She didn't need a new car after all
By Dennis McCarthy
Staff Writer-L.A. Daily News


TGIF. Here's some good news from a couple of self-proclaimed little old ladies from the Valley who thought they were going to be taken for a ride recently when they went looking for a reliable used car to buy.

Elsie Ableser and Rita Carson didn't get the car because they didn't need to. But they did get something else they weren't expecting.

"The whole experience renewed my faith in people," Rita was saying Thursday, still driving her old 1984 Toyota with 120,000 miles on it.

Her car's transmission was supposed to be on its last legs, according to the mechanics Rita took it to a few weeks ago. "They said it was going, and that it would cost $3,000 to replace."

Rita figured putting $3,000 in a 20-year old car was throwing good money after bad, so she called her friend Elsie to help her go shopping for a car she could afford. They wound up at Valley Dealer Exchange in Burbank, which finds cars on the Internet for customers, and also has a retail lot of about 40 cars for sale.

"They saw two old ladies walking in, and could have taken us for a ride," Elsie said. "We were prepared for the worst. Instead, the first thing they wanted to do was not sell us a car, but to make sure Rita's car was really on its last legs."

Turns out it wasn't.

"She didn't need another car, she just needed some transmission fluid and additives in the one she had," said Juan Carlos Renteria, who helped the two women. "I told her you don't have to spend your money on a new car now, save it. This one works just fine."

So Rita wound up spending $36 for oil and additives.

"I was bowled over," she said. "They saw I was in a bind, and could have taken advantage of me. But they were decent people with integrity."