jonathanhickman.com

I need a new car

I need a new car.

I’m currently driving a fourteen-year-old Subaru wagon. It was a pretty good car when I got it seven years ago; it was the archetypal “little old lady didn’t drive it much” car, but the “little old lady” in this case was my grandmother. At the time, the car was - obviously - seven years old, and it had just shy of forty thousand miles on it. Now that it’s twice that age, it’s carrying almost three times that many miles - about 116k.

And it’s breaking, too. In the last year, it got all new brakes to the tune of almost $1k, and now it needs some front end work for about the same amount … and soon, before it gets unsafe.

And it’s probably worth all of $500.

Unfortunately for me and my fifty-mile-round-trip commute, a new car just isn’t in the cards for me right now. Katie and I already have a new house with some new work getting done on it, and Katie has a new minivan (which, sadly, was needed way more than I need a new car now).

I just try not to think about it, but sometimes it’s hard not to.