A few more miles
25/07/16 05:10
When we married, we had a car that was seven years old, but had relatively low mileage for its age. We kept that car for another five years during which it got most of its exercise driving back and forth between Chicago and Montana. When we drove across North Dakota on Interstate 94, the trip was 1330 miles. Taking Interstate 90 across South Dakota and connecting to highway 212 up to Montana was about ten miles shorter. No matter which route we took, it was a long ways in the days of 55 mph speed limits. Most of the time we took three days and two nights on the road to make the trip. We got pretty good at planning stops to coincide with the homes of friends or relatives, to keep our travel costs low. We used to stop about every 150 miles or so for fuel. That little car’s gas tank only held 10 gallons. Nearly three hours of sitting made it time to take a break.
Times have changed. Twenty-five years later the speed limits had been raised once again and we had teenage children in our family. When the time came to add a car to the fleet, I was especially interested in obtaining an all-wheel drive car. We had one four-wheel drive that made getting in and out of our driveway in the winter a much easier chore. After quite a bit of shopping and trying to figure out what would work best for our family, we selected a two-year-old car with 30,000 miles on it. In addition to its around the town duties, it became the car to take our son to college. Following in the footsteps of his adventurous parents, he elected a college that is 1250 miles from our home. It was, however, only about 30 miles from where my mother and sister were living at the time, so we were able to combine visits. Still, the job of transporting a college student too and from school meant that the miles piled up.
After college, our son lived in Los Angeles (1350 miles from our home) for a while and his sister was attending college in Rock Springs, WY (only 480 miles). Meanwhile I was helping out my mother at her summer place (400 miles away) when I could. You get the picture: the miles on the car added up.
From Los Angeles, our son moved to Portland Oregon (1200 miles) and shortly afterward began graduate school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1700 miles away). While in North Carolina, he was married, which gave us a joyous occasion for yet another trip.
The years went by and the miles added up. The car we bought back then is now 17 years old and has over 252,000 miles on it. It’s still going strong, but we no longer think of it as our “new” car. There is a spot on one of the fenders where I do battle with rust a couple of times each year now and the “check engine” light illuminates regularly enough that it no longer receives the response of an immediate trip to the dealer. Most of the time it waits to be reset at the next oil change and the information that the catalytic converters (yes that little car has two of them) are getting clogged and will one day need to be replaced at a price that exceeds the book value of the car. Still the car starts easily continues to be reliable and is fairly comfortable. Furthermore, the operating costs are as low as our “new” car that is a dozen years newer and has only one fifth of the miles on it.
There’s no point in reporting the list of cars that I have owned in this blog, though I can still name every one without resorting to a written list. Buying a car isn’t an everyday experience for us and once we get a car we’’re likely to keep it for a long time. There was that well-used Ford Torino station wagon with the rear-facing third seat and the ugliest color of green you could imagine. It was like many other things in the 1970’s. It wasn’t designed for long use and by the time we obtained it in the early 1980’s most of that use had already passed. We drove it for a couple of years and felt lucky to be able to sell it.
The cars we’ve kept longer, however, seem to deserve something more noble than becoming a fishing car or a kids car. One of our cars that we had owned for many years and given a lot of miles finally got to the point of being sold through a newspaper advertisement and the buyer was heading to Alaska with it. He had been successful several times in purchasing old used cars that cost less than the price of an airline ticket to Alaska. He drove them up there, where he lived, and sold them - usually for the same price he had paid in the lower 48, thus getting an adventure and a trip home for the cost of time while saving money. We felt that was a noble adventure for our old car and it seemed fitting for it to make its last hurrah in the last frontier.
I’m hoping for a similar adventure for the car I’m currently driving. Actually, first of all I’m hoping that maintenance costs will remain low enough for me to keep driving it for four or five more years. I don’t need it for long road trips, so can keep the annual mileage pretty low, but if it can continue to serve as a car for going to and from work and running errands for a little longer that would be a good deal. Then perhaps there is some incredibly adventurous person who is short on cash who will be willing to give it just one more adventure before it heads to the scrap yard.
Me, too! I’m up for a few more miles and a few more adventures before moving to the nursing home.
Times have changed. Twenty-five years later the speed limits had been raised once again and we had teenage children in our family. When the time came to add a car to the fleet, I was especially interested in obtaining an all-wheel drive car. We had one four-wheel drive that made getting in and out of our driveway in the winter a much easier chore. After quite a bit of shopping and trying to figure out what would work best for our family, we selected a two-year-old car with 30,000 miles on it. In addition to its around the town duties, it became the car to take our son to college. Following in the footsteps of his adventurous parents, he elected a college that is 1250 miles from our home. It was, however, only about 30 miles from where my mother and sister were living at the time, so we were able to combine visits. Still, the job of transporting a college student too and from school meant that the miles piled up.
After college, our son lived in Los Angeles (1350 miles from our home) for a while and his sister was attending college in Rock Springs, WY (only 480 miles). Meanwhile I was helping out my mother at her summer place (400 miles away) when I could. You get the picture: the miles on the car added up.
From Los Angeles, our son moved to Portland Oregon (1200 miles) and shortly afterward began graduate school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1700 miles away). While in North Carolina, he was married, which gave us a joyous occasion for yet another trip.
The years went by and the miles added up. The car we bought back then is now 17 years old and has over 252,000 miles on it. It’s still going strong, but we no longer think of it as our “new” car. There is a spot on one of the fenders where I do battle with rust a couple of times each year now and the “check engine” light illuminates regularly enough that it no longer receives the response of an immediate trip to the dealer. Most of the time it waits to be reset at the next oil change and the information that the catalytic converters (yes that little car has two of them) are getting clogged and will one day need to be replaced at a price that exceeds the book value of the car. Still the car starts easily continues to be reliable and is fairly comfortable. Furthermore, the operating costs are as low as our “new” car that is a dozen years newer and has only one fifth of the miles on it.
There’s no point in reporting the list of cars that I have owned in this blog, though I can still name every one without resorting to a written list. Buying a car isn’t an everyday experience for us and once we get a car we’’re likely to keep it for a long time. There was that well-used Ford Torino station wagon with the rear-facing third seat and the ugliest color of green you could imagine. It was like many other things in the 1970’s. It wasn’t designed for long use and by the time we obtained it in the early 1980’s most of that use had already passed. We drove it for a couple of years and felt lucky to be able to sell it.
The cars we’ve kept longer, however, seem to deserve something more noble than becoming a fishing car or a kids car. One of our cars that we had owned for many years and given a lot of miles finally got to the point of being sold through a newspaper advertisement and the buyer was heading to Alaska with it. He had been successful several times in purchasing old used cars that cost less than the price of an airline ticket to Alaska. He drove them up there, where he lived, and sold them - usually for the same price he had paid in the lower 48, thus getting an adventure and a trip home for the cost of time while saving money. We felt that was a noble adventure for our old car and it seemed fitting for it to make its last hurrah in the last frontier.
I’m hoping for a similar adventure for the car I’m currently driving. Actually, first of all I’m hoping that maintenance costs will remain low enough for me to keep driving it for four or five more years. I don’t need it for long road trips, so can keep the annual mileage pretty low, but if it can continue to serve as a car for going to and from work and running errands for a little longer that would be a good deal. Then perhaps there is some incredibly adventurous person who is short on cash who will be willing to give it just one more adventure before it heads to the scrap yard.
Me, too! I’m up for a few more miles and a few more adventures before moving to the nursing home.