Godspeed, Crapbucket
And they said it couldn’t be done.
I’ve parted ways with my beloved Jetta. And by “beloved,” I mean that I practically –and at times, literally– drove the thing into the ground.
The tow truck just came by to take it off to Mexico. Apparently the trends there are such that cracked windshields and rear windows held up with black duct tape are all the rage.
We had some great times together, Greta and me (oh, that was her name, Greta The Jetta). I drove her on several road trips, slept in her, made out in her, took her camping and to countless Angels games, off-roaded when I didn’t mean to, and generally didn’t take nearly as good care of her as I should have. In the end, it didn’t matter much.
The fellow who came to buy her didn’t even look at the big dent an anonymous neighbor left, the rubber strips that had fallen off the sides, the big piece of foam that had fallen off under the steering column. All he cared about was that the engine started and ran. Then he handed me a $100 cash deposit. The truck came today with the rest.
Depreciation is to be expected. A 95% loss is not. But at least I got just about everything I could out of that car. I didn’t give it much, but it gave me more than many thought it could –especially in its last few months with me. I do feel a little sad today.
And not just because my wish of getting into a non-injury accident and collecting the insurance never happened.
I can’t tell ya how much I relate to this story, JK. I think I mentioned before how I cried my eyes out when I got rid of Cabbie, my VW Cabriolet after 12 years of undying devotion. I wrote an ode to her after our final good-bye. My mom got me a little replica of Cabbie which I ‘m looking at on my desk as I type. She took a licking and kept on ticking — until her brakes just stopped working and fixing them would have been too expensive. I couldn’t even get the deposit you got. I donated her to the Cancer Society and got a tax break instead. And except for the trips to the Angels games, I have had the same experiences with my baby as you had with yours. I even had dice too! Satin ones, though — not fuzzy ones. The car I had after Cabbie left me never had the same effect on me. I feel your sadness today, JK. I really really do.