Sweet Scarlet!

And then it was time to find a car. I had rented the smallest and cheapest Chevrolet Cobalt at the airport for a week, renting it for a further 7 weeks (the minimum stay in Texas, the length of the contract) would have cost me $1,800, so my objective was to find a decent set of wheels for less than that, then whatever I could get after selling the car would be a saving compared to the rental.
There are a lot of stories of people getting a working car for $500, and I naively hoped I would do the same. Well, it takes time, those cars are not advertised, you need to know someone, and at that point I only knew the landlady and a couple of people at work. I went through the car lots and realised how those guys make money: not by selling cars, but by selling on credit. If they buy a car in a good condition, they lease it, because they don't expect the car to fail (if they lease it they have to guarantee the car for the length of the lease), the interest is high and most people return the car before the end of the lease, which means that the dealer charges the commission again, to a new buyer. It's a very good business for the dealer, and the easiest way to start building a credit history for a foreigner like me. Now, if the car is not in good condition, they sell it for cash, "as is", no warranty.

So I only found crappy cars for cash, and when I saw a nice Pontiac Firebird for a bit more than my budget, they didn't want to sell it to me, they said they would only lease it. It was bizarre at first, they did not want my money, they only wanted to sell the car on credit. It makes sense now of course, I just didn't know, they didn't teach me that at business school...

Anyway, so after a long day I had only found a couple of Cavaliers for $2,200 and $2,500. More than my budget, and also that car is only used for taxis in Chile. And the ones I found had four doors, I'm not old enough to drive a 4-door car, no way!

But at the end of that day, having to return the rental next morning, I started to consider the Cavalier, after all, I thought, nobody needs to know...

"And then I saw her face, now I'm a believer..."

17:50, last shot, I went to the lot where I had seen a cheap Cavalier, and then I saw Scarlet. Bright red, louvered hood, double exhaust, I fell in love. She looks like a footballer's car, in Chile it would be considered "cafichon" (pimpy), but hey, in the tasteless land she looks good!!

Of course, she was sold "as is" and being a 1992 car it was a bit of a risk. I know a lot about cars, so I took her for a ride around the lot to find potential problems, but when I stepped on the gas I effortlessly smoked the wheels, that was it!!! end of the test drive, I wanted her!! She was listed at $1,995 plus taxes and fees, but after a while I got the price down to $1,800 all inclusive, exactly my limit. I was so eager to take her home that they didn't wash the price from the windshield!

Two door coupe, with the mandatory useless spoiler.













Double exhaust nicely tuned to sound very mean













And of course the fake air intakes on the bonnet.













Now, she's got issues, like the brakes don't work well, the seatbelts don't work at all, headlights seem to be burnt... minor details anyway, I'll fix them little by little. The 3.4 litre DOHC engine is solid, all the 210 horses are still there and the tranny is good, that's all that matters to me. Oh, and she is still bright red!!!