I'm going to tell you the story of how I bought my first car, and the sorrows that came with it.

We are waitn. Akuko Mike Ejeagaha.

listening...

When? after easter ??

Where is the story.....

Oh!!!
Not again
Where is d story nah

Op no lemme vex for you o
Ahan! Which kind season film be this?

I could start from my early days so you can better understand this but I'm not.
Let's start from my youth service. Served in Enugu state. Earned a decent pay while serving and by month 7, I had saved 700k...from scratch.
From when the money was around 500k I started browsing OLX avidly looking for good deals.
I really wanted a car. In retrospect I guess that came from some sort of dissatisfaction that could be understood by my circumstances growing up.
I liked the Honda accord 2003-2005 models. I saw one nice deal for 750 in surulere but I wasn't going to get the money complete for another six weeks. Called the owner though to reserve it but he eventually sold it.
Fast forward...now I have 700k and I'm getting a car, no one is stopping me!

Are you saying you haven't even bought the car?

My major preoccupation became browsing OLX for cars. I eventually saw two deals I liked and could afford. A 2004 accord in Abuja with a bad gearbox and a 2003 accord with worn out upholstery in ikoyi lagos. The former went for 700 while the latter for 650.
I set out the following day, a Sunday to buy either of these cars. I couldn't make up my mind which. I got to peace motors Park, did a coin toss and decided to go to Abuja. Hmm fortunately or unfortunately I still don't know which, there wasn't any bus to Abuja that afternoon. Undeterred I went to ABC, still no Abuja bus, but there was a bit leaving for lagos. I said oh well, and took the bus. I got to lagos around 6pm and went straight to the car owners office, a chubby thirty something year old lady who informed me her husband had bought her an suv that's why she was selling this. She came along with a guy she claimed was her coworker and during a short intermission when she went away, I quizzed the guy about the car and he was all praises.
Now I didn't know how to drive. I had only driven once before, for less than 20 minutes, and I bashed the side mirror.

The car looked liked something the cat dragged in. Washed up paint job, really bad upholstery - torn and really really bad. But when she started the car, it sounded fine. I opened the hood, like I knew what to look for, and nothing great but for that price I wonder what I expected.
She said she didn't have much time and we should conclude the transaction the following day.
I got a cab and went searching for a nearby cheap hotel to sleep. The driver, a chatty little fellow, who in retrospect should have really been a saviour took me to a hotel where I paid 5k and booked him to drive me back to Enugu for 15k.
I got to the room, and that's when the devil came in. Metaphorically.
I instinctively opened OLX and then I saw another car, a Toyota camry 2004 in ikorodu.
I was having second thoughts on the accord because of the chassis and upholstery and then I said to myself, why not go see the camry and then make comparisons.
Next morning, I took a bus to ikorodu to see the car. Met the owner at the oando filling station along the express. Little guy with a diabetic mouth. I got regaled on how several people were in line to buy the car and how I had better acted fast.

Coin toss

Either abuja or lagos

Went to check out car around 6pm as in,night don reach na

Doesn't even know how to drive



*********

Spreads mat

Hums fela....."dem leave sorrow tears and blood,dem regular trademark"

*********

Ofcos,with this kind k-leg,this story must av sorrow inside

*opens star radler*

Op,today na today oh.....i dey follow dis ur story bumper to bumper

I did a quick inspection of the car looking for nothing in particular. The car was pegged at 700k. I negotiated it down to 680. This guy was receiving calls left and right from "prospective" buyers. At this point all I had was around 690k and I couldn't travel back that day. The kind man offered to let me sleep in his house and his mechanic offered to drive me back for 25k-claiming I should not risk the taxi driver who may have an accident or bla bla.
I'll call myself a smart person, but in those two hours before the deal closed I couldn't tell how I became so impressionable.
I bought this car, agreed that his mechanic would drive me back (I didn't know at the time the dude didn't even have a valid drivers license).
Next morning we set out with a car I had not driven, had properly checked, nothing. In the dark light of dawn, as the mechanic started the car, my "friend" pointed to the steam pouring from the exhaust to impress me with how fresh the engine was.
On the way back, shortly after we got to benin, the driver asked me how much I bought the car. I told him 680k. He sighed and said the highest he thought the car could go for was 650. I didn't read much into that. One near accident later, we got home. I borrowed 40k from a friend and paid him off.
I now had a car. I thought.

OP, you shouldn't have gone alone. Just thinking aloud.

*Buys Sugarcane* Next episode please.. OP.

Waiting oooo

Hmmmmmm intresting following

lol

Stowi stowi

Grabs a bowl of Eba and Ewedu Soup. I'm following.

You're a novice when it comes to cars, why didn't you ask a more experienced fellow for opinions? You went there on your own too.

No disrespect but you seem to have more money than sense.

jayriginal:
You're a novice when it comes to cars, why didn't you ask a more experienced fellow for opinions? You went there on your own too.

No disrespect but you seem to have more money than sense.

Joshthefirst:

But it's true na. Who throws away money like that in these hard times?

Oh Lord!!! Could this be pride or what You don't even know how to drive, yet you went alone to buy a Naija used ride. Even toks needs close evaluation, how much more a Naija-used car. Anyway, continue ur tori...

Next day I test drove the car around the compound and ran over the bucket I used in washing the car. Tore the right back tire. Took it to the vulcanizer who informed me all four times were really bad and needed to be changed. I bought two new tires and two belgium tires. Then the car started wobbling and making funny noises. I thought it needed alignment and took it to the mechanic who informed me the whole suspension was bad. Three different opinions later, I fixed the suspension along with several other problems in the "leg" amounting to 65k with pleading. Got home, next day, blue smoke!
My trusted advisor all these while, Google, told me this is the end for that engine. Went back to the mechanic, buying a new engine =200k including the cost of service. And then the car had several issues. I called back the dude who sold it to me and he swore with his mother's life the engine was sound. I invited a friends mechanic from down south who took one look and told me the car was a waste. I should sell as soon as possible for whatever price I could get. He informed me that the engine was "ringed", whatever that means, and I could ring it so I can pawn it off easily. I couldn't afford to.
I put up an ad on OLX to sell the car for 690k. I would love to say I warned that the car had bad engine but I didn't Ten prospective buyers later, I sold it off for 450k to someone who paid only 430k and owes me 20k to this day.

Afterthought #1: I never really recovered from that pitfall as I ended the service year essentially broke, despite the considerable sum I was earning.

Afterthought #2: I'm about to make the same mistake, I think. I just got a new job few months back, pays a little above half million pre-tax. I have hardly made any significant savings and the indestructible urge to buy a car has come up. Now it's the 2009 Honda accord. I spend all my time browsing olx and the auto section here. I still can't drive very well, and I don't know crap about cars.
I'd like to think I know better now to go along with a mechanic for inspection or take the car to a service centre but who knows?

Afterthought #3: I've subconsciously tied my sense of self worth to owning a car. I'm buying the car not because I actually need it, but because I "need to", I have an official car although I'm not allowed to drive it,I have a driver.
I just want to do this so I can find out if there's peace of mind on the other side.

God bless u Op 4 sharing ur experience with us, also serving too n about to buy a Nigerian used EOD, but guess I wld wait to make up my cash 4 a Toks Corolla, 2005 model.
Tnx once more, the good Lord shall restore all that u have lost in due season.

Must u buy a car?
You already have an official car

Well, I understand you would like to perfect ur driving skills.

You could at weekends go to a driving school to learn and stop destroying your buckets and fence

Hmmmmm