We went ahead and purchased it.
It’s in the garage:
I was infuriated at the dealer at one point. The sales manager pulled out two keys but only one key fob. I felt like that was a last minute surprise. This is a “Certified Pre-Owned” car, and he could only produce one fob? Give me a break.
The nice thing is we got this car for about 10% under what comparable “certified” Maximas are going for.
We have pretty much decided on getting a Nissan Maxima. Mmmm, 255 horses. We want a model with cloth seats and without a sun roof.
Yesterday we found a 2002 Maxima with 56K miles (the one pictured to the right). www.autocheck.com showed a clean title history, and a VIN lookup on www.publicdata.com showed that the previous owner lives in Plano and bought the car new. I found this guy’s phone number but am still not able to reach him.
Anyway, we took the car home for the night. After getting an uncle to help us examine everything, we discovered that parts of the front and rear bumpers are resprayed, and the rear bumper even has a slight wrinkle in one spot. Since much of the original paint was still there, whatever happened may not have been too severe. However, the repaint was done at a really crappy shop. They sprayed the paint in a moist and dirty environment: there was a place where the paint “fell” a bit, and the paint was full of trash. Because of the apparent crappiness, I have to wonder what else wasn’t fixed right.
An under-engine rock shield is also missing, exposing the underside–especially the A/C compressor and hoses–to kicked up junk. True, this isn’t a big deal; a new shield can be bolted in. But why was it missing in the first place? What caused it to fall off? The same event that damaged the bumpers? What else has fallen off? What else was not properly repaired?
Overall, these are not deal-ending issues, but they reduce what we’re willing to pay for the car. We got the car inspected at our local AAA-certified shop ($90), and it checked out fine. It may be mechanically sound. But I still can’t reach the original owner, so how do I know how it was treated or what it was used for?
Anyway, after a few minutes of back and forth at the dealer their best offer was 4.4% above our maximum price. 4.4% is a nontrivial amount of cash, so we walked. Of course we got the crap about how they won’t make enough money, here is what Kelly Blue Book says, etc.
We walked.
Back to square 1, less $90 and a half day of vacation. It’s a learning experience. I won’t be so quick to drive the next car home unless we have a good idea of what we would pay for it.
I almost didn’t make it to the second Wood Badge weekend. All three of us got the stomach virus last week. Alec got his on Tuesday and was over it by Wednesday. I got mine on Tuesday but didn’t fully recover until Saturday. Jennifer got hers on Thursday night, less than 10 hours before I was supposed to leave. I had to miss the first day because she was far too ill to be alone. There was no way she could have cared for Alec. Fortunately she was mostly over it by Saturday morning, so she took me bright and early to Camp Wisdom.
My abbreviated weekend was still fun. The second half of the Wood Badge program is a few more presentations, some events, an overnight campout as a patrol (without “adult” leaders present), and the closing events.
Now I work on my ticket.
This weekend I attended the first session of Wood Badge, a training program for adult Boy Scout leaders that is known as the Ph.D. of Scouting. The training was held at Camp Wisdom, just right outside of Dallas, TX.
Camp Wisdom used to be Circle 10 Council’s main camp. Now that Circle 10 has Camp Constantin, Camp James Ray, and Camp Cherokee, Wisdom is used mainly for weekend trips and training.
Interestingly, Camp Wisdom sits on several parcels. All are owned by Circle Ten Council except for two: one owned by the Circle Ten Council Boy Scout Foundation and one owned by the Boy Scouts of America national office in Irving, TX.
Camp Wisdom’s southern and western edges are bounded by Interstate 20 and Spur 408, respectively. I-20 is a 9 lane freeway, and Spur 408 is a limited access 6 lane connector road. Unfortunately, both of these roads create a constant drone in the camp. If you’re outside, it’s difficult to hear anyone talking who is more than 30 feet away. This is a relatively recent development in Camp Wisdom’s history. Dallas-area planning maps show that I-20 was under construction in 1971.
Anyway, back to Wood Badge. This weekend I learned about effective team leading techniques, with an emphasis on how to create self-running, self-managing teams. That is in fact the crux of Boy Scouting: a properly-run troop should be mostly boy-led and boy-run, with adults providing minimal supervision and handling things that the boys can’t or shouldn’t do (mostly financial or legal matters and certain supervision).
The Wood Badge is organized like an actual troop. The participants are in patrols, and the course leaders operate in traditional troop-level youth and adult positions: Senior Patrol Leader, Assistant SPL, Scoutmaster, Assistant SM, Troop Guides, etc.
On a future weekend I will attend the second Wood Badge session. That weekend will be a hiking camping trip. Each patrol has to backpack in almost all supplies for the trip. It will be interesting. The last time I have done a backpack trip was when I did a 6 day Mountain Man hike at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.
After I complete both Wood Badge weekends, I will still have to complete a “ticket.” This is five major items I have to do within 18 months. They include items of personal growth and service to others. Once I complete these 5 items, I will be officially presented with my Wood Badge beads.
The biggest surprise about Wood Badge is how similar it is to the Sam Houston Area Council’s Junior Leader Training Conference (JLTC), which I did in July 1990. That conference literally had almost all the same components as Wood Badge except that it was directed towards youth leaders, and it did not involve a ticket.
I reran the numbers on Buying a new car is a poor financial decision assuming 250,000 usable miles. The numbers more dramatically favor used cars:
| Year | Current Miles | Value (NADA) | Depreciation from new | Percent of miles “used up” | Relative cost per mile of remaining miles
(250000 – current miles) |
| 2004 | 0 (still on dealer’s lot) | $23,850 | 0% | 0% | 43% higher than 2000 |
| 2003 | 15000 | $20,300 | 15% | 6% | 30% higher than 2000 |
| 2002 | 30000 | $16,925 | 29% | 12% | 15% higher than 2000 |
| 2001 | 45000 | $14,875 | 38% | 18% | 9% higher than 2000 |
| 2000 | 60000 | $12,650 | 47% | 24% | baseline |