Could this Truck ruin everything??

Sometimes you get tired of lemonade.

Look, I’ll be the first to admit that life isn’t fair. And sometimes you win, and sometimes you end up making lemonade from scraps you find lying around, and it tastes ok. Sometimes it just doesn’t taste good no matter what you throw at it.

So we’ve been radio silent for a few months. There have been good reasons for this. Before we get into all that, let me start with how things feel to be happening.

So many times, we feel as though we are walking into a brick wall. Sometimes, we’re able to side step and walk around, sometimes we are able to laboriously climb over. But sometimes that wall just seems to stretch into a distance we can’t see or navigate. 

In those instances, it becomes overwhelming to us both. The wall is immovable, solid and unyielding.  And whilst we try our hardest to put in effort, summoning the willpower and energy is just impossible. Despite the bruises and muscle strain, blood, sweat and tears, we have to admit defeat.

So that said, let me explain our absence. We haven’t posted content because we are still not back on the property. Mainly because we have been trying, quite fervently, to find a new (to us) vehicle. 

Once the frigid temperatures of winter passed, we were feeling refreshed and eager to get back up north and get some exciting projects going. This year would be our first full season actually on our property. The freedom and convenience that that alone means is immeasurable.

To get there we need a truck more reliable than our old one (which any longer term reader of these blogs may recall, was starting to become unreliable). A truck that would allow us to easily travel between our property, nearby towns and even Toronto and beyond should we need to.

Furthermore, the options in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area, for those not familiar) for used vehicles is indeed far greater than up in Northern Ontario. It had been a few weeks of searching when the perfect truck showed up. A tiny bit over budget, but safety certificate was included and it was ready to go right away. 

I texted the seller and he negotiated down a small amount to get us into budget. We arranged he would deliver it the next evening, giving me time to withdraw cash from the bank, and we were all set! He arranged a time and took the address. Much relief and elation all round.

Until 11pm that night. 

The seller messaged to say that someone else had come over and bought the vehicle after our discussion. The British have a word for how I reacted. I was gobsmacked. And disappointed. And furious. And…many other things not really suitable for public consumption. We both were.

I chose my words carefully, but the seller was not in my good books. He fumbled and offered us other vehicles he was selling, which had none of what we needed or wanted and cost more. Eventually I just had to stop responding to him, for fear I might punch him through the phone.

The wind was taken from our sails. It felt like a devastating blow. The perfect vehicle gone, and us back to the drawing board. The next day our search continued, and every day after that, looking at the newest listings.

The hardest part is that most vehicles are being sold “as is”. This means firstly that there is no recourse on the previous owner if you buy a lemon, and a second hurdle is that Ontario has a very strict Safety Stands Certificate (SSC), something that previously in Alberta wasn’t required. 

Sellers in Ontario are not required to have an SSC completed on an “as is” vehicle. And unless you are a mechanic or very knowledgeable, you can’t see all the things that could be wrong with the vehicle from just looking at it. This explains why the first vehicle we found had been ideal. 

I dare say we looked at hundreds of ads for vehicles. Facebook Marketplace, used car sellers, auctions, you name it. Some great choices, for 2 to 3 times our limited budget. Used car Dealerships had excellent choices, but well above $20,000, which was way above our purse.

Finally we found a vehicle which at least looked good, and sounded good. “2010 Dodge Ram 1500. I’m the second owner , truck does not have a single problem so do not lowball , I use it for work everyday. As is sale”

The price was right, and we agreed to meet to briefly check it out and give it a test drive. We did a brief look over it and walked around the vehicle. While some of the clear coat had faded, it wasn’t surprising considering the vehicles age. There was very little visible rust.

She drove like a dream. Quiet and powerful. It seemed like right vehicle, despite some cosmetic things. We told him we’d get the UVIP [Used Vehicle Information Package] (a requirement of Ontario law, usually gotten by the seller as a requirement, but the buyer “can” get it) which he didn’t want to get. 

That was a 3 hour wait at the Service Ontario (registry), but came back as having only been owned by two people previously, no liens and no issues (such as write-offs or thefts). We agreed the next day to meet at Canadian Tire to  finalise the transaction and get a safety done.

The transaction went smoothly, but the inspection at Canadian Tire not so much. Within an hour they called and said that without even getting it on the hoist they spotted issues which would fail the safety inspection. They wouldn’t charge us, but recommended taking it to a dealership for the inspection.

Grudgingly, this meant a trip back to the registry for temporary plates, as we had hoped to simply get the SSC and final plates. After a 3 hour wait, the person behind the desk had never done temporary plates before. She also, apparently didn’t understand that the vehicle had been a commercial vehicle and now was a personal one, and she would have to change the class for the plates. It rook 45 minutes, with help from other staff, and their helpdesk before I finally had (commercial) plates and a temporary sticker for them in my hand. The switch to personal plates was a battle I decided to fight another day.

We picked up the truck from Canadian Tire and brought it home. We had an appointment at a dealership for Tuesday, and really there was nothing else to be done before that. 

Tuesday dropping the vehicle off at the dealership was a breeze. They provided an Uber back home and had been told that I was not in a rush, which they appreciated, as they were short staffed and running behind. I was home before my appointment technically was (which was 10:30)

However the text that came through at 3:20 immediately caused both of us to instantly have panic attacks. You know that terrifying sensation you get when something huge happens? You feel the blood drain from your head? The numbness that hits your body in a wave? The pulsing blood, the foggyness and ringing in your ears? Everything sounds muted and distant? Yeah. That.

Basically in an instant it felt like our lives had been altered in a way that was simply insurmountable. According to the dealership, the vehicle wasn’t worth putting money into to get it past safety.  If we tried to sell it, we could be sitting on it for weeks or months or we’d only get a fraction of what we spent on it back. 

That would put us back to square one, with no vehicle, and no money for one. It would mean we couldn’t return to our property and we couldn’t accomplish anything there this year. We felt trapped and, frankly, terrified. Had we just lost every penny we had? Had this vehicle just caused the end of everything we had planned for our year and our future indefinitely?

That may sound dramatic, but when ones brain is presented with something which seems devastating, it runs, nay, sprints to every worst case scenario. In that moment, it felt like our lives were crashing down around us.

We both had to take a moment and try and calm ourselves. It was a lot to take in, and we needed some kind of plan right away. We were definitely feeling under immense pressure. We discussed a ton of options over the evening and late into the night. 

The next morning we called a mechanic who had been recommended. He said they no longer do safeties because the rules are too strict and there no money in them.  Another person, Anthony, reached out who was used to dealing with used vehicles and offered to try advise and help if he could. We made an appointment to see him at 4pm. 

Anthony seemed genuinely concerned and wanting to help, and looked at the report from the dealership and looked over the car. Some of what they had classified as ‘unrepairable’, he felt could be dealt with less expensively than their ball-park figure of “up to $10,000”, which was almost double what the truck had cost, and certainly not what we had lying around. 

In short order, Anthony had us drive a short distance to a mechanic who looked at the dealerships concerns, and did not find the same faults as they had. He even got a second mechanics opinion on it too. Then we had a choice to make.

Either we’d sell the truck for half of what we had spent on it, and have to somehow rearrange our entire years plans while we attempted to make and save enough for a another vehicle, all while not having a vehicle, or do what we could to repair this truck and get it through safety, keeping our plans on track for the year. It felt like an impossible choice.

There is nothing worse than having to make decisions under immense pressure. The emotional rollercoaster of the preceding few days was taking its toll. Under pressure, one is usually forced to make impossible choices without all the facts, without all the resources and research and certainly without a plan on how to execute it. 

Anthony was right, selling off the truck and loosing a ton of money would set us back way further and we’d be scrambling for far longer just to get together enough for a more decent vehicle down the road. We agreed, and he lined up a body shop to complete the biggest part of the repairs for safety. We set a time to drop it off, and returned home.

As I write this, the truck is at the body shop. We have raised a chunk of the money required for the repair, but not enough. But the day is young, and with any luck we can juggle and earn enough in the next few days before the payment is due. I’ll keep you posted as best as I am able.

If you would like to contribute and are in a position to do so, you can via our PayPal link: HTTPS://PayPal.me/ourbetterlife or if in Canada, via interac e-transfer, via the usual email address. If you have already contributed, please accept our most fervent thanks for your support and faith in us!