A nice stranger in a car shop heard that a woman couldn’t pay the down payment on a used car, so he gave her his trade-in car for free.
She works two jobs to pay for school so that she can be a nursing student at San Diego City College. Any student who has ever taken full-time classes knows how hard it can be to find the time and drive to do even one extra job on the side, let alone two.
She works as a cashier in San Diego at both 7-Eleven and Ace Parking Lot. She had been taking a friend’s car to work, but it would not be available again after a few weeks. She had to buy a car in order to keep her job at the parking lot.
To get to work at Ace, I borrow a car. Kayla said, “The only reason I got the job was because I had a car.”
Auto City in El Cajon, California, was where the nursing student bought a cheap used car to keep her second job. After looking at all the offered cars, Kayla realized she couldn’t make the down payment. She knew she would lose her second job, which she needed to make ends meet, and her eyes filled with tears.
Kayla told her, “I was really upset.”
Dan Laguardia, a customer at the store sitting at a table nearby, heard Kayla talking to the salesperson and saw that she was upset. Dan went to the car lot to trade in his 2005 Scion and buy a new one.
Dan said, “I heard Kayla at the next table. She sounded like she was mad.” “I wasn’t trying to be nosy, but I heard her salesman ask, ‘Can someone help you?'” Do you have a friend or family member? That’s when I paid attention to the talk.”
Dan heard the young student say that she had to work two jobs to pay for school and couldn’t afford the down payment on a car but needed one to keep one of her jobs. As the seller tried to comfort Kayla, she broke down in tears and left, knowing she couldn’t keep her second job.
Dan asked the seller if they could help her after she left. He told her no, and he looked a little sad for Kayla. Dan then told the dealer to call her and tell her to come back in. He told him that he would give her his Scion, which he would trade in, for free.
When Kayla came back in, she was shocked and thankful all at the same time.
Dan said, “She just couldn’t believe it.” “I said ‘Yes, please,’ when she asked to hug me.”
She said, “It’s a whole car.” “What kind of person would give away their car?”
The event was seen by an Auto City worker who shared a post online.
“This took place tonight…” Seoul Fields, who works at Auto City, wrote about it online. “A man was trading in an older Scion XB for a white BMW.” A young girl comes in around the same time and tries to buy a Corolla. She is having a hard time as a student and works two jobs. Sadly, she wasn’t able to get a car loan. A salesman tried to comfort her as she broke down in tears. It made us all feel terrible, but you cannot do much. The man asks if we were able to help her after she goes. The seller is upset that they have to say no. “Call your customer back,” the man says. I’m trading in my thing for hers. After a short time, she comes back, and he signs the papers and gives her the keys. She cried in the car while he worked in finance. “Thank you, God!”
She wants to be able to help someone else as much as Dan helped her. Given that she is going to school to become a nurse, she will probably repay his kindness many times over in the years to come.
“I still can’t believe they gave it away without asking for anything in return.” Kayla said it. “Thank you, sir. I’ve never been so lucky in my life. I pray and hope that one day I can make the same big move that he did.
Dan thought that giving his student with a hard time his car would help her “get a boost in life.”
He said, “We’d be in a much better place if everyone did that for everyone else.”
