2/27/05

Russ continues to be on fire to get his life back on track. Ever since he got his drivers license he has been pushing me to get his own car. I don’t want to hold him off forever but I wanted him to get more experience driving our cars before he had full access to a car 24 hrs a day. He has other ideas. He has been getting quotes on the internet and visiting dealerships looking at cars. Whenever I tell him he should wait a couple more months he told me he could just go out and buy a car on his own. Since he doesn’t have a job and his credit is not too good I didn’t worry about him buying a car on his own. Well, while George-Anne and I were visiting friends in Florida last weekend he did visit a car dealer. He went to Sansone Chevrolet on Pfeiffer Blvd near our house. At Sansone they wrote him up for $1,000 over the window sticker price and sent him home with a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. He didn’t put up any deposit at all, and they never checked his credit. He was thrilled, he drove it around showing everyone. (Running up miles)

This has brain injury written all over it. He was impulsive, he doesn’t have a handle on his income & expenses and what he can or can’t afford. He had no idea what price they sold him the car for, if they applied for financing or not, whether they were going to apply for a loan or a lease, he quoted a $295 monthly payment but not an interest rate or mileage cap that would be associated with a lease, and he didn’t know how much insurance would cost. At first I was furious. I wanted to make him live with the consequences by letting him conclude the deal if they approved some kind of financing and then letting them repossess the car when he was not able to make the payments. But after some time I had second thoughts about punishing him for something that was caused by his injury.

He and I talked several times and I convinced him we needed to return the car. It was not easy. He was very happy with the car. He enjoyed driving it around to show everyone. My biggest problem with the car was that it was a standard transmission. Driving a car with an automatic transmission is enough of a challenge. Having to shift gears while doing everything else required for driving is just too much simultaneous activity for him now.

We are going to help him get a car. It means a lot to him but I would like to see him have a car with an automatic transmission and side air bags if possible.

Thanks for following Russ’ progress.

Bob