| As is (Restomod by me) | ||
| Engine: |
Chassis: |
Interior & other cool
stuff: |
So, my Mom calls one day and tells the story of how her '96 T-Bird "is broken - won't go forward or backward." "Well, bummer," I told her. "Have it towed to your house." I was at home burning sick leave because I'd messed up my back after Christmas, and following the muscle issues I had overcome, I was dealing with a pinched nerve (which required some medical intervention - just meds, fortunately). There was no way I was going to be working on hers, or anybody's cars for awhile.
After about a week, I was feeling better and decided I'd go look at the car to figure out what had happened to the car this time - Mom's done some bad things to her car, but it was over 20 years old, after all. My wife and I discussed what to do about the car if it couldn't be repaired (since I had no idea what was actually wrong with it, based on the "Mom-level mechanical information" I had to go on). We talked about how getting a nice, used car was going to run $4-5,000, and even then we would have no idea what we would be getting. The T-Bird had been nickel & dime-ing us for a few years now, and we didn't want to go down that road with a 'new' car. Plus, there was a good chance that whatever we got would be 'newer' than our 2001 Grand Prix GT, although no chance it would be any nicer since that car had such low miles and was extremely well maintained (not a scratch on it and less than 75K miles - yeah... it's THAT nice).
We tossed around the idea of just buying a new car and giving Mom the Grand Prix... but then there's that, "but, I don't want to watch Mom destroy this awesome car we've been taking care of for so long." Funny thing though - this time it came from my wife. WTF?! Usually, it's me voicing those kinds of concerns... this time, it was her. I felt the pride swelling up inside me... just as I realized she was right. But, Mom needed a car IF the T-Bird wasn't repairable. We'll cross that bridge when we get there - I decided I'd go check out the car over the upcoming weekend. This was a Thursday evening.
I got home from work on Friday, and she'd found a car she was interested in Abilene... apparently, someone had done some online car shopping while I was at work, and found something cool. OK - what could it be? Well, it was a 2010 Silver Camaro 1LT at a used car stealership just East of Abilene. Interesting... it was loaded with a V-6 and had a sunroof (she'd been missing a sunroof since we had to sell her awesome '96 Z-24 after a hail storm in 2002 totaled it - which the Grand Prix had replaced). OK. It looked nice enough, had decently low miles, and the price didn't suck - so we decided to go to Abilene on Saturday to check it out (instead of me going to fix the T-Bird - Hey, I'm cool with that).
Woke up, and called the stealership - they'd sold the car (but left the online ad up - bastards). Well... crap. Now, what? Broke the news, and the online shopping commenced once again. No more 2010s anywhere reasonable, so we morphed into the 2011s, 2012s, and 2013s. There wasn't much to see with those, either. I found a 2014 Cherry Red 2LT in Dallas, loaded, sunroof... awesome car. She got excited and even said that it was the car she would've ordered if we had bought one new. Ding - Ding - Ding! We have a winner.
Except - she'd never driven a new-generation Camaro, and she's not comfortable driving unfamiliar vehicles. What if we went all that way just to find out she didn't like or couldn't drive the car? Well, the solution to that would be to find one at a local stealership and take a spin. Cool! Called the Dallas place, they still had the car, and would hold it for us until Monday if we had a successful test-drive locally. I jumped online again and found one at a local place so we could take a quick test-drive - then, we'd [hopefull] run up to Dallas the next morning and bring back the awesome red Camaro we saw.
We went over to the local place and found the car. Hopped in and I took it off the lot. It drove awesome, I fit in it fairly comfortably, and it ran great (I've been getting used to the Mach 1, so being squished into a little muscle car is no big deal). Then she switched seats and drove it around... and fell in love with it. She had a great time and actually enjoyed it. Cool! Now, let's get back to the car lot, tell them we'd like to think about it a little more (and go get the awesome red Camaro in Dallas the next day).
Yeah. Not so much. What was that old saying, "The best laid plans of mice and men...." Something else about circumstances being overcome by events, and all that other nonsense. Apparently, an Ashen Gray Metallic Camaro in-hand is worth more than a Deep Cherry Red Camaro in Dallas. Oh boy.
So, instead of hopping back in the Ram, grabbing some dinner on the way home, and anticipating a trip to Dallas the next day, we're now inside talking with the salesman and running the numbers... the whole time my wife was saying she didn't deserve a new car, we didn't need it, it was a lot of money, etc., etc. To which, I kept telling her that it was her decision, that she did deserve a new car, and that we can afford it with no issues, so if she wanted the car, just get it... but don't forget, there's an awesome Deep Cherry Red Camaro in Dallas for us to consider - which this car was a full $5,000 more expensive. After about another half hour, a few trips back outside to look the car over again, we discovered that this was a 2015... not a 2014. Well, that explains the price difference.
I know what you're thinking - yes, I should've known that, and had we actually done our homework on the car before heading to the car lot to buy it, we would've. But remember - we went there just to test-drive it to decide if we were going to buy the one in Dallas... so, aside from there actually being a Camaro she could drive in San Angelo, we didn't really need to know much more than that.
After another half hour of "thinking it over," them sweetening the deal with some window tint, knocking some money off the top, free oil changes and inspections forever, we were signing papers and wound up taking the car home. Wow - that did NOT go as expected... but, there was excitement over having a new car - especially, one she'd picked out herself. "Win-Win," in my book - I'm just glad she's happy with it.
The next morning, I pulled up the online ad I'd used to find the car and discovered quite a difference between the "Internet Special" price listed and what we agreed to pay. OK - this deal just went sour. It was Sunday, they were closed, and we spent all day being pissed about it. She was planning on going back on Monday and telling them to keep the car, we changed our mind, and didn't like getting played like that (our own fault, really - since we were planning on just using them for a test-drive, after all). But I got home from work and she told me how she'd gone there, spoke to the sales manager, and how he had agreed that it was a huge mistake on their part and would cut a check for a refund - she was happy 'splitting the difference' as well as the willingness of the sales manager to work with us. So, all is good and the car is part of the fleet for good.
Wow. Like I said, "What just happened?"
Oh yeah, my Mom called a local salvage yard and they came and hauled off the T-Bird, gave her $150, and we handed over the keys to the Grand Prix a few days later. I never did find out exactly what was wrong with it.
We've already gone to my favorite car accessory place, Tuff Shine, and picked up some Lloyds mats, an ebony suede dashmat, and had windows tinted. She found some cool burgundy accent stripes for the hood and quarter panels, which we'll be installing soon. More to come.
Sometime in the summer 2017: I finally got the opportunity to install the
burgundy racing stripes she picked out. Not too bad to do - I think the
toughest part was cutting out the gas filler cover. So on a Saturday evening about the 3rd week of August 2017, I
returned from a business trip and we were heading out to meet up with some
friends for dinner. As we merged into traffic on Loop 306 eastbound from
the Southwest Blvd ramp, this late-model dark blue Dodge Dart was closing up
fast on the truck that let us in. It had rained earlier in the day, and
the idiot in the Dart was going so fast, he lost it trying to go around a black
F-150 behind us. He went into the median and got sideways, passing the
truck as he went by... sideways, in the median... passing the truck... he
must've been doing at least 90 (we had just gotten up to 65 - you know, the
speed limit). So, as physics would have it, the idiot in the Dart caught
some traction while pointed sideways about the time he caught up to us and
headed right at the driver side of the Camaro. He slammed into us so hard
the airbags deployed and shut off the car. She stood on the brake pedal to
keep us from slamming into the upcoming guard rail between the Loop and off-ramp
- with no power brakes (since the car shut itself off, that was no easy feat).
The Dart spun 3 or 4 times and stopped on the overpass, somehow got started
again, and took off - bastard. The bag going off filled the cab with smoke
and dust, but the crash didn't kill the battery, so she put the windows down to
clear out the airbag dust. She was freaked out and shaking really bad as I
got out and went to the driver side. Once I got the door pried open, I
asked if she was OK and called 911. After I finished the call, the
realization of what just happened kicked in and she understandably started
yelling and cursing out the driver of the Dart, who'd long since fled the scene.
Some people from the Texas Roadhouse parking lot came across the off ramp along
with the people in the F-150 who'd witnessed the whole thing and said they'd
seen the other guy take off. Fortunately, the police and emergency
vehicles showed up to work the scene and determine if we'd been injured -
fortunately, we were fine. Just shook up and pissed off. So much for
meeting our friends for dinner. The following Monday, I went by the body shop where the poor
Camaro had been taken, and the assessor gave the bad news that the Camaro was
totaled - among the other outwardly visible body damage, sliced up front tire,
and blown airbags, there was a crinkle in the door sill which is pretty much the
kiss of death for a unibody car. But, it did its job and kept us safe
through the crash. I grabbed her stuff from the car, took a few pics, and
signed it over to them. Buh-bye, Francesca. Here are a couple of shots of the damage.
We started looking for another Camaro to replace this one since
she loved the car and it did such a good job through the crash, and found a 2015
Red Rock Metallic RS within a week.
