Car Situation - C has wheels

While all of the previous post was happening, I was cruising the Internet on Sunday May 20, seeing what was out there for vehicles for C. I was looking on Craigslist, Cars.com and eBay.

On eBay, I found a 1999 VW Jetta Wolfsburg Edition, green in color, used by a college student that just graduated from Villanova near Philadelphia. He was selling it because he did not want the hassle of moving it to Las Vegas where he was moving to take a job. It had a couple of minor issues, but in general seemed OK. Needless to say, I won the auction. This is Sunday at about 2PM. I left my phone number and he called me at about 2:30PM.

He indicated that he was leaving Philly on Monday at 5PM. I told him that I would check into a few things and get back with him, but could he make arrangements to have a friend complete the transaction in a couple of days.

With gasoline prices as they are, it would take about $150 worth of gas to drive to Philly and back for the van, plus 16 hours of K and my time. I looked into flying, but thought on short notice, they were going to get me. I was wrong. Southwest had flights from Raleigh to Philly for $58 ($49 plus taxes), so I booked my flight. I also ordered the parts needed to fix the known issues. I called the seller, making arrangements to be met at the airport at 1:30PM the next day (Monday).

While my plane was a few minutes late, he met me at baggage claim and we drove off to the National Car Rental car return. His parents were in town for his graduation, and were returning their rental car. He, his parents and I completed the transaction in the parking lot of the National Car Rental. I left for home by 2:30PM and they took the shuttle to catch their planes.

I got home around 11PM, going down the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay on 301 to avoid the DC evening drive time. As I had not been down that way, it was a very scenic drive. My computer GPS guided me the whole way, more for knowing that I was going the right direction than actual directing.

As a potential interesting footnote, I found out that the guy I bought the car from was going to try to make it in the world of professional poker. When I Googled his name, he already has a reputation and has won a significant amount of money in only a few tournaments. He is going to do the WSOP for a year, then off to grad school for an MBA in Finance. I had no clue, nor really cared.

So we are now a 3 VW family. A and C drive Jettas and I drive a Passat. All with manual transmissions. We will NOT be trading in the van for a Microbus or Bug, thank you very much. Happy motoring.