A time to say goodbye.
Aug. 5th, 2006 07:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckIt's the end of an era or more accurately the end of a decade for me.
Today I sold my first car which I owned for ten years. Well, it's actually my third car altogether, but FIAT Pandas don't quite count.
I'm sad, but also proud.
I won't say that there wasn't any trouble in the ten years we spent together but we had a good relationship nonetheless. I was and still am attached to the little red FIAT Cinquecento (and yes, I can hear you snicker and say that's not a real car either!). We do tend to humanize our machines and I most certainly talked to my car, mostly along the lines of "Come on, go faster! Don't die on me now". It never got a name though, because that's a bit silly, I think.
My car took me from A to B and even to England and back when it was still young, though to be honest the ferry did most of the journey. It saw parts of Scotland, Wales and quite a bit of the north of England. It survived snow, German motorways, many carparks and even an attempt on its life by a white-van-man in Warrington - it had to have its front bumper replaced after that. A couple of other parts didn't make the full 103.000 kilometres that we stayed together.
After ten years, it was time for an upgrade. A bit cruel of me to let it go. It wasn't the looks and comments I'd get in car-conscious Germany where every bump and dent in the bodywork is a disaster and my car had plenty of those. I actually liked being the teacher with the wacky old car - there always is one at every school.
No, it was a purely rational decision - as long as it was still running and you never know when they might stop, I'd be able to sell it for a couple of Euros and now in the holidays I had the time and leisure to look for a replacement. Anyway, the next repairs and service would probably have cost me about as much as I got for the car today.
I wish the wife of the guy who bought it from me the best of luck with the car and hope that my little car will achieve what my neighbours' Cinquecento has managed: it has over 200.000 kilometres on the clock.
On Thursday I'll get the new car and until then my keyring will feel much too light.
Today I sold my first car which I owned for ten years. Well, it's actually my third car altogether, but FIAT Pandas don't quite count.
I'm sad, but also proud.
I won't say that there wasn't any trouble in the ten years we spent together but we had a good relationship nonetheless. I was and still am attached to the little red FIAT Cinquecento (and yes, I can hear you snicker and say that's not a real car either!). We do tend to humanize our machines and I most certainly talked to my car, mostly along the lines of "Come on, go faster! Don't die on me now". It never got a name though, because that's a bit silly, I think.
My car took me from A to B and even to England and back when it was still young, though to be honest the ferry did most of the journey. It saw parts of Scotland, Wales and quite a bit of the north of England. It survived snow, German motorways, many carparks and even an attempt on its life by a white-van-man in Warrington - it had to have its front bumper replaced after that. A couple of other parts didn't make the full 103.000 kilometres that we stayed together.
After ten years, it was time for an upgrade. A bit cruel of me to let it go. It wasn't the looks and comments I'd get in car-conscious Germany where every bump and dent in the bodywork is a disaster and my car had plenty of those. I actually liked being the teacher with the wacky old car - there always is one at every school.
No, it was a purely rational decision - as long as it was still running and you never know when they might stop, I'd be able to sell it for a couple of Euros and now in the holidays I had the time and leisure to look for a replacement. Anyway, the next repairs and service would probably have cost me about as much as I got for the car today.
I wish the wife of the guy who bought it from me the best of luck with the car and hope that my little car will achieve what my neighbours' Cinquecento has managed: it has over 200.000 kilometres on the clock.
On Thursday I'll get the new car and until then my keyring will feel much too light.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-06 03:06 am (UTC)Back in 2000 I finally got rid of my old 1986 Ford Taurus. It was almost falling apart and yet I still loved that car. I had driven it from Alaska to Key West, Florida. It had been fishing in the high Rockies and bathing on the warm beaches of Florida. So I when I gave it up it was in pretty bad shape, yet drivable. It had over 180,000 miles on it.
Thus in February of 2000 I donated my old Ford to the St Vincent de Paul Society, who gave it to a needy Catholic family down in Jasper, Indiana. That summer at my church's summer picnic I recognized my old car parked in the picnic grounds pasture under a tree! I was so happy to see my old car was still getting around. Then as I drew closer I saw something that turned my non-smoker's stomach. Cigarette butts were all over the car pouring out of the ashtrays and other junk littered the floors.
Tearfully, I gave her a pat on her hood and told her I was sorry.... :~/....