Car update

I now have a new car.

...But first some backtracking.

Near the end of November our garage was broken into and our car was stolen. the short story is that we got it back undamaged. Yay!

A week later I walked out to go to work and my truck was gone. This time they found it the next day and made an arrest as there was still someone driving it. Unfortunately it was badly damaged. (at least according to SGI) Based on what I saw when I removed my belongings there was no damage but I am not a highly trained insurance appraiser.

In the end they offered me $3428 for it which I gladly accepted as it was more than I paid for the vehicle and nearly double what I thought it was worth. I also went to the auction and found a new car.

I was at the last auction before Christmas and there was only about 20 people around bidding on the vehicles instead of the normal 100 or so. My car was the 3rd one through and when the bid stayed low I entered and got it for a bid of 2100. The final price after the fees and taxes was $2500. I figured that the car had to be worth more than that.

It is a '03 Hyundai Accent with 91000km on it. It is a standard. I did some research when I go t home and found that cars like this are being advertised for anywhere form $5000-$6500 so I figure that I got a good deal. It even came with an after market Kenwood CD player.

Now the bad(?) news. 3 weeks before the vehicle was stolen, we had arranged for a consolidation loan to pay off all our credit cards and outstanding loans. As part of this process we agreed to use both our vehicles as security. This means that the money that SGI is paying me GOES TO THE BANK NOT ME! I have to buy the new car out of my own pocket.

So on paper I have come out ahead but I now have $2500 on a MasterCard on which I am paying 18% interest and my consolidation loan, on which we pay only 6% has gone down by $3400. The payments on the consolidation loan are also fixed so they don't change and I have to add credit card payments each month now after I thought I had got rid of those.

That's ok though...
Peter still hates me cause I am beautiful and that is what really matters.