Thursday, January 19, 2012

Goodbye to an Old Friend


Today I said goodbye to an old friend.  You know cars are inanimate objects.  They really are not fun to buy because the minute you drive them off the showroom floor, they loose value.  That is why I will never buy another new car.  From now on, when I buy a new car, it will be new to me, but used by someone else first.  In 1999 I bought a new Mazda Miata right off the show room floor.  It was a beauty, state of the art.  The Miata had just changed body styles, and it was beautiful.  I had always loved the Miata, and had leased a 96 model, thinking I would get it out of my blood.  But it only made me want one more.

So, when the lease was up. I went and bought the ’99 Miata.  I figured that I would drive it until I retired and then I would get something sensible.  It was a fun car to drive.  I put 191,455 miles on it, and I enjoyed every one of them.  It was always dependable.  I think that in over 12 years, I broke down only twice and had only one flat tire.  It has had minimal maintenance and was very easy to drive.  The power wasn’t great, but it was so much fun to take around corners and to shift the short throw gear shift.  Yes, I really did enjoy that car.  But over the last year, she has been getting very tired.

The speakers and sound system were going bad, and there was a constant hiss in the background.  The leather seats has long since worn out and covered with sheepskin.  Now the power windows would barely work, and it seemed that more and more things were going wrong.  With over 190k miles; the engine was on borrowed time.  At one time I thought of rebuilding the engine, but I was really looking at rebuilding the whole car.  That would cost too much.  So, today I sold the car to CarMax.  I couldn’t bring myself to sell it to an individual.  There was too much wrong with it for me to do that.  I felt like CarMax gave me a good and fair price and so I drove it to the dealership with the top down.  The sun was shining, but it was cold.  It was still fun, and as I drove I remembered some of the trips and good times that I had with this car.  So, I lost an old friend today and I was sad to see her go, yet I knew that it was time.

So, what did I replace her with?  I’m glad you asked.  I now have a 2006 copper red Mazda Miata.  It has 50,000 miles on it, so it is barely broken in.   I am excited because this is the new model that started in ‘06 and it is totally different, yet very similar.  So, I’m still not old enough for practicality when it comes to cars.  I guess that I just like to have the sun shining down on my head and feel the wind blowing through my hair (lol). 

Will I become as attached to this car as my last one.  It probably depends on how she runs.  If she is dependable and stays fun to drive; I foresee a wonderful long lasting relationship.  I hope I am still able to get in and out of this one in 12 years.  We shall see.

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