With Nicholas having successfully graduated from Enloe High School and recently gotten his regular Class C driving licence, now the focus turned to finding him a dependable vehicle that he will eventually be able to use to transport himself from home to school and work and back.
Nick was a relatively “late bloomer” to the learner’s permit process and thus only had a Level 1 provisional licence which expired on his birthday. Between that and having to concentrate on getting through to graduation, there hasn’t been a whole lot of time to spend behind the wheel on the road in the Traverse.
Even when he was driving the Traverse, it was abundantly clear he was not at all comfortable with driving her and that he’d probably be far more comfortable in a much smaller saloon such as a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord. And we’d be far more comfortable in one of those as well because they’re generally very dependable and you have to really work at breaking them mechanically.
Our first day of searching took us to some used car lots in Smithfield and Clayton to get a feel for what was available. Mind you, we were already hating the fact that the automobile market SUCKS ROCKS right now…between the computer chip supply problem impacting production of new cars and the insane amount of demand for used cars as a result, we were not holding out a whole lot of hope of finding something that was both dependable and wouldn’t break our bank account!
At least that first day of searching was able to reassure us on that score…there was a very nice Chevrolet Impala in Smithfield and some Camrys, a Honda, and a Lexus to be found in Clayton with the Impala and a red Camry being our early favourites on price and mileage.
We didn’t have the time for test driving any of them (indeed, the two lots in Clayton were already closed by the time we started wandering them!) but the red coloured 2009 Camry in particular was looking reasonably appealing (and had been left unlocked so we could really inspect the car). The engine compartment looked reasonable for a car having 150K miles on the clock, the interior was pretty clean…not a bad option for the price. And it didn’t hurt that this car was a looker that had definitely attracted Nick’s eye even with us telling him that red cars tend to attract unwanted official attention when one is taking liberties with their speed. I do think the statute of limitations is well past the point where I can confirm that theory wholeheartedly… 😉
As the kids were enjoying a treat at DQ because it was already well past dinner (sadly, not Nick’s DQ where he could get a discount!), I took a peek at the various used vehicles in our desired price range amongst the Raleigh dealers. We had purposefully stayed in the JoCo because President Biden had flown to Raleigh for an event that afternoon not too far from Capital Blvd which pretty much made anything from Leith Toyota on Capital to Fred Anderson Toyota near RDU a complete *NO-GO* area.
It was on the Autopark Honda site that I stumbled across a black 2011 Camry with 129K miles on the odometer and clean CarFax report and other than some cosmetic blemishes looked like she was worth a closer look the following morning after dropping Nicholas off at work at DQ.
And that’s where we had to leave it with Alex having school in the morning.