Crazy upside down reality, 40 Years, Elsa is all wet

by Duf Anything and Everything

So I mentioned previously how I was throwing around the crazy idea of selling my practically brand new Model Y to Carvana to take advantage of exploding demand for used vehicles, especially Teslas.  However Carvana would only do a “manual appraisal” and was requesting things that I thought were stupid so I walked away from the process.  Yesterday morning just for the hell of it I decided to see what Vroom, one of Carvana’s competitors would offer me.  Unlike Carvana, I was not required to jump through additional hoops or a manual appraisal.  When I saw the number in my email I did a double take, $49,000.

When this thought process started 10-14 days ago, $10,000 was the number in my head I set where I would be stupid to not take advantage of this opportunity.  That opportunity that seemed ridiculous at first was now a reality.  They were offering me $10,000 more than the list price of the car, this is insane.  When I told Cindy about this at first she wasn’t enthusiastic.  Like me, she loves the Tesla and didn’t understand why I would even entertain the idea of selling it.  However when I painted the master plan for her she got onboard.

With getting that much combined with what I owe on the car I had the ability to BUY the next level up of a Model Y, the LR (long range), without spending a single penny out of pocket while keeping my car payment the same.  The LR has some huge advantages like a bigger battery that offers nearly 100 miles more range, AWD with a motor in the front and back and more speed with a 0-60 time of less than 5 seconds.  I made the decision to go for it.

In the span of 30 minutes I had done the first electronic document signing with Vroom and then immediately went onto Tesla and ordered myself ANOTHER Model Y which only required a $100 deposit for now.  Vroom is supposed to be overnighting some more documents I need to sign and return.  After that a pickup of the car is scheduled and once Vroom inspects the car the funds will be transferred to my bank account.  It seems crazy that you can conduct a 50k transaction without even talking to another human being but that is the world we live in.

Part of the deal is the odometer can’t have more than 250 more miles on it than what I reported so the Model Y is now parked in the garage, where it will remain until it is picked back up.  I need to give it a quick bath and remove the small upgrades I have done to the car since I have owned it.  The 2016 Tacoma will now become my daily driver until I take possession of my NEXT Model Y which as of this point is supposed to happen sometime in September.  This has truly been a bizarre set of circumstances and it will be a bit sad to not have a Tesla for a few months but the reality that a newer, bigger, faster one is being built for me will help temper that sadness.

I have neglected to talk about the horrific partial collapse of the Surfside condo on the other coast.  It has to be a horrible feeling for those rescue workers knowing that only 10% of the missing people have been recovered at this point.  The task ahead of them is gruesome.  The neglect that appears to have been connected to the building collapse seems pretty ridiculous as is the requirement to have buildings certified only every 40 years.  I have a feeling this horrible tragedy is going to affect the way building safety is handled from here on out.  There are a TON of people on the east coast living in old condo buildings, I guarantee they are all feeling a lot more nervous and paranoid now.

There is a tropical storm named after our beloved dog, Elsa, brewing in the Caribbean.  Right now the forecast cone puts our area right in the middle of the predicted path.  However if I have learned anything since living in Florida it’s that predictions made 4 to 5 days in advance of a hurricane rarely, if ever turn out to be accurate.  The other positive is since we are still early in the season, the system is predicted to stay at tropical storm strength which can still be quite nasty but nothing like a cat 3+ hurricane that starts ripping things out of the ground.

Since July 4th is Sunday, I have Monday off as well.  In addition I put in for two more extended weekends, working on using up my remaining vacation time before it resets in mid-August.  This weekend I have nothing huge and ridiculous like laying sod on the menu but there will still be plenty to keep me hopping.