October 30th: Replacing the Keys Cruiser and Hollywood, Fl

We left the cruise ship and started looking for a car to replace our 2003 Toyota Corolla Keys Cruiser. Linda was getting her shoulder replaced in Miami in November and we would be making several trips up and back.  When we bought the car three years ago, we thought we'd just keep it for the winter season and sell it. It served us so well we ended up keeping it for 3 years! Now, however, a strut was going bad and we were no longer confident driving it to Miami and back. We made a reservation to stay at Hollywood Beach, Florida for the three days before Linda's first doctor's appointments. We couldn't check in until the afternoon so we started looking for a car. We were not surprised to find most dealers were not selling "Keys Cruisers" priced cars. We were looking for a Toyota or Nissan under $5,000, less than 100,000 miles, that was in good running condition.

After Linda searched on the internet she found a car that looked promising at $5,500. Went to the dealer and they said, "We don't have anything under $10,000." I showed him the add on their site and he said, "Wow, that's unusual!" He was very nice, checked it out. Turned out, out the door it would be close to $7,000.

Linda kept looking and found Discount Auto. They had several cars, proclaimed to have the lowest prices, and certifiable used cars. Might as well check it out. Called and talked to the owner, Zane. He said he'd wait for us if we were coming. (It was Sunday afternoon). We pulled up and Linda said, "I,ll wait in the car." It looked like we were in a pretty rough neighborhood, especially given the razor wire on top of the fence. I thought, "Might as well check it out".

Turned out Zane was a very nice guy. He's been selling cars from this lot for 30 years and has a 4.7-5.0 satisfaction rating. He explained the reason he can sell at a lower price than anyone else is his location is very inexpensive. (Of course he did say he never stays there at night because, "The natives can get restless at night".)

At any rate he showed us a picture of a 2011 Nissan Sentra that was just what we were looking for. The car was at a paint shop but we could pick it up Tuesday. We put a deposit down and went to our place on Hollywood Beach. Our place near the beach was great. I walked the beach and Linda relaxed.

We went to pick up the car Tuesday and were told we could take the car but had to come back Wednesday morning so the DMV could inspect it. So Tuesday turned into Wednesday for a variety of reasons. I dropped Linda off at the clinic for pre-surgery doctor appointments and spent several hours at Discount Auto and going to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Bottom line was we got the car, were very happy with it and were able to head back to Marathon to launch Yesterday's Dream.