Sunday, August 14, 2005

End of an era

On Saturday, a big day in my life: I purchased a car to replace the legendary Mighty Jetta. After nearly 12 years in the Murray family and over 10 years in my care, I finally decided it was time. Although the tires and spark plugs are close to new (thanks Ed), the temperature warning light has been blinking continually for 18 months, the AC is out of coolant, oil spews from the exhaust, the radio only picks up AM and I can tell its about time for a new starter.

Those of you who've been wondering why I held on to this car so long are probably not surprised that I got a little sentimental when cleaning the Jetta out for the last time before the charity of choice hauls her off. In that spirit, here are a few final statistics that came to mind...
  • 182,200 miles
  • 24 Ultimate tournaments
  • 10 years
  • 9 jobs
  • 8 residences
  • 7 states (FL, GA, NC, SC, AL, MS, LA)
  • 6 passenger maximum
  • 3 police stops
  • 2 tow trucks
  • 1 bottle opener (yes Boe, I moved it to the new car)
I have a catalog of stories about this car and i'd love to hear what you remember about that time the bumper fell off, the road trip where you never gave up shotgun, the Clash tape I made you listen to, the time you got to drive, or the oil slick it left in your driveway.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't we ALL want to know what is replacing the lovely Jetta>!!

Anonymous said...

You forgot a statistic:

3 accidents - all while the Jetta was not moving.

And I question the tow truck number; it had to be towed after I got hit.

Anonymous said...

yeah I think I was in on the tow truck count as well... something involving car stunts outside godfather's pizza. Yeah, it was a true gem among automobiles

Anonymous said...

bitchin' rims

Stephen said...

cherswee ---

NOTHING "replaces" the mighty Jetta ;)

but i'll be driving a Saturn now

Anonymous said...

didn't it actually FALL OFF one of the tow trucks?

Anonymous said...

I think the tow truck number may be a little low.
Thanks tucka for reminding me about that night at Godfather's...

Those rims are nice....

Yeah, it fell off a tow truck