Southern Man Buys A Truck

No kidding. Not even a month after Southern Man bought a car. Hey, he's doing his best to stimulate the economy, OK?

On the way back from The Land this afternoon (not long after Southern Man caught the snake) the old SUV (or, technically, the old SUV's transmission) finally gave up the ghost. This is a truck with over a quarter million miles on it and running on its second driveline. The engine and rear end are relatively recent, but the rebuilt trannie is pretty old (the originals on that particular model were notorious for dying at about 120K, and this one was no exception). So Southern Man called the tow service that had rescued that truck many, many times over the years and had it hauled home. And he sat at the table and ate chips and salsa and pondered as to whether or not he should sink two or three thousand dollars into a third rebuilt transmission - he really wanted to get the new car paid off before buying a pickup - or just let it go.

It's Memorial Day. Lots and lots and lots of car dealerships running sales today. So Southern Man scanned the paper and decided he could probably afford a no-frills pickup ad made a list of places to check and hit the road.

The third dealership he visited was running a no-haggle "tag sale." And one of the trucks on that lot was a charcoal-grey '07 Nissan Titan with only 7K on the clock. And after a long test drive and a look at the CarFax report and noting that it was listed for 3K more than the tag-sale price on the dealership's web page Southern Man bought that truck (and the Nissan covers-everything-from-bumper-to-bumper-and-roof-to-road extended warranty) for more than he wanted to spend, but he's glad he didn't come home in some bare-bones Silverado or 1500.

So Southern Man goes from a over a decade of no car payments to two, which will certainly be a bit of a strain on the old budget, but it's certainly nice to have a couple of reliable vehicles. And it's great to have an actual pickup after years of hauling sheets of plywood on top of the SUV. He's already taken it out to the land. He can already tell that the mileage will be no better (and probably worse) than the SUV it replaced, but it's a nice truck to drive. Last month Southern Man gritted his teeth and bought the least expensive new car he could rather than something nicer and 15K more expensive, like the Accord coupe he so wanted; this Titan is his reward. May it serve him long and well!