we needed our second vehicle to be something a little smaller that gets better gas mileage but with Elvis's wheelchair and his giant car seat, he's not going to fit in a small, zippy car. We're forever going to need something big and clunky that hogs the gas. I do think, though, that for now I'm better off being the one who owns the car and helping the girls work out a schedule for using/maintaining it. (Although I'll likely title it in Beth's name for liability reasons.)