No Title

There were a number of titles available for this post but, in the end, "No Title" seems just as appropriate as some of the following contenders:

Trip to "Sly"dell
Welcome to Slid"hell"
Sli"dealt" a Bad Hand

Before I get into it; some back story. About a week ago, Jillian and I began discussing the idea of making some big changes to attempt to save more money for a future down payment on a house (after mine sells in Mobile). We looked through our monthly expenses and the one that really jumped out was my Truck payment. After some discussion, we decided to downgrade my vehicle to one that didn't require a monthly payment; one that also got better gas mileage.
After a few days of scouring the internet and a couple unsuccessful viewings, we thought we may have found the perfect vehicle at a wholesale dealer in Slidell, Louisiana. (Richardson Wholesale for anyone that cares). Jillian found the 2007 Toyota Camry on Craigslist for around $7900. She gave them a call and asked them about the condition of the vehicle apart from what could be seen in the picture(s) I'll post below. There were a few of them, but this one sums it up. A good looking a car and, based on the information from the dealer, in pristine condition apart from a slight paint job on the driver side door.
ACTUAL AD PICTURE:

I'll admit that I wasn't thrilled about four hours of driving to look at a car, but a relatively new Camry with 147k miles isn't easy to pass up. The number of reasonably priced Camry's (in good shape) in this area are few and far between.
We ran some morning errands and started driving to Louisiana around noon. The trip felt relatively short for two hours. Exceeding the speed limit may have helped. A few turns off of the interstate before taking the bridge to New Orleans and we were sitting in front of the dealership parking lot... alone.
The first problem was that the parking lot was fenced off and locked and the dealer wasn't there. That was solved after a call and he was there to open things up for us after a few minutes. We both parked and he unlocked and walked into the building on the lot. After looking around the lot from the steps of this building, I noticed problem number two. The Camry we drove there for was not on the parking lot. Back to the phone; this time his. He called the owner and then an assistant. Turns out the assistant had taken the car home with him. I thought that was interesting. A few minutes later and the third problem showed up. This problem was the car.
Almost immediately I noticed the baseball sized crack on the front windshield and then as it turned to park, the four foot scratches from the driver side door the the rear wheel well. What minor paint repairs they had mentioned on the car were nowhere to be seen. The bate and switch was in full effect. Inside, the dash in front of the passenger seat looked like a tiger had been trying to escape. The back seat had obviously been the playhouse for children who owned ballpoint pens and drew forcefully. It was a complete disaster. I think Jillian and I took less that two minutes to agree it was a complete waste of our time. We got back in the truck and promptly left. What's humorous is that almost immediately after parking the car, the driver got out and started removing the license plate as if the sale was a sure thing. I can only assume that he was driving blind and had never actually seen the car he was just in.
This is not an actual photo... but close enough:

The drive home was a little longer b/c I obeyed the speed limits and we made a stop at McDonalds to get a cheap late lunch. We also stopped at my house in Mobile to check on it. It was enjoyable though, even though we were returning empty handed. There were some lessons learned though; like never trust anyone from Louisiana. We have decided now to keep the search closer to home.
The only other good thing about this story is that we took Stella with us and she took a dump on their property and the contents are sitting in their trash can... hopefully stinkin' up the joint.