Today I exchanged several e-mails with a sales rep at the car lot. She said the business office thought a car to trade in and $500 down would be helpful in getting a new (used) car. But she had an appointment and I talked to another sales rep she set me up with. Given the oeconomic environment, my poor credit score, and the tiny trade-in value of my Taurus, he thinks it likely that I would need a bigger down payment, such as $1500. That's doable soon, but not this month. He did, however, agree to put a request through with the $500 figure, just to see if the finance company would allow it. If no, I should know sometime tomorrow. If yes, it may not be until Thursday.
I'm not eligible for the Cash for Clunkers programme, because my current car gets over 18 miles per gallon and even though the car has been in my possession for four or five years, it was not in my name until this spring. Oh, well--it was worth a try.
So the strategy is to start saving, something I've never gotten into the habit of doing.
In the meantime, in order to attempt a trade-in, I had to drive my car home and then to the lot, and it did pretty well, so then I went grocery shopping (about a block or two) and over to my friends' house (a few miles away). So far no total lack of power or anything. I think I may take off Thursday and take it into Mitch's Auto Repair to get some idea if this is just from the speed sensor working intermittently or if it's something worse like the transmission or fuel pump. Then I'll decide from there if it's worth fixing. I'll have enough (if I get an extension on my electric bill) to pay for the speed sensor, but if it's going to cost more, I think I'll just drive the car as long as I can and put the money towards another car.
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