It was a gray, rainy morning about a week before Christmas when the trucker called to say he was ready to unload our 109 at a nearby grocery store parking lot. My wife and I rushed down, anxious and excited to see the "new" 109.
Part of shipping a vehicle is getting an initial condition report at the time the trucker picks it up. The report for our 109 simply read "dents, scratches and dings all over." Although that was true (and still is), it certainly gave the trucker quite a bit of latitude in how he treated the 109! We had received about a five minute video from the seller who did an exterior walk-around as well as some interior shots and, fortunately, the 109 arrived without any additional damage.
Our relatives who picked up the 109 in El Paso had told us that it was tempermental to start and then hard to keep running and they were right! I purchased some starter fluid from the grocery store and soon got the Chevy engine to start up only to learn that the carburetor and throttle linkage was adjusted such that you had to keep your foot on the gas just to keep the engine going. We also learned that the wiper blades were shot (who needs wipers in the hot dry Chihuahuan desert of New Mexico?), the passenger wiper arm was missing and the one driver's wiper would only operate for a couple of passes before stopping.
Nevertheless, my wife drove her dream car for the first time that day beaming, with a huge smile on her face, and none of these little things mattered one bit.
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