End of an Era

Last night was a bittersweet event as we parted ways with our '92 Nissan Maxima.  

I bought the Maxima back in 2004, when I first moved to the suburbs.  Scott and I were dating, but I had no idea if that was going to be a long-term thing, same with my position a work, so I opted for a cheap run-around that would not be a big financial commitment.

The car served me well and I only stopped driving it in 2007 when Emma was born.  Scott gallantly gave me his Explorer to drive to the hospital each day as West Philly is not a place you want to break down in!

Ironically, the Maxima outlived the Explorer which died in 2009!  And Scott continued to drive the Maxima when I got the mini-van.

The Maxima had plenty of signs of aging:

• The AC has not worked in a couple years
• The alarm [sometimes] goes off when you open it, only to be stopped if you open the trunk!!!!
• We had the one window "sealed" because if you wound it down, it wouldn't come back up

and we long ago had invested more than it cost in repairs!  So in the summer, when it looked very shaky on its last legs, we invested in a 96 Chevy Tahoe and have since wondered what to do with the Maxima.

On Saturday morning before our yard sale I listed it on Craigslist (free local classifieds online) with Scott's number.  But before the yard sale even started a professional picker had shown up, bought a few things and was browsing our table.  He looked down our driveway where the Maxima was inconspicuously parked and said "Is that for sale?"  "Why yes!" I answered and called Scott over!

You know I don't believe in coincidences, and there really was no way for this guy to know we were selling the car, so I have to think that God sent him our way so we could keep making our steps toward financial peace.

Last night we met Vic and signed the car over in exchange for a perfectly reasonable amount, and will save a bunch on car insurance and registration fees to boot!  Our home looks strangely grown up without our hoopdie car parked out front.  We'll all miss it for a few days (including the kids who enjoyed driving around with the windows down in the heat of summer!)