Find the edge of the world…

This was Sunday…

Joel the Obstinate and Cursed Jetta has been an ornery cuss since spring when he started having problems getting started. If he sat more than two weeks without being driven, he needed to be jumped. Then it started dwindling to less than two weeks, and finally a week after his last jump, he wouldn’t start at all. The battery is only two years old. The original lasted me eight years. Bob’s dad brought over his battery charger on Sunday and hooked up ye old Jetta and eventually got it started. He suspects it is actually a bad battery and if that’s the case, it should be a semi-cheap fix. If not, it’s a trip to VW and a minimum of a few hundred dollars. Joy of absolute fucking joys.

God dammit, Joel.

And yet, despite how much I hate driving with a fiery passion from the depths of Hell, just the idea of getting a new car sends me into a panic that ramps up almost as high as making a damn phone call.

Issues.

I have them.

We’ve been over this.

I love Joel. He was my first car, my first real adult responsibility, and as soon as I sat in him for the first time (or his cherry red twin as it were) for a test drive, I KNEW I had found MY CAR. I thought I wanted a blue car, until I saw his shiny, reflex silver paint job. I have not driven any other vehicle since I drove him off the dealership lot on October 8th, 2002. I don’t know how to drive any other car. He is eleven years old and he has just shy of 68,000 miles on him. He has butt warmers, heated mirrors, purple dash lights, and stupidly located cup holders. He’s compact and cute and designed for someone as short as me. He took us on an 1,800 mile road trip that broke his speedometer. He’s had his front bumper replaced twice, his rear once, and been the victim of four collisions (rear-ended twice, side-swiped and spun into a snowbank in a ditch, and backed into when parked in the street). He’s been stuck in park in my driveway and had to be towed to the dealership, and had his “brake light switch” replaced three times (all under warranty, the final on an actual recall). He’s been pulled over for a burnt out taillight, had three flat tires, a new windshield, and he’s on the “Used Cars to Avoid” list by Consumer Reports. He’s caused me more full-blown panic attacks than any one inanimate object should.

But he’s mine.

And I love him.

I will cry actual tears when I have to get rid of him.

The World Has Come Between Us
Stage

4 thoughts on “Find the edge of the world…

  1. If/when you do decide to trade him in, I can’t recommend using an auto broker enough. Here’s what happened when we got the Passat:
    1. Called a 3rd party broker, told him the makes/models/features we were looking for and what our price range was.
    2. A day later he’s got a bead on an Altima, we fill out a credit app
    3. We were turned down by Nissan the same day, but our broker’s got a Passat on his radar and our credit’s good with VW.
    4. Test drive, sign papers, 2 hours later we’re driving our new car. Our broker has already negotiated the price and rate.

    Seriously. No games, no haggling, no surprise APR bait-and-switch, just a few phone calls and papers to sign. No panic attack or social anxiety for PPC. No dealerships, no salespeople. We didn’t pay a cent to the broker. Bliss. Plus our broker will check in on us and the car a year before our lease is up and if it makes more sense for us to sell the lease to one of his connections, we do that and pocket any profits. Otherwise we always have the option of getting a new lease or buying it outright at the end of term.

    I’m not sure why everyone doesn’t buy a car this way. Of course you have to do your do diligence and find a reputable broker, but between the BBB, Yelp, and Google, that’s not too hard.

    Sorry, had to ramble a bit there. I’ve been singing broker praises for a month now because we had such a good experience.

    1. Thanks for the advice, we’ll definitely keep that in mind when the time comes. Especially considering how we both hate dealing with people. And considering my tendency towards mental meltdowns when it comes to dealing with my car…it would save us both a lot of agony.

Something to say?