crandc
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In 2006, I won an employment discrimination settlement against a former employer. After paying my lawyer (a Blazers fan and Portland transplant living in San Francisco), I had a decent chunk of change. I'd up till then driven others' castoff vehicles, many held together with string and chewing gum, so the obvious choice of big ticket purchase was a new car.
I did not want a sex symbol, a status symbol, or to recapture lost youth. I wanted a car that would get me from Point A to Point B reliably day after day, year after year. A Corolla. I got dark gray to match my cat Orlando. As the 2007 models had just arrived, by buying a 2006 I got a new car for a little less, and thanks to information from Consumer Reports was able to bargain down a few hundred bucks.
Paid in full, still biggest check I've written.
Not long after I began working at Genentech, taking BART. From Monday-Friday, the car only came out one day a week when I did grocery shopping. Then I left Genentech (bad bad decision but neither here nor there) and had to start driving to work. And my little car got me there.
The car got me over the mountains to LA, Santa Barbara, Portland, scaling Mount Ashland like a little trooper. It got me through storms with flooded highways, no visibility, and water sluicing over windshield faster than wipers could keep up. It got me through fog so dense I could barely see taillights of car ahead. It crossed bridges in gale force winds. It navigated the worst hair pulling homicide inducing traffic jams. In good times, when I was happy and excited to be going somewhere, the car got me there. On bad days, when I wanted to go home and crawl into a hole, it got me there.
Point A to Point B, day after day, year after year.
It accumulated over 100,000 miles and probably would have been good another 5 years. But my father had bought himself a new Corolla in 2010, shortly before turning 90. Not long after, he had to stop all but local driving, then stop driving altogether, so his Corolla had only 14,000 miles on it. My two siblings have pretty new cars, and my stepsister is, literally, a millionaire who would not be caught dead in a Corolla, so I inherited the car.
I took my old one to a mechanic for an assessment (he's good, honest, conveniently located, unfortunately also a right wing Republican). He said he knew someone who'd pay $2500 as it was, problem was I had to drive it to Southern California to pick up new car. My car was well maintained but had dings and dents, so if I sold it to Toyota they'd do about a thousand dollars of body work and sell for $5000.
Good I had that information, as a result, Toyota offered me $2000. They almost certainly would have gone no higher than $1500 otherwise.
I know it's an inanimate object, but I still feel a pang. I told the man at the Toyota place to be good to it, gave it a final pat on the dashboard, and drove my new car home. Had to learn things that had been instinctive; I kept turning the heat up when I wanted to turn it down since the dial goes in the "wrong" direction. It's a great deal, although I don't think I'll ever feel about it the same way I did about a car I've had since it was a kitten.
Fare thee well, little car. Served me well.
(and if anyone tells me selling a car is just like Nazis I will declare that person certifiably insane)
Now - a favor. I have extra Human Rights Campaign and Amnesty International decals, but my Portland Trail Blazers decal was inseparably stuck to the old car. Any Portland folks like to mail me a new one? Might even be worth a few chocolate chip cookies. PM me.
I did not want a sex symbol, a status symbol, or to recapture lost youth. I wanted a car that would get me from Point A to Point B reliably day after day, year after year. A Corolla. I got dark gray to match my cat Orlando. As the 2007 models had just arrived, by buying a 2006 I got a new car for a little less, and thanks to information from Consumer Reports was able to bargain down a few hundred bucks.
Paid in full, still biggest check I've written.
Not long after I began working at Genentech, taking BART. From Monday-Friday, the car only came out one day a week when I did grocery shopping. Then I left Genentech (bad bad decision but neither here nor there) and had to start driving to work. And my little car got me there.
The car got me over the mountains to LA, Santa Barbara, Portland, scaling Mount Ashland like a little trooper. It got me through storms with flooded highways, no visibility, and water sluicing over windshield faster than wipers could keep up. It got me through fog so dense I could barely see taillights of car ahead. It crossed bridges in gale force winds. It navigated the worst hair pulling homicide inducing traffic jams. In good times, when I was happy and excited to be going somewhere, the car got me there. On bad days, when I wanted to go home and crawl into a hole, it got me there.
Point A to Point B, day after day, year after year.
It accumulated over 100,000 miles and probably would have been good another 5 years. But my father had bought himself a new Corolla in 2010, shortly before turning 90. Not long after, he had to stop all but local driving, then stop driving altogether, so his Corolla had only 14,000 miles on it. My two siblings have pretty new cars, and my stepsister is, literally, a millionaire who would not be caught dead in a Corolla, so I inherited the car.
I took my old one to a mechanic for an assessment (he's good, honest, conveniently located, unfortunately also a right wing Republican). He said he knew someone who'd pay $2500 as it was, problem was I had to drive it to Southern California to pick up new car. My car was well maintained but had dings and dents, so if I sold it to Toyota they'd do about a thousand dollars of body work and sell for $5000.
Good I had that information, as a result, Toyota offered me $2000. They almost certainly would have gone no higher than $1500 otherwise.
I know it's an inanimate object, but I still feel a pang. I told the man at the Toyota place to be good to it, gave it a final pat on the dashboard, and drove my new car home. Had to learn things that had been instinctive; I kept turning the heat up when I wanted to turn it down since the dial goes in the "wrong" direction. It's a great deal, although I don't think I'll ever feel about it the same way I did about a car I've had since it was a kitten.
Fare thee well, little car. Served me well.
(and if anyone tells me selling a car is just like Nazis I will declare that person certifiably insane)
Now - a favor. I have extra Human Rights Campaign and Amnesty International decals, but my Portland Trail Blazers decal was inseparably stuck to the old car. Any Portland folks like to mail me a new one? Might even be worth a few chocolate chip cookies. PM me.
