Called Derek, the car salesman this morning, and revealed to him that the car I had earlier sold to him in exchange for the down-payment for my new Toyota Vios was reduced to a malformed metallic mesh. If he was furious, he did not show it. He merely shrugged it off as some minor complications with a matter-of-factly tone. I told him forthright that I am not keen any longer to sell him the crashed car but would be happy to reimburse the down-payment in cash. He said, in a polite tone, that this is not possible as the second-hand car dealer has already agreed to purchase my car, with the money paid and all. I said, quite amiably that in that case I am left with no choice for I have not the goods to deliver. I could almost sense Derek breaking into a sweat. Surely, he has never come across such troubling obstacle in his career as a car salesman.
He called back a couple of minutes later, probably after a quick counsel with his boss and delivered the news that he will have to bring in the second-hand car dealers to inspect the damaged car. Instinctively, I began to feel a unscrupulous, underhand plot to undermine my meager experience as a car buyer starting to transpire at the other end of the phone line. I fear the worst. What if these crooked souls with cunning minds were to threaten me with demands of ancillary payment, the refusal of which will be reciprocated with the forceful arms of law? Car salesmen are not exactly the most trustworthy of professions, my worries are therefore not entirely unfounded.
The afternoon was therefore spoiled mulling over all possible ways of overcoming this difficulty. What more with me just logging off after 30 hours of continuous hospital work, things did not look bright for me all evening.
The only consolation I am able to conjure is that whatever happens and I hope that things do turn out favorably, my new Toyota Vios is still, for all that it’s worth, rightly mine.