2005-09-01 - 8:29 p.m.
My old car died a month or so ago. It was more or less neglected to death. I had really hard feelings toward it prior to its demise. It was a really shitty car with no air conditioning, and the heater knob was stuck so it was on full blast all the time, or off. No other options. It was nearly impossible to roll the windows up and down without breaking your arm. It was a stick shift, which is fine, but it didn't have a tachometer. Like the person who originally bought the car did not want to pay for that particular feature. The radio would not play loud enough to hear it over the regular engine-running sounds. The wheels were so tiny that not only was is IMPOSSIBLE to find a replacement rim, when I needed to get new tires, only one company made tires that small. The car sucked pretty hard, but it looked OK, it always started, and was 100% perfectly functional as a car.Once I quit my job, I just parked the car out in front of the house and pretty much never used it. If I needed to go somewhere, I would take my husband's car, which was like a fucking Rolls Royce in comparison. (Holy shit, air conditioning!!) So my car just sat there and I never drove it. Once in awhile I would go and check that it was still running, maybe take it around the block. One day, I was checking the car (you know, out of curiosity) and I noticed that the car still started fine, but when I shifted it into gear, it would not go. Something that should have been happening between me pushing the gas and the wheels going around wasnt happening. I didn't try to fix it. I have no idea what the problem was. All I knew was that I didn't care, because I hated that car. It was crappy.
Luckily, I started saving money shortly after buying my old car and realizing I hated it, so I started looking for a new one.
Two interesting things to note when looking for a car:
1. Cars are really fucking expensive.
2. You will never find the car you want.
Did you know that people will spend tens of thousands of dollars for used Subaru Outbacks? Its true. I had no idea they were such fancy cars.
It took weeks to find a car. Seriously. Eventually I did, though. And I gave my old car to the first person who was able to move it from in front of my house. For free. I just did not want to fuck with that car at all. Even if I took the time to fix it and sell it to somebody, I wouldn't have gotten any kind of money out of it. I wouldn't have been able to sell the thing for more than it would have cost to fix it. I did try to trade it in, but the car is so shitty that the car salesman just looked at me like I was dumb when I suggested he take it.
My new car is a Volvo station wagon. It is even a 2000. It is the first car I have ever owned that was fewer than 10 years old. I feel like P. Diddy or something. (Wait, I'm sorry. He is just Diddy, now.) I am just fantasizing about all the stuff I can haul in the back of it. All the stuff I can haul WITH THE AIR CONDITIONING ON. Holy shit.
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