Meet Pewter!

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Say hello to our new car!   She’s a beauty and we are calling her Pewter.  She’s not exactly gold and not exactly silver but sort of in between, like a beautiful pewter mug.  She is a 2002 Ford Taurus and she just got a brand new motor installed and has been gone over by our surgeon friends at the salvage yard!  We just adore her.   So nice to drive, comfortable and so much like our old lady Blue, whom we miss so badly!

Now, don’t worry, we still have Scotty, our van.  He’s at the shop for some repairs and will be promoted to the rank of second vehicle, the hay getter, feed hauler, big stuff off Craigslist bringer-homer and basically will be on light duty.   He’s deserved it.   He’s 23 years old and though in good shape, he’s showing his age a bit.  Wheel bearings up front are going and well, he’s a gift horse for certain.   We are so appreciative to have him, but it was apparent, we needed a primary vehicle out here.  And that is our dear little Pewter.  Scotty’s new little sister.  DSC_0941

Now, before you go and think, well goodness, how did this happen… you need to remember that we have friends in car places!  haha…   We work for a local salvage yard part time, helping out with their social media and their website, doing signs, helping to clean cars, whatever we can do to help.   And they seem to appreciate us very much!  I think they have done more for us and then we for them, but apparently they think otherwise.

If you remember last year, our dear old wagon Grandma Blue passed away.   Her motor went and then transmission and it was just time to let her go.   It was in the wake of that dreadful winter and just seemed to be the start of our most awful year last year.  I didn’t know what we were going to do without a car.  We just did not have any savings for another vehicle and we were distraught, trying to figure out what to do.   Well, Jerry called us over and came and picked us up to come to the shop and there sat old Sarge.   Our knight in camo armor.   He had just been traded in on a car purchase. A giant Ford econoline van conversion that had nearly 300,000 miles on him but he was still going strong.  Of course, no sane dealer will give you much of a trade in on such a beast, so he was pretty much abandoned there for a hundred bucks.  And Jerry gave him to us to fill the gap.   Yes, I cried.  It was such a huge gesture on his part and I was just floored.   He said it was that or the scrap yard and hoped that it would get us through until we could get a better vehicle.

That old van was a life saver!  It could haul 12 bales of hay and lots of feed.   It guzzled gas like a drunken sailor, however, so it grounded us a bit.   Which was fine, actually, allowed us to deal with some of the other issues of that dreadful year.  But when his transmission started slipping and a few other issues began to surface, it was obvious  that we needed to figure out another ride.  Soon.

And once again, Jerry to the rescue!  We had been waiting on some help from a family trust that the girls have from their great grandfather, but unfortunately, the trustee was being very difficult and it was heading into litigation and would be no help, at least for months.   We were trying to save up to get something, anything but our coffers were still quite low.   I came in to the shop one afternoon to find Jerry and boys beaming.   They wanted me to come out back and when I did, there sat Scotty.  Our new knight in a burgundy set of side panels.  Yes, I cried.   Another unfortunate trade in, 23 years old, but with low milage.   He is a Pontiac Transport Van, and if you have ever driven one you know that it is like driving a space ship!   The nose on the thing is HUGE and long.  And it’s all glass up front.   They are lovingly called the dustbuster van…   and many people hate them.   They are hard to sell.  And with the age and such, again, another low cost trade in and he just gave it to us!  Talk about making loyal helpers and good friends.   Everyone there is like our second family, we just love them all.  I know if we were ever in a bind, they would be one of the first ones to call in an emergency.

But even old Scotty, he was still a bit of a stop gap.   Not really a daily driver, we knew that too much mileage would bring out the aches and pains of his age and it was starting to happen.  Just little things, but they can lead to bigger things.   The engine is solid in him, but he’s going to be needing a few things here and there.   Like wheel bearings.  So we knew that we had to keep saving and it was going to be OUR surprise, to finally be able to BUY a car instead of just getting free ones!

The girls’ trust situation finally resolved in December.  That helped tremendously in many ways.   And it gave us the ability to go and pick out an economical car on the lot.   We had one in mind…  a lovely gold Taurus sedan.   And so we came in, money in hand and ready to drive her home.   But we missed out!   She had been sold that afternoon!!!   AGH!   When we asked about her and all, Jerry was immediately suspicious of our beaming smiles and little pouch of money and managed to get the truth from us!   We all laughed and smiled, but there was no Taurus!  Until he said, you know, I have a wonderful little car for you…   and we went back into the salvage yard and he showed us another Taurus that he had.   It was just waiting for a new engine.   And this one was a car that had been in the “family’ so to speak!   One of the fellow’s son had had her and accidentally blew the motor driving through high water!  So they knew all about her, what had been done over the years and such and that was awesome.   So, yes, we said we would take her.  We wouldn’t mind waiting a bit since they were busy with just one service bay open in the cold.  And he gave us an amazing deal, I’m pretty sure he didn’t make a dime over his cost, but it didn’t seem to matter.   They just wanted to see us in a good solid dependable car that would last us for a good five years or more, easily.  Old Blue gave us seven years!  We are good on cars, treat them well.  We are light drivers because of the fact we live and work at home.  We can go days without driving, easily.  Pewter will be babied and watched over by our friends at the shop!

So, that is the story of our new used car.  We feel so blessed and humbled by our wonderful friends that helped us through this vehicle transition from old Blue to now, Pewter.  And of course, the girls are very thankful for their great grandfather’s final gift for them.  It has helped out tremendously after this awful year.  A car, some relief from taxes and bills, some needed repairs…  it has helped greatly.  We are looking forward to a year of recovery, much better than before.  We’ve got a lot of plans for this year and hopefully they will pan out!   I know we will be thankful for any foothold we get to get back on track.  We have already done better in our work and sales that our assistance benefits have been reduced!   I know some might think that is not good, but to us, its a sign that we are doing better.  It was very helpful for us when we needed it, but we would like to wean off it as quickly as we can.  This winter has been SO much easier…  of course, we are in the middle of our first big blizzard, so I might need to recant this admission, but so far?  It’s been very mild and we are looking at the first day of February!   Yeah!   Spring is just weeks away!

Just felt the need to share our little tale of a bunch of mechanics and car guys with hearts of gold!   Thank you all!!!   We promise to take care of her!

 

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About Mobymom

the banjo player for Deepwater Bluegrass, and the editor of BuckeyeBluegrass.com as well as the main graphic designer of the Westvon Publishing empire. She is a renaissance woman of many talents and has two lovely daughters and a rehab mobile home homestead to raise.

Comments

Meet Pewter! — 4 Comments

  1. You are going to love your Taurus….I had one for years and years and I cried when they finally towed her away!

    Too funny about Grandma Blue—We had a car and called her “Old Blue!” Our present heap is called Sweet Betsy! We literally pat her on the dash before starting her up.

    Take care.

    Melody

    • Oh, yes, I have cried when we lost our first three!!! Pewter is actually our 4th Tauri… 😉 They are awesome cars and they just fit us so nicely. I could drive and drive in a nice Taurus… I love that other folks name their cars! We always do!!!

      Sherri

  2. Congrats on your Taurus! Looks exactly like the one I had,same year even. The color was Arizona Beige, a lot like yours. I bought mine with 39,000 miles on it and it had 166,000 when we sold it. She will be a good reliable car for you, I used mine on a rural mail route for 9 yrs. Mail routes are hell on a vehicle and if I hadn’t upgraded to a 4×4 Explorer for our long winters,and no longer did a mail route,I’m sure that Taurus would have lasted me well over 200,000 miles. It’s a good quality car and is used by many rural carriers. You will love it!

    • Thanks! We love Tauri… (Is that plural for Tauruses?) Haha… This is actually the 4th Taurus that we owned! Our first was a 1993 wagon, blue… and then we had a 2001 black wagon and then our 1996 Grandma Blue… a blue wagon… so Pewter is our 4th one! She’s our first sedan, but you know, she’s the same length and frame etc as a wagon. And the seats fold down so it’s a pretty good hauling car. Maybe not hay… haha…. thanks for sharing, we just love her!!!

      Sherri