The Saga of Car Troubles Galore 3: Farewell Roxanne

Given Roxanne's unfortunate demise, I was uncertain what I ought to do with her. I asked the mechanic if he or anyone he knew would be interested in her, but that was a dead end. My options were reduced to either trying to sell her privately (scary) or sell her for scrap metal (sad).

I know it's just an inanimate object, but I'm emotionally attached to my car. The idea of selling her for scrap metal was really distressing to me. Not to mention I'd only get about two hundred bucks out of it, which was a pretty terrible prospect. (Especially since I'd just spent $600 on a new radiator a week earlier!!!)

So with a little encouragement, I decided to list her on Craigslist and see what would happen. It was hard to know what to ask for her, in this condition. I looked around a little, and somewhat arbitrarily set a price and posted my ad.

It was seriously up for only a couple of minutes when I got my first call. Followed immediately by a second call, during which I received a third call. And several more texts. I was still negotiating when I deleted the ad, 12 minutes after it was posted. I ended up with an unintended bidding war! It was bizarre to me. I guess it was underpriced??

I finally put an end to the back-and-forth and said that the first guy who'd called had first dibs, since he'd matched the others' offers at $1500. Even after I said I was selling it to someone else, one of the guys offered $1800. But I decided to go ahead and sell it to the first guy. So I made arrangements to meet him at my mechanics' Saturday morning.

I went early to clean out Roxanne. Fortunately our stroller fit in the trunk of Lola the Corolla; I was worried! While I was still gathering my stuff, the buyer showed up. After checking her out, he tried to talk me into selling for $1300. But it was pretty easy to refuse, given that I had multiple offers of $1500 or more! So he ended up taking her for fifteen. We signed the paperwork, he gave me the cash, I gave him the keys, I took off my license plate, and away I went.

I do feel a little sad. I loved Roxanne. She was such a great car. But this is definitely a better way to have things end. I am cheered by the thought of her having a second life with her new owner, who said he was going to fix her up for his daughter. I hope it works out very well for them!

To be continued...