I bought my first car in January 1997. It was a 1984 Ford Laser and I paid $5650 for it. It was kidnapped and murdered in January 2001. I was devastated.
I bought my second car off my friend Cynthia in February 2001. It was a 1989 Ford Laser and I paid $4300 for it.
I drove it a lot when I lived in Sydney, but not very much once I moved to Canberra ten years ago (except for a lot of trips to Sydney in it when Dad was dying and afterwards to help clear out the garage and house).
The last time I had it serviced, they said I'd need new tyres, but also they were having trouble sourcing parts. There just weren't enough of those Lasers around anymore.
This week I wanted to get it serviced before going to Sydney next week. For some time recently the brakes had been quite squishy and I wanted to get them looked at. But apparently it was going to need a new master brake cylinder and cost $600. Considering how relatively little I've actually had to pay to maintain this car over the years I wouldn't have minded that cost. But with new tyres it was going to be upwards of $1000. Again, I'd be ok with that. But. If something more serious died it would be crunch time, and it would be sad to have spent all that money and not gotten any value out of it. And given how little I drive it nowadays I had to make the hard call. Keep it going or let it go. In the end I decided to let it go. With rego and insurance it's over $1000 a year just to have it sitting in the garage. If necessary renting a car or getting taxis would probably not even come near that. Rego is due in a month or two so now would be a good a time as any.
I took it out to get a few last photos.
And then yesterday morning I took it out to Queanbeyan to become an organ donor.
This was the final odometer reading. I was so close to 250000km (Stu didn't want me doing even a final trip to Sydney in it). And so close to having it for seventeen years. And it was only a year off becoming a "classic" car!
This is what I got in return. I'm tempted to keep it....
Every time I look at the empty garage I get sad. Goodbye little car..
Sylvia Johnson
I can imagine how sad it is for you to give up your faithful little car, but it had a good innings!
If it will help you decide on the relative costs of having a car or not, I will email you the costs, not counting depreciation of my car over the last four years.
We have a habit of keeping our cars almost forever don't we?
kapgar
“Kidnapped and muredered� I need this story.
Sorry about your car. I would've joyridden for those last 400 to hit 250k. It's a moral imperative.
Kazza the Blank One
K: I did consider doing that!! But the mechanic said it probably wouldn't be a good idea driving with the brakes in the state they were.