Do you ever feel guilty?

Oooops, thought this had to do with religion.

Being Catholic, feeling guilty is part of your DNA.

I don't, as it's usually a result of good karma that gets me my deals. I've always been a fan of helping a guy out without cause or expectation of return compensation, and it works out in my favor. Case in point-

Years ago, we had sold my wifes' 1999 Chev Prism (read- Toyota Corolla) to a friend of a friend for 750$. Guy didn't have a ton of cash, and needed a car for his daughter. We had just picked up the MINI, so the poor Prism was languishing. Now, this was no peach by any stretch. The paint was toast, though there was no rust- the hood was all dented from a previous encounter with some wind, and the sunroof leaked... so it was not a total creampuff. BUT- it ran good, the heat worked good, and it didn't need anything to be a driveable car. 3.5 years later, daughter is STILL driving the car.

About 2 months ago, I had made note to some folks that I was in the market for a winter car. I recieved a note from the guy I had previously sold the Prism to, that he might have something for me. Turns out- he had bought another car I had been looking at, and as a result, had a spare car, and wanted to know if I was interested. That car was a 1995 Ford Taurus. Mostly rust free, clean interior, heat and AC good. The speedometer is shot, the passenger window doesn't open, the rear passenger door doesn't open, the front subframe is questionable, needs tie rods, and it leaks oil from the back valve cover gasket. Sounds like a pretty decent beater to me.

The selling price? 100$. He was so appreciative of the deal we gave him on the Prism back in 2007, that he wanted to return the favor, and the 100$ was more of a token than anything. So no- I don't feel bad. I figure it's just the worlds way of getting me back for doing unto others, as it were.

Lesley wrote: It's unanimous! I get to enjoy my goodies...

ooh, lesley's talking dirty!

spitfirebill wrote:

joey48442 wrote: In reply to MikeSVO: I'm not sure I see how it's really his fault, though. You didn't have to take his offer. He might have been a vulture, but you could still say no. Joey

Mike SVO Around here people would take out a title loan for when they are in a bind. Could you have done that?

I don't know, honestly.

Really, at the time, and in the situation, I couldn't say no. At the end of the deal, it felt as though I'd been taken advantage of by someone who I thought wouldn't do that. I mean, I know I got myself into the situation, and that's where I learned my lesson.

After that, I never recommended his site again, never made another donation, and stopped contributing like I had before. And it's too bad, because we'd done a lot of work, testing, tuning, measuring, logging and developing that debunked some of the online derived myths about the 2.3s. Some of the stuff on there people still accept as long-standing fact is simply false, outdated info. I've been on there for nearly 15 years now, member 102. They're up to 17,000 or so now. That site has a long history of pushing away experienced people who bring valuable info to the table.