Tell a Story.

[Clewisiii]

Not mine.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Great story.   Thanks for posting it.

Bruce.

[Clewisiii]

So in 2004 I was driving a 1990 Chevy Cavalier. I paid $300 for it. It was the cheapest car i could find. After my first car i paid $800 for in 2002 broke down.

It had bad brakes I fixed, a falling down headliner, manual transmission, and did not come from the factory with a passenger rear view mirror.

After a while of driving that car my grandma called me and asked if I wanted to buy her car for $4000 and she would let me make payments. She drove a beige buick and I was fine with that. This was the Flint MI area, Buick city.

I got to her house and saw the buick parked to the side of the driveway. She came up to me and said Grandpa is just getting it out now. I was puzzled, the buick was right there. He pulled out of the garage in her silver garage kept 1994 Cadillac Deville.

I had no idea I was buying a Cadillac when I went over there. And I was grinning the whole way home. The car did have a problem. It stalled 4 times on the way home. I went to the Cadillac dealership to have them scan it. Camshaft position sensor. I think I paid $80 for the scan then $150 for the repair. I did all my own work after that.

When I had issues I tried to get them to scan it at auto parts stores. But they were never able to. Once at Advance Auto the lady behind the counter asked if I wanted her to check the code. I told her they have tried but could never do it. She said let me show you something. She then walked to my car with no reader. On the AC controls she pressed off and temp up at the same time, the car started listing all the codes on the screen.

After that if a code popped up on my drive home I could find it and call the parts store and they would have the part waiting when I got off the freeway.

I loved that car. The cheap Cavalier I actually had people break into in Flint. But no one ever touched the Cadillac. I guess it works to blend in with the drug dealers.


I also really like the story on how that car died.

[Big Fins]

I also really like the story on how that car died.

And we're going to read that story when? 

I think every car we've ever owned has its own story to tell.

[Clewisiii]

A cut and paste from something I wrote to friends so the story does not flow for telling in 2024. This was a spring break trip I took with new fraternity brothers 4 weeks after I was initiated in the Sigma Chi Fraternity. FYI Sigma Chi uses the story of the emperor Constantine as an inspiration. It is relevant.

Yes I decided to drive my 18 year old 4,000 LB V8 Cadillac with a quarter of a million miles on it to Florida this year. I tried to get everything ready; I changed all of the rotors, brake pads, and even some flexible brake lines. I had had trouble with the serpentine belt before so I went over all of the pulleys and changed the idler pulley it had a bad bearing.
I was excited and hopped for a smooth trip, but I guess that secretly I felt something was going to happen. Trent and Stiles decided to ride with me and though we left late everything seemed to be fine.
The dive to Panama was long and we decided to go through the sticks of Alabama, but it was smooth and comfortable, you could sleep comfortably in every seat including the driver seat. (chewing gum helps).
But we made it to Panama no troubles no noises, beside the normal, no smoke no overheating. I was encouraged this car actually averaged 31mpg on the ride down there. It was an anomaly. After a great day in Panama we were now on our way to Gainesville and that is when it happened.
I was in the passenger seat, in semi consciousness, when I was woken with the information that something was wrong. The car had lost power. There was a rest stop ahead of us. I said aim for it hopping that we would coast in. It did not make it that far. We got out and pushed wanting to get off of the freeway and into the stop to assess the situation. A kid in a truck on his way home from work stopped to help push but I had a tow strap, (If you do not have a tow strap, jumper cables, and a portable air compressor in your car get them now, I have used them all multiple times but most of the time it has been for others who did not have them. If you are in a ditch just hook the strap to your car and stand on the side of the road holding the hook. Some guy in a truck will be excited to stop and say this is what I live for.) He towed us into the rest stop and thankfully he did because I swear it was a half mile long and uphill.
We finally got to a place where we could take a look at the situation. I am hopping and praying that it is the serpentine belt I can fix that easy. Upon looking at the engine it is perfect, we fired it up and the engine was fine. That is when my heart stopped, if it was not the engine then it is something that I cannot fix, the transmission. We put it into gear and heard a grinding. The transmission is gone.
It is now about 8:30 PM I ask the guys what do you want to do. No shop will be open tonight we can stay here at the rest stop in the car until tomorrow or we can call a tow now and just leave the car somewhere tonight. It was decided that if we were going to be stranded we were going to be stranded in a hotel room and not off of the side of the freeway.
Thank the Lord for smart phones; I am going to have to buy one. Not only did Ethan and Trent's phones become our GPS on the way down but they also located all of the shops and tow companies for us. We finally make contact with a company and he tells me he will send a man out. Now we are waiting and I am lamenting. I feel terrible for my car stranding us. It was my responsibility and therefore my fault. This is when I realized how great of friends I have in Sigma Chi.  Not only did they not blame me but they stopped me from blaming myself, and really encouraged me that everything would work out. Some of you may not believe it but Trent is amazing in a jam. He was understanding level headed and more helpful in that situation then I deserved, he exemplified what it meant to be a brother. The tow truck arrived and we looked at it a little questioningly. The truck was old and looked well worn.  A large balding man with a cut off sleeve t-shirt walks gets out looking quite intimidating this late at night. He walked up to me (it is dark and his headlights are glistening through his shoulder hair as he approaches us) and said "Hello Mr. Carl my name is Constantine." I do not even know what to write about that. It was fate. Three sigs in trouble and Constantine is there to rescue us. He was a big Romanian guy who made like ten bucks an hour driving a Tow truck. I told him that I did not even know where he should take us. He said he knew a place that could have it looked at first thing in the morning.
He takes us back to a small town called Marianna and begins describing the place. He says that it is much better now that they have busted most of the meth labs. We pass a police car and he flashes his lights at him and says that you have to acknowledge the police in this town that everybody knows everybody and that is the only way to get a job there.
He brings my car to a small shop at the bottom of a dead end street up against some railroad tracks and just drops the car in the street in front of the shop and tells us it will be fine. He takes us to a cheap motel where a room for three is just $45 and you get what you pay for. As an apology we go out I buy some beer. On the walk over we pass three car dealerships, knowing that I cannot afford a new car I look at all of the used ones, but they don't put the prices on the used cars. I get the beer and then we sleep on the most uncomfortable beds in the world. (Except for Trent he thought the floor was more comfortable)
The next morning Constantine shows back up in his own vehicle to take us to the shop. Constantine had the perfect vehicle for a rapist. None of the doors opened from the inside, they did not even have any handles. We get to the shop (Constantine has to let us out) and the guy there says it is not good I need a new transmission and it is going to cost $1800. He says this like it is a terrible price but I am jumping for joy that is cheap I cannot even buy a rebuilt transmission here for that price. But there is one catch he cannot have it done until next Tuesday. That would not work. He gives us until 2:00pm to decide because that is when he will need to order it by. We walk back down to the car lots and begin looking. We went to Chevy skipped Chrysler and went to Ford. I wanted to get a used car but pickings were slim in this small town. The guy at Ford tells me that he cannot get me financed for any of his used cars but could probably do something on a new car. This is not what I wanted to do but if it was the only option I would look into it. He is looking for a Fusion that he could get within a price that I could afford, but they were hard to find. He said that if anyone had a Focus that would be perfect but they have been sold out a long time, everybody wanted them. He was on the phone a while trying to find something when he stuck his head out the door and said you needed an automatic right. We looked at each other we didn't even have to ask each other, we are all engineers and we can all drive stick. I said no. He said great what color do you want. Apparently they could not get rid of manuals down there. So within an hour I had a new silver Ford Focus. Getting in it, I had to both get over all the comforts that my Cadillac had spoiled me with, and remember how to drive stick (it had been 5 years).
My Cadillac was worth nothing down there I signed it over to pay for the tow and any shop fees that may have been charged. We got into the Ford drove back to the bottom of the hill and removed all of our things from the Cadillac. At the bottom of the hill I could finally see the age in that car. As I am mourning the death of this car I can see all of the damage, rust, and broken pieces that my pride had overlooked. You know how when you have a girlfriend, and while you are together, you overlook many things about her. But once you break up you see all of the flaws in her that your friends had been telling you about, but you told them to shut up that they did not know what they were talking about. Well at that moment that car looked pretty bad at the bottom of that hill. When we had everything I locked the doors and threw the keys in the driver seat and drove away. I have always had a habit of naming my cars. My Cadillac was Galaxy. The paint color was galaxy silver and it was as big as a galaxy. In tribute, and since my new car is silver, I decided to name the Ford Cosmos. The rest of the trip went wonderfully. The Ford was an improvement on Gas (and parking, it fits anywhere) but sleeping was another issue. I swear there is no place to comfortably sleep in that car.
The next day we finally caught up to everyone else on the trip at a beach. As we pulled into the parking lot I got a phone call. It was the student loan company and they wanted to review my finances before they approve my last student loan. If they deny me I will not be able to finish my senior year and I am already $100,000 in debt for student loans that would be impossible to pay back.  Thankfully the paperwork for the car had not hit my credit yet. So for the full 45 minute conversation I was tense and panicking but it was all approved.

I drove the entire 20 hour return trip myself straight through. I was very tired after dropping every one else off at their houses before driving home.  I was so nervous about the cost of the car note, that I got a second job. I worked from 7am to 4pm at my engineering coop company, then I worked at Home Depot from 5pm to 11:30 for that summer trying to stash cash for school term. The ford does not compare to the Cadillac. And if this had broken down in Michigan I would have fixed it and would still be driving it. But it would not have been worth the cost of getting it home and a repair.
I am sorry for writing a book but I hope that you find some enjoyment from this in your downtime. And again thank you to all who were of help and encouragement in this time.

[59-in-pieces]

Carl.

Your first story video and those that followed about cars being recycled through family members really hit my heart strings hard.

That in my mind tells the loyalty of family and the added issue of the Cadillacs within.

Thankx,

Have fun,
Steve B.