I had my old car fixed at the mechanic shop. I took it through the car wash. Side note: i’ve never been through a car wash. It was sensory heaven with all the different colored lights and sounds and the suds all over the windows. I spent around 1.5 hours vacuuming the car and the removable floor mats at the wash station in town and then another 2 hours detailing the interior with towel and spray at home. I got most of the hay and all of the dirt out. There was a glued rip in the back seat and 3 bleach marks in the trunk that hadn’t been there before i took the car for repair. I wasnt happy about it but had no way to prove the shop had anything to do with it and had already made a negative impression with the folks there. I just wanted to be done so i listed the rip that had been glued and the bleach marks in my ad and was given an offer by 4 of those companies that buy used cars and then sell them from an online catalog and then truck them to the buyer’s door. A couple of the services said they did “pick-up” of vehicles in “select areas”. I didnt think select areas would pertain to the middle of nowhere but also i didnt want them to know anything about me. First rule of selling a car: dont let them know any personal information about you. I didnt need them sizing up my economic status and marital status by coming out to the property and then lowering their offer, which the fine print says they can do if they should deem the vehicle worth less than you said when they get there. I decided that to take it to them would render me more likely to get the full offer price. So i chose a company that did not do pickup. You had to go to them and the nearest location to me was san antonio. I decided to go straight from work on a weekday. The question was, if they bought the car, how was i going to make it back to my town? I convinced my friend Cindy to come get me and drive me back from san antonio for a carton of yard eggs. She was very generous to do it. The company inspected and test drove my old car for two hours. They said it would be 1 hour so when the place closed and they still hadnt made an offer i began to get worried they were finding something they didnt like and were going to offer me a terribly low amount. I had a bottom line amount i would take and so if they went below it i would refuse the offer and drive the car home. I was dreadfully nervous this would happen as i was currently paying insurance on two vehicles and did not want to do this for more than one month. I wanted to sell it and replace some of the money i used to purchase the nissan. I also had exhausted myself detailing the thing and didnt want to be tasked with doing it again. How quickly those floor mats descend into messes. How quickly the dash becomes covered in dust and the seat in stray dog hairs from clothing. My friend Cindy said a beautiful prayer over the transaction and finally they called my name and at the counter offered me the full amount they had quoted me for online. They asked if i wanted to think it over or accept. I accepted the offer. They asked me to sign the papers and then pull the car into their shop for the night. I did so. I found where it was parked and adjusted the seat forwards one last time. I started it up and drove it into their service center. I made one last sweep to make sure i removed every personal item. I saw nothing of mine so i returned to the counter and handed them the key. They then removed the license plates and handed them to me. The paperwork they had me sign said that they could recall the transaction at any time for any reason and if they should do so i would owe them a refund of their money spent on the vehicle. With this in mind, i celebrated quietly. My friend Cindy was thrilled and celebrated loudly exclaiming, “yey God!” I knew it had been her prayer that was answered as my dealings with cars, companies, and transactions are always disastrous. This had gone off without a hitch and i’d been offered the full original quote. This was definitely a God governed moment, and i knew it. However, i felt that if i celebrated loudly in front of them they might wonder why we were so thrilled and surprised and start looking for things they missed with the car and knock the price down a bit. I am not sure if my friend understood why but i didn’t celebrate until we got to her car and began driving away. It seems with salesmen and transactions you are supposed to hold your cards close to the vest so i tried to act as if the offer was no big deal to me. If they realize how desperate to unload a vehicle you are they may decide you’ll be willing to take less than its worth just to be free of it. Also, i didnt really understand why that fine print was in there…so they could avoid being stuck with a total lemon or so they could get some of their money back later when they found an issue or two. But it said in plain english that they could retract or reduce their offer at any time for any reason. And with that knowledge i just wanted to take the check and put some distance between us and them before they changed their mind. I deposited the check in my account on my mobile phone sitting in Cindy’s car in their parking lot. The following day i put it back in the fund i had removed the money from to buy the new used car. Cindy drove me home. I ate a bag of potato chips we had been sharing while we were waiting but i was too nervous to really eat the bulk of them until after the transaction was completed. I didnt really snap out of my haze until hours after i’d been home. Something had gone off without a hitch. I just couldnt understand it. Well, i mean, i could. Cindy said that beautiful prayer. For once, it hadn’t been a fight. Everything went smoothly. I gave Cindy some chicken eggs and she drove back to her town to go to bed. Now the one car in the yard was the only car we had. I cancelled the insurance on the old car the following day. I spent the night eating chips, watching cartoons on my smartphone, and occasionally logging into my bank account to just check and make sure it was still there. It was. It really did happen. This was the first time i had ever sold a car. In the past my cars had been rear ended or t-boned and declared totaled. I had never yet had to sell a car due to these circumstances. Well, now i have. I would sell to one of these companies again. It was relatively organized and painless. However, i would not buy from them. You want to test drive a car before you buy it, and have your own mechanic do a pre purchase inspection. There are many things i feel comfortable selecting from a catalog online and a car isnt one of them. I want to feel how it drives, look at it for myself, and take it to my mechanic. Also, for short people like me, its important to confirm that the seat will move up and forwards far enough for me to touch the pedals and reach the steering wheel.