Philip's Car

I was awakened this morning at 6:30 by the phone ringing. Philip was stranded and needed rescue.

When he was car-hunting, it seemed to me like he didn't have enough money to buy an okay car. When Gary and I were younger, drivable used cars could be had for $700-1500. It's not like that anymore. Well, he found a car that looked pretty decent for $2500. My thought was that, given the good shape of the body and the dependability of Toyotas, he was probably getting a good deal... well, as good a deal as one can expect if you're not going to spend $7000 on a used car. He spent money on new tires and new brakes, and was good to go.

For a month.
Then he needed a new engine.
Still... even with the new engine, we know that he's spent less than he might've, has a car with a "new" engine (only 80,000 miles on it), has lower insurance premiums because it's an older vehicle. The only thing we worried about was if there should be a drunk driver or other problem, and having the car totaled-out at a value which the insurance company would've priced too low. However, even that has an up-side. The car dealership said that our receipts showing a new engine and new tires could be used to prove a higher-than-Blue-Book value to the car, should there be an accident.

One week after getting the car back, one week after no longer shuffling cars between us to get everybody to work at the right time, and there was an unavoidable road hazard on his way to work. Ripped the exhaust system and catalytic converter from the undercarriage. So today we got to learn about tow-trucks and calling the police and stuff like that. There were really other things I would've preferred to do than learn those lessons.