When a 4-door closes a 2-door opens

One of the fears Doug has had in the past, given the nature of the work that I do, is that our poor, old VW Jetta would die in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night as I am trying to get to a womyn in labour. As a result he has made an effort to keep it serviced and that we made sure to get all of the odd knocks, bumps, and thuds inspected right away. This dedication to the car (and to me) is what has kept it on the road and running beautifully for all of the 4 years we have had this vehicle.

It has truly been a family sedan. Not that we always travel as a family in it but rather that my mother was the first owner of the car and then she gave it to my sister. When Rhonda got mom's Passat we inherited Jetta and it has been with us ever since. The sad end of our family's connection to our beloved car has just taken place.

Doug's worst fear happened, sort of. It wasn't me that had the car when it died; he had it. As Doug was coming home from the office of his client in Thornhill the car began to work differently. The clutch was not engaging properly. He was able to pop it into place and got off the highway. Once off the highway the clutch died completely and he made his way to the side of the road before calling the tow truck.

An assessment of the situation and some serious discussion later and we came to the conclusion that if it was going to cost us an average of $3500.00 per year or more to keep the old car on the road -- and that's without the cost of regular serving or buying CAA (AAA to those of you in the US) -- to cover these break-downs on the side of the road. If only we could budget for that kind of spending. If only there was more value for money spent.

If we were spending that kind of money for an old car, what would that kind of money get us for a newer car? A VW Rabbit! We are supposed to pick up our new, 2-door, shadow blue, 5-speed, tinted window, 2007 VW Rabbit later today.

Great! Another bill to pay. Oh well, at least we can budget for this expense.

Our biggest worry now is what it will look like to see Doug or I get out of this car. It has tinted windows and looks pretty . . . well . . . YOUNG! I know we aren't ancient but we aren't 21 either. It will be funny to see the faces of the young people watching us drive around in our last ditch effort to relive our youth.