Author: Jenn

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Car Scams on Craigslist

As I was searching for a “new” used car through different avenues (Ebay, local trading post paper, Craigslist) I could not believe the number of Cars for sale scams on Craigslist.

It was blatantly obvious when you find cars that are way below book value and especially below what most cars of the same vintage were going for. I mean when you find a car such as a 2000 Honda Accord in near perfect condition selling for $1,000 when most are going for $2-$3K you know something is just not right.

Also, they are listed in the dealers section and not the private sellers section *Lightbulb*!  The stories have read that they are a single mom trying to sell the car and that in order to proceed I need to give over my address, phone number so they can give it to the Ebay Financial Department (Umm Ebay doesn’t have a financial department).

Another one read that they are in the midst of a divorce and need to sell the car for $950 (when the Craigslist listing says $1,000).

I found a super nice Maxima that had wheels and tires on it worth what the asking price was, minus the car. The email I got read that they were in the military and heading off to Afghanistan. He didn’t want to leave the car sitting while he was gone.

The notorious one was the VW Passat (the kind of car I was intensely looking for/at) that showed up in the Nashville, Knoxville, Atlanta and NW Georgia sections of Craigslist. Really???

I would hope that people wouldn’t fall for a car for sale that is about $2-$5K less than what similar cars were selling for. I am sure there are though unfortunately.

 

I am glad I didn’t find the “perfect” car on Craigslist as most of the ones I did find and tried to contact the seller they never bothered to respond even to tell me they sold the car or not. I got lucky one time and the seller promptly responded.

Maybe Craigslist should require all potential buyers to watch a video before allowing them to view the listings or at least hire some people to go through and check to see which listings are legitimate. I mean seriously, car listings that have been on there for half a day that obvious scams are not removed?

I am sure people swear up and down on Craigslist. Personally, I am a super skeptic. I have heard and read some horrible stories about people who were scammed, particularly on cars. I have family  and friends who have found some awesome deals on Craigslist but also heard their stories about creepy people they have come across.

My best friend and his son “rescued” a Jeep Cherokee about three years ago that was listed on Craigslist (Lebanon, TN). They were extremely creeped out so badly that being in a hurry they bent the track bar trying to get it on the trailer.

I think I will continue to stick with my local trader paper and Ebay.

 

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Jeep Keeps Cutting Out and I’ve Changed Everything

Nothing is more unnerving than driving a vehicle down the road, you hit a bump and bam it cuts out on you for an instant. You are in town and at a traffic light, as soon as it turns green you let off the brake and bam it dies on you.

Most people would tell you to change the crankshaft position sensor–been there and done that. Doesn’t help.

Change the Cam shaft position sensor–also did that and no it didn’t make it better

Change out the Throttle Position Sensor–Did that and no change

Did a complete tune up with new spark plugs, wires, distributor cap–Even checked, checked and rechecked with no improvements.

 

By this time major *SIGH*

 

What else do I check???

Checked over all the wires for any cuts or frays–all are fine.

Cleaned up the ECM-Like three times and still no change

Cleaned the throttle body-Enough to make it so clean you could eat off of it (well, not really).

 

At this point I’m about to just tear the whole engine compartment apart, clean everything up, re connect wires and sensors. Until…

 

I was sitting at my local community college after my evening class talking to my mom on the phone. I had just turned the key but not started it. A few minutes later as I was getting ready to hang up I just happen to notice the light on my radio display mysteriously came back on. Ok?

So I call my boyfriend and explain to him what just happened. He says I may have just solved the problem 🙂

The following weekend I take it out to my boyfriends house to look over everything. He decides to get in while I’m not paying attention and proceeds to wiggle the key in the ignition. BAM! He kills it. Tries it again and does the same thing.

Never in a million years would I have guessed after doing a hundred million common fixes would it be the ignition switch.

Found the problem…after I’ve nearly made my Jeep new again *SIGH*

 

I can laugh about it now though 😀

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Anxieties With Searching for a Car and Buying one…On Ebay

Recently I came to realize that it was costing me a lot of money to keep filling my Jeep Cherokee with gas, like every three to four days. In fact, the last 10 days I know I have spent around $100 in gas just to take my kids to and from school, band practices, doctors appointments, therapy appointments and having to go get medicine.

It was a heart wrenching decision to start looking for a car to drive daily and even more difficult to share the news with my three kids who absolutely adore “Princess.” I got the silent treatment from all three of them ages 14, 10 and 7. Their biggest concern was whether or not I was keeping her.

Of course I am!

I just explained to them that Princess does need to have some maintenance work done on her so we can take her off roading like they have been wanting to do. I even told them that there may be days I may drive Princess especially when there is snow in the forecast.

It has not been an easy time looking for the “right” car. Some I have found with the perfect body yet there is something seriously wrong with the engine or transmission and in one case, the brakes not working. I have been most astounded though at the prices of the cars.

I spent over a week and a half looking at cars locally, in our local trading post paper, newspaper, craigslist (from the local to places 250 miles away) and Ebay.  My original budget had been about $1,000 which when I look back at it was a joke. Rarely can you find a vehicle for that price and when you do there are bungee cords holding the doors closed, duct tape on the body, glass missing, key holes with no place to put the key just to name a few things.

Even when I bumped up the price limit to $1,500 I had a friend who visits car auctions often to be looking for certain cars. He warned me that chances are cars in that price range will look like they’ve had a rough life. I will agree!

Then it came to a point after talking with my boyfriend that if I wanted a decent car the way I wanted I would have to ask for some help. I had to break down and ask my grandfather for a little help with my car budget. As hesitant as he was, I believe he was very understanding about my situation with spending money on gas.

After a few days of looking and “watching” cars on Ebay and digging through ads on Craigslist, I finally came across one I “fell in love with.” Yes, I’ll admit I crumble when I see certain cars. I did it with my Jeep Cherokee which I immediately named Princess before the auction had ended…

The best thing about the car I found was that it was where I could get a friend to test drive it for me before making the decision to dive in and bid on it. I had missed the Buy It Now option by probably 12 hours by the time my friend test drove it. But, the most interesting thing about the car is that the guy who was selling it knows my friend from a place he worked at previously! Funny how things can be a small world.

For nearly a week I have been tormented by the whole auction ordeal. I missed the BIN by less than a day, then a potential fraudulent bidder got involved and bumped up the price right to my absolute limit, when, where and how to get the car, then trying to figure out how to get all the money together to pay for the car, just about all took me over the edge.

Actually, it was the final day that made me the craziest. I did my absolute best to keep my mind off the auction by cleaning, doing school work, washing my hair, going to do a few errands. For the most part of two days I figured the auction would end around 3 PM. That was a perfect time since that would be just before I had to go get my boys from school. Ummm, nope not so much. Try 3:50 PM. *Sigh*

Well, I had downloaded the Ebay app recently so that made it a little easier to keep up with the auction. At the same time I had a small auction going that I was selling some sandals I no longer needed. So every once in a while I would get an alert that either the bid price had gone up on the sandals or the car (I’d much rather know the bid price went up on the sandals). I remember sitting in line at my oldest son’s school and would check the final 50 minutes of the auction about every 10-15 minutes. I had estimated that it would end about the time I picked my youngest one up from school.

As it got down to 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes and then 5 minutes my heart was racing faster and faster. I thought I was going to pass out before the auction was finished. For a day and a half the highest bid was at $2,400. I just knew at the last minute someone would outbid me (my maximum bid was $2,401.99). Lucky for me I got stuck at the traffic light through two cycles. It was one time I just didn’t care.

I remember looking at my iPhone as it got down to 2 minutes and some odd seconds, 1 minute and then into the seconds. I could feel my heart beating intensely, my hands were shaking profusely. And just as the light changed to green the auction ended.

I won!

 

Now to go get the car, tomorrow….*Sigh* I have no patience to be waiting

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Working the Coker Tire Challenge 2012

Every year Corky Coker of Coker Tire Company in Chattanooga, Tennessee is gracious enough to hold a fun event in September known as the Coker Tire Challenge. It starts at the Coker Tire headquarters in downtown Chattanooga and takes the drivers, navigators, Sweep crews, as well as the Checkpoint crews all over the place from Middle Tennessee to Alabama and Georgia. You just never know where the Rally Master will take you!

This year was my third year to work the Coker Tire Challenge held in Chattanooga, Tennessee. My first year was in 2008 and I returned in 2011 after working The Great Race that summer. This year was about the same, work The Great Race 2012 this past summer and then two months later work the Coker Tire Challenge.

The more I work both events the more comfortable I get being around the drivers, navigators, support crews, other volunteers and staff of Coker Tire. That has been a major plus for me to socialize with other people while building my confidence.

From Friday morning through Sunday afternoon I am busy working as a checkpoint crew person.  First thing Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning I am up before the roosters crow to get watches set using the Universal Coordinated Time using a time cube. Then for about an hour or so we are on the road heading towards our checkpoint(s) for the day. Friday we had two checkpoints, Saturday we had two with the last one being a double (cars come by in both directions) and Sunday we had just one.

It never fails that we will have at least one person stop and ask us what is going on or what is The Great Race (since our checkpoint sign says The Great Race). Every once in awhile we’ll have someone who would like to hang around and watch the cars go by as we take their times.

Friday evening after we finished our checkpoints our destination was the Mountain Valley Farm, where the Cokers reside. Since we were the first ones in (as requested by the Rally Master, John Classen) we helped with score cards, handing out Ace Stickers, and do some collating when new score cards are handed to us by the scoring crew. After we finished those duties we were invited up to the home of Corky & Teresa Coker to have dinner (catered by Sticky Fingers, yum!). It’s always a nice way to end the day especially since I was starving! Of course, I wasn’t about to climb that huge hill to get there so I went to the “bus stop” where Hal (Corky’s right hand helper/worker) drives a vintage Yellowstone Park bus. I have to give it to Hal since the bus obviously doesn’t have power steering and he obviously has to be in shape to steer that thing.

 

Saturday our first checkpoint was at an old abandoned store that probably closed in the early 90’s since one of the gas pumps read gas $1.19. As I recall as a “new” driver in 1993 that gas was about that price a gallon. We met a few of the locals who were rightfully curious what we were doing sitting in the parking lot with a sign across the road and a big green dot painted in the center of the road. About the time we had about 7 or 8 cars left they showed back up to enjoy watching the cars go by as I took their times.

After having lunch at the Hardee’s on 411 in Benton, we headed to our next checkpoint which was inadvertently changed so we had to move down the road. This checkpoint was an adventure and a half since I had cars coming from both directions about half way through our time there! At one time I nearly had two vehicles crossing the green dot at the same time and two more behind them… Thankfully one of the drivers slowed down a hair which allowed me to get everyone’s times. Needless to say my heart was definitely racing after that one.

Sunday’s checkpoint was by far the most peaceful one. We were situated on a windy road that ran parallel to the Tennessee River. It was mostly quiet (something I rarely have with three kids). Got through the last checkpoint with a breeze although I was quite exhausted particularly since I had to wake up at 4:50 AM to make sure I got ready and arrived at Coker Tire by 6:15 AM. Once the sweep crew and the sweep truck came by we headed towards Coker Tire. The road got narrow and slightly hairy for the sweep truck a couple of times. Very interesting to watch how the sweep truck driver handled the tight squeezes. I know I could never be that talented!

When we finally arrived back to Coker Tire headquarters reality set in that the event was over with when it was time to turn in our equipment, sign and supply box. It felt as if it had just started and suddenly ended. After enjoying a nice meal it was time to announce the winners of the 2012 Coker Tire Challenge. Most of the cars that won I was not surprised, especially when the Jason’s won-they were the Grand Champion winners of this years Great Race.

Since John and his wife Rachel had to leave quickly to get to Atlanta to fly back to Burbank, CA, Janice and I helped make sure the drivers received their score cards, ACE stickers if they made any Ace’s today and an overall score/time sheet. We managed to give all but two of the score cards out which I think is pretty good.

I enjoyed getting to interact with some of the drivers and navigators more this time around.  I know I will be more prepared to dive in to my duties as a checkpoint worker for The Great Race as well as work with the drivers and navigators. It is important to me that I get to know them and vice versa.

The highlights of the event was that I got teased by one of the cars’ drivers “Tom” would joke with me about yelling “MARK” as his vehicle crossed my checkpoint. So, I started yelling “TOM” as he crossed my checkpoints so I started getting thumbs up. Next, I made a major boo boo by calling car “69” a car when it is a truck. So at the last checkpoint of the event  I yelled “TRUCK” instead of “MARK.”  Yes, the driver Jim and his navigator got a huge kick out of it!  Then as we were heading home and on Main Street I  notice a Coker Tire badge and sunglasses laying in the middle of the road. Janice turns around and parks in the median while I get out and wait for traffic to pass through. Luckily no one ran over the sunglasses before then. I quickly picked them up got back in and read the name: Chad Caldwell and his sunglasses? Ray Ban’s! So we headed back to Coker Tire hoping to find Corky, which we did as he was locking the gates. I sure hope someone calls Chad to let him know his sunglasses were safe and sound.

I am glad I did one good deed for the event and the day!

 

 

 

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Life With An Autistic Child

Most of us have heard the expression walk in my shoes to see what it’s like (fill in the blank).  Have you ever been so frustrated you want to curl up in a ball and cry? Do you know someone who has a special needs child or a child with developmental delays?

Life with a child who has needs beyond the average person can take a toll on parent(s). Unfortunately some parents do not have a support system in place or they may have one that is mediocre.

So trying to take some time to themselves to refresh or re cooperate can be the greatest challenge, especially when it comes to child care. Actually, it is one of my greatest frustrations, disappointments, discouragements and it has been for at least the last 10 years.

People enjoy watching my now teenage daughter. Most of the time I hear about how wonderful and sweet she is when someone has been watching her. But when it comes to my oldest son Caleb, things are dramatically different. Most people don’t want to watch him. In fact, I’ve had people admit that they cannot “handle” him.

It is a struggle to find decent, reliable child care especially when people believe they cannot handle or deal with a child who is mildly different from the average child. Most days he is just a more curious, inquisitive child that will ask questions quite often.

This also leads to the problem of employment for me. If I do not have reliable child care then what good does it do for me to go out and seek employment?

I cannot imagine what other single parent families go through with a special needs child. I would hope they would have a great support system which is a challenge for many including myself. There is a true need for people to reach out to families who at times are overwhelmed, stressed and would like to have even a day to recuperate. It is a challenge to find respite care for caregivers who primarily focus on the needs of the special needs child and tend to forget about themselves.

Most of us have seen stories in the news where someone snaps and does something unimaginable. People cannot imagine what it is like for someone who is overwhelmed day in and day out with no outlet. Life with an autistic child is not an easy one. Every day there are challenges some more stressful than others. Despite the fact that many of these challenges are life lessons it often feels like the world is against them.