Almost a year ago, I took our (adopted, now estranged) daughter to buy a car. She had done the research, so much as a nineteen-year-old female can do, and I guided her on what to look for in a make/model/year, etc.
We/she settled on a really nice little 2007 Ford Focus five-door sedan model, very low miles, excellent condition, and I negotiated the dealership down to a bit over two-thousand dollars under NADA blue book value.
We were happy.
The arrangement was that I'd sign the note and she'd make the payments and insurance. I'd help her with gas if/when needed and I'd take care of all routine and preventive maintenance.
Around Thanksgiving, she pulled another of her "going off the deep end" behavior swings, and as expected, I had to make the payments for the next few months. Come February, the relationship was over and at the end of March, she was gone.
We (wife and I) got the car back and we haven't heard from her since.
I should've just sold the car then (end of March), but I decide to help another family member out whose daughter was a year younger and graduating from high school. Outstanding young lady, zero problems.
Her dad (my cousin) and I agreed upon a down payment upon sale of her (then present) vehicle, and I went ahead and gave them the keys to the Focus.
A week later, I'm still waiting on the down payment and I get a call that the "sale of her car never materialized and that it was back for sale again." I then hear a few weeks later that it sold, but that he (cousin) had to use the money for something else.
Uh-oh. Deja vu.
Long story short, we get two payments (May and June) then the car gets wrecked--fault was someone else's, but the car is totaled and a July payment is due.
Guess who got stiffed on the July payment?
So for the past two weeks, I've been stuck with a wrecked car that every time I looked at it, I thought of the adopted girl we have no idea where she is, how she's doing or anything. Thankfully my cousin's daughter was not seriously injured in the wreck and thankfully the party-at-fault's insurance is covering almost the entire loss.
I'll only be out a couple of hundred dollars to settle the bank note, but then I'm also out a bit over $500 on payments that never materialized. This has caused some serious strain between the two families. My wife refuses to even acknowledge them anymore. Not the first time this happened (lend money to family that never gets paid back), but it IS the last.
Since the first of April, we've lost a daughter, a car, several thousand dollars, and a friendship within the family that may never be restored.
The car seems symbolic somehow. . .