Sarah Nyhan

A continuation of my attempt to finish a book I started in December 2017. Posting chapters in an attempt to organize it all and finish.

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Julie had a customer who wanted to sell a 1989 Honda CRX. The customer was an older lady who barely ever drove, so we assumed the car would be in good condition even though it was old.

But just to be sure, Julie suggested that I have a Honda mechanic come and check out the car. She knew of such a guy, so he came over to the older lady’s house and checked out the car. He gave me the green light and told me it was a good buy.

So I put together some of my own money, and then borrowed the rest from my ex-girlfriend, Denise, in order to buy this Honda.

Well, when I was literally signing the papers in order to finalize the transaction, the older lady started giving me “free” luggage to go along with the car. And she was making a big deal out of giving me the luggage. I specifically remember thinking that she wouldn’t be giving me something extra like luggage unless she was lying to me about something about the car and trying not to feel guilty about screwing me over. But I was literally in the middle of signing the papers in her house and felt trapped in a social dilemma. If I turned down the car after the Honda mechanic gave it the green light, how would that look? Just because I had a gut feeling? So against my first and better judgement, I continued on with the transaction. And immediately felt sick about it.

So I expected something to be wrong, but I didn’t expect to not even be able to drive the car out of the woman’s driveway! What the hell?! The Honda mechanic told me it was good?!

So I called him immediately while I was still trying to leave her house. And I was pretty pissed. He got the message and offered to come over and look at the car.

Turned out one of the axles was broken! How did you miss that, Mr. Mechanic? Clearly he never drove the car when he was checking it out the first time!?!

Denise recommended that I take the car to a mechanic’s shop not too far away. But that was a disaster. I had to go back repeatedly because every time they’d give it back to me, my original problem wouldn’t be solved and then there would also be some other new major problem.

I remember one of those times, the car started SCREEEEEECHING so loudly when I was driving it that you must have been able to hear the thing over a mile away. One time I dared to drive it to church like that and it was so loud that I just parked it at the edge of the parking lot, put a for sale sign in the window, and walked all the way across the parking lot to go into the church. So embarrassing.

Well, finally after weeks of going back and forth with the mechanics, it was clear that this car was just not in the cards for me. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get it fixed. No matter how much money or time I put into it. So I decided to call it quits and sell it on Craigslist.

I had sunk so much money into this thing. And owed Denise several hundred dollars on top of the repairs. And still the car was not really drivable. So initially I was prepared to list it for a few hundred dollars and just take the first person who would pay me anything for it.

But I started to feel like God told me not to sell the car for anything less than I had put into it. So I took a leap of faith and listed it for the full amount I had put into it. Original purchase price plus repairs, etc.

So many guys were replying to my ad and repeatedly one after the other trying to offer me much less than what I was asking for. When I’d turn down their offers, they would laugh at me and tell me I’d never get the full amount I was asking for.

One person even offered all but a few hundred dollars away from what I was asking. But I turned him down. Because I thought God told me to get the full amount I was asking for.

I felt so nervous. Sick to my stomach. Here I am owning Denise several hundred dollars. Which I could have given back to her if I had accepted the highest offer. But I turned it down. If she knew, she’d probably be so angry. So I didn’t tell her.

I just kept turning down dozens of offers under the asking price.

Eventually a auto salesman even called me from the Honda dealership. He said they wanted to buy the car and put it in the dealership as a show-off piece. Kind of like a museum relic.

I bought the bait and drove the car over to the dealership. Took them at their word. But when I got there, the story changed. Now one of the guys wanted to buy it for his younger brother. Either way, I didn’t care as long as they paid me full price.

But of course they wanted to show me cars that they could get me into while I was there. At this point I wasn’t sure if I should buy new. I didn’t have a good feeling about it, but I hadn’t asked God either way. So I went to look at the cars. To see if any peace would come to me while looking at them.

Eventually I was considering buying one. But before I purchased a new Honda, I needed them to buy this old Honda off of me first. And I needed to know that they would give me the full price I was asking for.

Well, they stalled so much. Took my car into their repair bay to get it looked at first. Then of course had me waiting forever while someone apparently was drawing up paperwork.

I didn’t have a good feeling about it, but I needed to know either way – would they give me the full price or not? No straight answers so far.

Well, while I was waiting in the dealership, someone called me from Houston. I lived in San Antonio at the time. He said, “Do NOT sell that car!! I am going to take off of work tomorrow and drive up from Houston and buy it from you.”

I tried to tell him all the issues with it, but he only wanted to know one thing. He asked me to go outside, open some cap, and then send him a picture of the inside. Was it the oil or the radiator? I don’t know. But whatever it was, I opened the cap, took a picture, and sent it to him.

He then straight away told me again to not sell the car to anyone else. I told him I was in the dealership. I told him I wouldn’t be able to sell the car for less than the full price I was asking for. He assured me he would come up in the morning, meet me at a bank (my other requirement), and give me full price.

There was something about him. Something different. I took a chance. I told him yes and then went to tell the dealership what just happened.

It ended up that of course the dealership wasn’t going to give me the full asking price that I wanted. They of course tried to give me a royal hard time. They tried to pressure me to talk to all kinds of managers. They even had a manager come out and basically make fun of me as I was getting into the car to drive away. They said I’d never get what I was asking for. And I remember I responded back by saying that if God told me then it would happen.

I drove away from the dealership hoping I was right. Hoping God really did tell me what I thought He told me.

The next day I brought Denise along for security and the man from Houston showed up like he said he would. With three of his friends. We met at the Capital One bank parking lot in downtown San Antonio.

He was looking at the car, but he didn’t even drive it! I offered for him to drive it, but he said he didn’t need to. He just asked me to assure him that it ran. I told him it had been running for a few days but that it had a lot of problems.

That was all he needed to hear. He was happy to go inside and do the transaction with the teller and give me the full asking price. Without even driving it! That didn’t make any sense!

One of his friends told me that he hadn’t seen the guy this excited since the birth of his child. Turns out the Honda was the same model and color of car that he had when he was in high school. He had sold that car a long time ago and always wanted to have it again. So he bought my Honda because he was so happy that the interior was in almost perfect condition even though the rest of the car was so messed up. He just wanted to make sure he’d be able to drive it back to Houston. Then he was basically going to break it down and fully restore it to mint condition. He even said he was going to keep it in a garage with an alarm. He was so happy.

I was able to call the dealership back and tell them that God worked it out for me like I said He would. And that I got the full asking price!

And I was able to fully repay Denise. And also walk away with my money back.

Amazing! God really showed off for me!