To the handful of people who read my blog, thank you! By now you’ve probably assumed I am not good at selecting cars or being financially responsible. Like a fine wine, I’ve refined myself and tried to make better financial decisions. At least that’s what I tell myself. I was recently reminded of a mistake purchase I made. This purchase has set the foundation for some of my automotive mistakes. I was 20 at the time and religiously watched “Dirt Every Day” and “Roadkill” on MotorTrend’s YouTube channel. This was before they decided to upload everything to their streaming platform. There was an episode on “Dirt Every Day” where the host bought a clean OBS F-250 from an auction site called Iron Planet. Iron Planet is an auction site where military and construction equipment is auctioned off. I was intrigued by this platform, especially given how nice the OBS F-250 was. Naturally, I signed up on Iron Planets site and took a look at their auctions. I’m a huge Honda fan (that’s a story for another day) but I really love Ford as well. The third-generation F-250 in my opinion was Ford’s better design for the Super Duty. Without a dollar in my pocket, I had it in my head that I could somehow afford a third-gen F250 if I looked hard enough. It just so happened that the day I signed up for Iron Planet, there was an auction. As luck would also have it, the first few trucks were all third-gen F-250’s! I watched eagle-eyed, hoping by some luck I could find a cheap F-250. All of those trucks were going over $15K. Dejected, I was about to sign off when I saw a cheap 2005 F-150 being sold for $500. Without looking at the listing I placed a bid and walked off. Much like my escapade with my Lexus from Atlantis, I came back to my laptop to see that I had won this cheap truck. Grief was overcome given that I didn’t know where I was going to park the truck, how I was going to pay for it, and what the process for buying a vehicle from auction is. For context, I was living at my parent’s house at the time. While we certainly had the space, I wasn’t to confident they would be thrilled with this purchase I made. I immediately phoned my friend who proceeded to laugh at me for over 2 minutes. He suggested that I park the truck where we worked, the company we worked for owned the building and we managed the property. That was one stress erased, now I had to pay and get the truck shipped. Like all financially responsible Americans, I whipped out my credit card and paid for the vehicle and shipping. Now it was a waiting game. I got a call from the transport company telling me the truck was not a location that was shared with us via Iron Planet. It was in a completely different state. I took a look at the listing in depth at this point, I understand that you as the reader have your opinions of me at this point and I’m ready to hear them however, I realized that the truck was listed as being in Massachusetts but it was parked in Rhode Island. To make matters worse, the truck didn’t come with a battery and had a mechanical fault. Great. It took over a week and a half for the truck to finally arrive. An hour before the transporter was to arrive, I get a phone call from the driver. I vividly remember what he said to me, “Bro I know you and I don’t know each other but you have bought yourself a piece of cr*p. This truck has no reverse.” I knew then I had to sell the truck. I quickly Googled sell a car and clicked on the first link. I input all the details I knew about the truck and, despite it not having reverse I was going to get $1000 for the truck. I put in my details and waited for the rep to finalize the sale. Once the transporter arrived at my office, my friend and our office manager came out to see the spectacle. They both laughed uncontrollably. Given the truck had no reverse, we would have to push it off of the truck. My friend was all suited to go to court to meet his client. He, myself, and the office manager all pushed the truck off of the transporter’s trailer. The very next day the online service I sold the truck to comes and whisks the vehicle away. Looking back now, my lapses in judgment allow for me to have fun stories. But at a great financial cost! I didn’t realize my friend had taken a picture of me with the truck, I refused to take any pictures of it because of my embarrassment. Who knows what the next lapse in judgment will be?
