The History of my 87 GMC

I purchased my truck on June 6th 1998 from Jupiter Chevrolet in Garland, Texas. It was and still is my first vehicle. Needless to say I'm a bit partial to it. It has reliably served me for four years now and has never left me stranded. That's not bad for a fifteen year old vehicle! I honestly believe it was divine intervention that caused me to find my truck in the first place. At the time I was seventeen years old and had been searching for the right truck for nearly four months. I hadn't had much luck. What I had in mind was either a Ford or Chevy/GMC short bed truck with an automatic transmission(since I couldn't and still can't drive a stick), fairly low mileage, and preferably a fuel injected V8 engine all for four thousand dollars or less, since that's all I had to spend. Basically what I was looking for was nearly impossible to find considering that older short bed trucks are hard to come by due to their popularity and the fact that not as many of them were made as the long bed trucks. Also, trucks old enough to be in my lowly four thousand dollar price range typically would have over 100,000 miles on them and be pretty worn out. Fuel injection is also a rarity on older trucks due to the fact that it wasn't introduced on them until the late 80's and for the most part trucks with the fuel injected engines were out of my price range. So essentially the odds were stacked against me. Still, I was determined to wait it out and hopefully find something that would be a compromise and have some of the features I was looking for. On June 5th my lucky day arrived.

I was searching through the automotive adds in the paper when I ran across a white, short bed 1986 Chevrolet pickup truck with a 305 V8 for sale from Jupiter Chevrolet in Garland. I honestly cannot remember if the add listed the price of the truck or not. Although 1986 Chevy trucks were carburated, and I would have preferred a 350 V8 engine, desperation was starting to sink in. After four months of nonstop searching I was really ready to get a vehicle. I figured that at the very least the truck was worth checking out. Convincing my father to take me up to the dealership out in Garland was a challenge. He really didn't want to drive out all that way out there just so I could just look at a potential truck. On top of that, he preferred that I did not purchase anything from a dealership due to the fact that they usually want too much for a used vehicle, and it's difficult to determine what kind of shape the vehicle is actually in. Purchasing from an individual was definitely the better way to go. Finally after much pleading, my father agreed to drive me out there. I'm fortunate, cause he almost didn't give in. After a lengthy commute to Garland, we finally arrived at the dealership. Right as we pulled into the parking lot, I spotted my truck. They were literally just driving it into it's parking space on the lot to go up for sale. This wasn't the white 86 Chevy I had come to see. This truck was a black short bed GMC pickup truck. It was love at first sight. Personally black is my favorite color on a vehicle, not to mention that this truck appeared to be in excellent condition. The paint looked almost new, and there were hardly any dents or dings in the body at all. Upon eagerly inquiring about it, I learned that this was a 1987 year model GMC pickup truck equipped with the 350 V8 engine and an automatic transmission. 1987 was the very first year that those trucks were produced with fuel injected engines. If that wasn't enough, I also learned that this particular truck had only 73,000 original miles on it, and was in fairly excellent condition inside and out considering it's age. I couldn't believe my luck. I had just found a short bed GMC pickup truck in excellent condition with a fuel injected 350 V8 engine, an automatic transmission, less than 100,000 miles on it, and to top it all off, it was in my favorite color! This all seemed way too good to be true. I started to fear that this truck was going to be way out of my price range. Since it had just been driven out on the lot, it did not have a price labeled on it anywhere. I fearfully asked one of the salesman how much he wanted for it. Surely I couldn't afford such a nice vehicle. To my surprise, he replied that he would let it go for around the same price as the white truck I had originally come to look at: four thousand dollars! I couldn't believe my ears. I was sold on it right then and there. I hadn't even test driven the thing yet, but I knew it was coming home with me. Needless to say, the test drive went just fine. The truck drove great. Afterwards we agreed to purchase the truck. The dealership agreed to hold it for me until the next day when I would be able to get the funds from the bank to pay them. The very next day, June 6th, my father and I went back up to the dealership and purchased the truck. I distinctly remember the salesman telling me that right after we had been there the previous day, several people had asked about the truck and wanted to buy it. It was a fortunate thing that I had gotten to it first. I drove home very happy that day.

When I look back on everything that fell into place that day I am amazed. Silly as it sounds, I truly believe that I was meant to find my truck. What are the chances that I would find the exact truck I was looking for, for exactly the right price? Even more amazing is that I happened to be able to convince my dad to take me out to the dealership to look at a completely different truck at exactly the time my truck was being put out on the lot. Had I been any later someone else would have found it first and more than likely bought it. That's just luck you might say, but consider this: The day that I went to the dealership and found it, I was supposed to be working! I had requested the day off from work, but management scheduled me to work anyway. I didn't complain and was going to go ahead and work that day, until a friend of mine specifically convinced me that I should stand up for myself and demand the day off. Had he not convinced me to get the day off, I would have been working and never had the opportunity to run across the truck in the first place. It that's not divine intervention/fate, I don't know what is.