I've had two Ford Rangers, the younger brother of the F150. The first was a 1987 Ranger S, I got 348K miles out of her and gave it to a friend who's dad wanted it. He drove it for years. The second is an 2007 XTL 4X4, it has 166K and is going strong. I love Ford PUs, I also had an F250 Turbo Diesel that had 235K on it when I sold it.
Anyway, today was a sad day for fatboy. I finally decided it was time to let go of our 2002 Saturn VUE. We bought it new and it was THE family buggy. It had 212K on it. It needed new hub bearings and the sun roof leaked so it was full of mold. I could go on and on about the memories and all the repairs i did on that car. We haven't used the car in over a year and we are trying to get rid of all the clutter around here. I took her to a salvage yard, kinda like going to a funeral.
But getting back to the subject of this thread. There was a time when Mr. and Mrs fatboy had to accept a car from my FIL. It was a 1984 (or 82 i forget) Nissan Sentra. It was not a good looking car but for about a year or so it was all we had. I put (as a backyard mechanic) way more than $500.00 in parts even in mid 1990s dollars and would never think to criticize the car or have nothing but gratitude for getting it. We had two small kids at the time and not only did I commute 80 miles per day, we delivered about 90 newspapers before I left for work. Overall I put about 40K on that car before we saved enough to buy something to replace it.
The last couple of cars we have purchased were the so call "certified pre-owned" type. The 07 Ranger was one, I gave it to my son a almost two years ago, it had about 18K on it when I bought it. Mrs fatboy has a 2012 Ford Escape which had 15K on it an my car is a 2011 MB C-300 fourmatic-the first car that I've ever really loved. Not for the faint of heart, it had 16K on it still a lot of money and I sometimes think I must be crazy but I work hard. Still I'm blessed by our Lord and Savior in many ways.
If $500.00 for a free car causes that much concern then I really feel sorry for the fizzy one. Really. Some of these DUmmies are really pathetic, actually most are. This in addition to being morally bankrupt. Which reminds me, any news from mr. business major tobin s?