I took my 81 year old grandmother car shopping.
Oh boy, was it an experience!
She has been driving the same car since I was nine. I just turned twenty seven. The 1991 Buick Century full size sedan has served my grandmother well – in all the 56K miles she put on it driving to church, the grocery store and the doctor.
At my birthday lunch at Red Lobster with Grandma and my aunt last week, we started talking about how her Buick almost died on her the last time she drove it – it was balking and to add insult to injury, the water pump was about to die. So yes, definitely time for a new car. After twenty years. :)
In the four years of college and the three years of married life while here in the same city as my grandmother, I have offered MANY times to help her out. Other than my aunt who can’t really help out around the house, I’m the only kid/grandkid in the area that Grandma has. She has only taken me up on the offer of help ONCE – after her heart attack last year and couldn’t drive herself to the follow up appointment, she allowed me to pick her up and drive her to the doctor’s office. Other than that, she always insists that she doesn’t need ANY help.
Well, at lunch, I offered that I could help her pick out a car – at least drive her to the dealership and help her figure out which one she might like. Then my uncle could negotiate and do the buying thing – which neither Grandma nor I wanted to do. :)
To my surprise – SHE SAID YES. I couldn’t believe it. We made plans for me to pick her up on Saturday and take her to the local Chevy and Nissan dealerships. We test drove two cars -
The Chevy Aveo
and…
The Nissan Sentra
I’m leaning towards the Sentra – I think we can get it for a similar price to the Aveo and it’s so much bigger. The other positive? The gear shift is closer to the front of the car, rather than in between the two front seats. It’s a bit easier for her to maneuver. All other things being equal, that and the bigger size makes it an easy decision.
Let’s hope we can get it taken care of in the next few weeks so she can go to the grocery store again!
Haha my inlaws will drive their cars until the very end too! I finally had to go car shopping with them when it bit the dust and it was quite an experience. My MIL didn't want power windows because 'what if the car fell into the lake and she couldn't get the window down?'. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteYour granny still drives at 81?! Wow!
ReplyDeleteBrittany - she sure does! It's only to church and the doctor, but still. It's pretty impressive!
ReplyDeleteThat's so sweet of you! I'm not sure I would have the patience to do something like that with one of my grandparents.
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