So, I retired an old friend today.
My 1996 VW Golf, the same one that turned 300,000km just a few months ago, has been put out to pasture. It was time.
We were getting to the point that we were spending almost as much maintaining that old car as we would have spend on a loan for a newer one. So it was time to make a decision. Do we keep the old hulk, and live with weekly repairs and the smelly plume of blue smoke that spurt out the (illegal, catalytic-convertor free) exhaust, or do we allow it the dignity of the long sleep?
Well, a 2004 Jetta Wagon 1.8t in our price range made the decision a whole lot easier. 1.9% financing sweetened the deal. A call to the insurance company introduced me to a concept called the ‘wagon effect’. If the car had been a 2004 Golf 1.8t, or a Jetta 1.8t with a trunk instead of a wagon, the insurance would have been significantly more than my 13 year old Golf. But because its a wagon, it’s the same price. Wagon effect FTW!
We bought the car a few weeks ago and love it. Today, I took the Golf, complete with failed brakes, silver hatch (on a black car) and blue smoke to the wreckers, where I got paid slightly more than I expected to for it. May it rest in peace. It was already rusting in pieces, so it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.
The Jetta is black, like the old car. The kids have nicknamed it ‘Vader’, on account of it being black, with a black interior and black tinted windows. It’s hella fast, and it doesn’t spit out a noxious cloud of blue death every time we start it. And when we drive it sedately, it gets better mileage than the old Golf did.
Except its so damned fast we can’t drive it sedately.
“It’s hella fast, and it doesn’t spit out a noxious cloud of blue death every time we start it.”
That line just induced a belly laugh. Well done, and congrats on teh new hotness. Where are the pics?