Good-bye, Old Friend

After advertising my old Mustang for a week with no inquiries, my husband decided to follow up on some ads for CarMax he had seen that promised they buy old cars. When I say, “follow up on”, I mean he told me to call them. The promise that he would sell the old car seemed forgotten. I looked up information on the web and discovered we could bring Car in with no appointment and get a price quote that was good for 7 days. So last Friday that is what we did. 

I thought John had set the asking price for Car too high, and that that was why we didn't receive any calls. I wasn’t expecting much of an offer from CarMax, but I was willing to accept anything in order to restore some semblance of order to the carport and driveway. After all, any money we got for the car was going into the fund for John’s new car. If John was happy, I was happy.

The offer we got was about half of what I would have listed the car for and 2/3 of what I thought we’d have to settle for. It was also about 1/3 of what John had been asking. (Have fun, algebra fans.) We drove back home to give it some thought. John finally decided that it was not worth his time to keep trying to sell the car on his own and that we should take the offer.

So today I drove Car for the last time, with John following me to give me a ride back home. It was actually perfect convertible weather, and I thought about putting the top down, but I was afraid I wouldn’t get it back up again when I got there. I was also afraid I would forget that I needed to use the clutch, but old habits die hard. It only took about 20 minutes to complete the paperwork, and Car wasn’t mine anymore.

Since it is over ten years old, the Mustang is going to an auction in Houston instead of being put on the lot. I hope someone who wants the pleasure of fixing up an older vehicle buys it. It’s really not in bad shape for a car its age: low mileage, the exterior and interior are in good condition, it runs well, and the last place I took it to for repairs found less than $1,000 worth of recommended work to be done on it. It could be put back in tip-top condition for less than the price of a new car. I would have tried to talk John into that solution, too, if it weren’t that the clutch is hard on my problematic left foot.

Meantime, I really am enjoying my new car far more than I expected.  I don’t talk to it, but I have been trying to find it a name. I thought it had come from a dealership in Alexandria, and I thought about Alex, but while filing the paperwork I saw that it actually came from Slidell. Della was the name that came to mind, but I don’t actually like the name Della. So now the car is April. Not only did I buy it in April, but I bought its predecessor in April all those years ago.

So goodbye, old friend. You were fun, and reliable, and pretty and strong. Not a bad combination for a friend when you think about it.

With the top down, on our way to Santa Fe one summer. I drove along the old Route 66 as much as I could.