May 1999. Tempe, AZ. After almost three years living in the United States, I decided to get a car. Since I didn't have much money, I went for the cheapest I could find. From the classifieds section in the Arizona Republic, I found a 1989 Toyota Tercel that was advertised for $2,699, called the owner Aaron F., and made an appointment to meet. The car was a pale metallic blue, 5-door liftback that bore a lot of similarity to the photos below.
After test-driving the Tercel, I purchased it for $2.6k even. It was noisy and not all that comfortable, but I didn't care. It fulfilled the basics: point A to point B commute, fuel efficient and cheap. Part of the motivation to get a car was that my aunt Mary from Krypton was coming to visit the following month. I needed a reliable transportation to show her around town, and Toyota vehicles have a reputation for that. There are always exceptions to the rule, and I would soon find that out about the Tercel.
The Tercel's mileage at the time of purchase was in the upper 130k, and its MPG rating was in the mid to upper 30s. With my first fully-purchased vehicle came my first auto insurance. Aaron suggested Geico. My classmate recommended his auto insurance agent from American Family Insurance. I don't remember the agent's name. He's no longer listed on AmFam's website.
I drove the Tercel on weekends (to get groceries), around town, to Sky Harbor and back, getting acclimated with the Tercel as well as with the roads. No issues. Everything was smooth. When Aunt Mary and her Friend arrived on June 17 (Thursday), I was ready. They had a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites (now known as Home2 Suites by Hilton Scottsdale Old Town) near E. Earll Dr and N. Scottsdale Rd. After they checked into their rooms, we went to a food court in Scottsdale Fashion Square for a late lunch. It was the closest place I knew. We had a great time of fellowship, mostly catching up on where I was and making conversations from our email correspondences.
There were no issues with the Tercel so far. Nor were there any when I took Aunt Mary and Friend back to the hotel room, returned to my apartment for personal matters, returned to the hotel to pick them up for dinner, and then brought them back to the hotel room. The room had two queen beds. They invited me to stay with them. I took the second queen bed.
For dinner, we went to a place Aunt Ruth frequently took me to: Pearl's on 3339 S. Rural (it is no longer in business). I ordered the usual eggplant, while Aunt Mary and Friend ordered additional dishes. I remembered the Disney movie Tarzan was just released in theaters. We talked about going to see it the next day, right after a tour of my school campus. They also mentioned visiting another location in the United States after spending three days with me. When we returned to the hotel room, I went to bed pleased that they were impressed with my leadership as their tour guide.
Friday would be a different story. During breakfast, we finalized the agenda for the day: see my apartment (where I lived), visit the Sun Devils (where I studied), have lunch there, and then go see Tarzan. The drive to my apartment went well. When we were getting ready to head to the Sun Devils when my car struggled to crank. After many failed attempts, aunt Mary and Friend waited inside my apartment, while I called for a tow truck. About 40 minutes later, it showed up and jump-started my car for $27.
The drive to the university was without incident, so I thought there were no more issues (with the Tercel). Aunt Mary and Friend went to the Hayden Library, bickered that the venting machines were rejecting their dollar bills, had lunch at the Memorial Union, saw the smaller classrooms at the Engineering Center and then the larger (auditorium-sized) classrooms at Schwada Classroom Office Building. I pointed out how the video cameras in some classrooms recorded the classes and made them available for students to rent. They were impressed.
It was time to go to the movies. To my surprise, the Tercel struggled repeatedly to crank. Aunt Mary and Friend waited at the Creativity Commons while I called (again) for a tow truck. Adding to the plight was the parking spot had a meter and I was running low on coins. Across from me was a parking attendant writing a citation for another car. He told me to quickly top the meter before he got there. Thankfully, Aunt Mary gave me some to spare. 40 minutes later, the tow truck came, and the car was jump-started for another $27. We decided to drop off Aunt Mary and Friend at the hotel, while I took the car to an auto repair shop for a battery check.
As I waited at the traffic light on E. Earll to turn south onto N Scottsdale, I noticed that the lights on the dashboard turned off by themselves. When I hit the pedal, they came back on but were struggling to stay on. I realized that the Tercel would not make the trip and had to be towed. On the left-turn lane at the next crossroads, the battery died and I wasn't able to crank the car. There was no power left to turn on the hazard lights. I got out and signaled the motorists behind me to drive around.
There was no public phone, so I went to the nearest retail store. I don't remember the name, but I do recall jewelry in display cases. Two store employees were present: a male and a female, both Caucasians. They didn't believe me when I told them what happened with my car. They were unwilling to let me use the phone (at first). After repeated requests – almost begging – they relented. I called Aaron for directions on what to do. He said the alternator probably went bad in addition to the battery. I wanted to make a second call but wasn't allowed to.
When I got outside, I saw a sheriff's vehicle waiting at the traffic light east of N. Scottsdale and quickly asked for help. With his vehicle, the sheriff pushed the Tercel out of the left-turn lane, onto the east road and parked in an unobstructed spot. We shook hands afterwards. I was grateful for his help. I went to a restaurant where I was allowed to use their phone without resistance. After calling for a tow, I had a friendly conversation with an African-American staffer. He was a stark contrast to the two Caucasians from across the street.
I didn't know where to take the Tercel to have it checked. When the tow truck arrived, I told the driver to go to the nearest one he knew. It was a Pep Boys location a few blocks south of the crossroads where I was stranded. At the (Pep Boys) front desk, a technician said that he was 20 cars behind and an alternator check would be an additional charge to the battery check. I told him what happened, and handed over the car keys over to him. The tow driver took me back to the hotel.
Aunt Mary and Friend believed that it was God's divine hand that kept the Tercel going until after they were dropped off at the hotel. We stayed in for the rest of the day, and dined in the hotel's in-house restaurant. I tried to maintain a positive composure but went to bed that night in a completely opposite mood from the night before.
On Saturday morning, Aunt Mary and Friend's ride showed up to take them to the airport. She gave me some money to help pay for the upcoming car repairs. I took a bus home, feeling so embarrassed that I could not thank her for making time (and money) to visit me. The next day, Pep Boys told me that both battery and alternator of the Tercel had to be replaced. Within a month of owning the car, I was already shelving out money for repairs. It was only the beginning.
I had not yet transferred the Tercel's title to me. When I tried to do that in July, the DMV told me that the title had a lien. Whatever went on under Aaron's ownership, it wasn't resolved before he sold the Tercel. Not only did it had reliability problems, but also its title wasn't clean. DMV recommended a bonded title. The price was 1.5 times the value of the car. I already paid $2.6k. The bonded title required an additional $4k. Unbelievable!
I kept hounding Aaron on an almost daily basis to get the lien resolved. In addition, I contacted the Sun Devils' legal service for counsel. Aunt Ruth wanted both her and I to show up at a DMV location to deal with it. When Aaron finally called back, he insisted the vehicle tags were good. But what good was that when I had to pay much more to transfer the title to me due to problems he caused?! It took at him more than a month to resolve the lien. That finally cleared the way for me to transfer the title, or so I thought. Since Aaron's signature was not on the title, the DMV refused to proceed with the transfer. Once again, I hounded him. Both of us then showed up at the DMV and finally got the title transferred to me. That was in mid-October, five months after purchasing the Tercel.
The entire affair soured my one and only experience in purchasing a vehicle from a private owner. Since 2001, I got all of my vehicles from auto dealerships. Despite their reputation for dishonesty, my experiences with dealerships were far less dramatic and far more ethical than I had with Aaron. Looking ahead to the end of 2026, my next car will be from a dealership.
Back to the Tercel, it wasn't the end of the drama. There was a period of calm before more storms.
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