Old Car Update
- 2006-12-28
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I finally got around to calling the mechanic today about making an appointment to get the headlight fixed and wiper blades replaced. These are the two outstanding issues on the car that I want taken car of before I can sell it. The guy said he’d have to order the part before I come down. He said he’d call back, but so far I haven’t heard anything. I may have to call back tomorrow to see what progress they’ve made. Looking around online, a replacement passenger side headlamp assembly for my car appears to run around $65. So it’s going to cost a little to get this all taken care of.
I also need to have the car washed and vacuumed, but there’s a place nearby that will do all that for like $10 after a discount for MS employees. Basically, I want the car to be fully ready to go by the time I put it on the market. I want prospective buyers to see the car and think “wow, this is a great car that’s all ready to go” so that I can get the best price. In my ownership of it, I’ve put about 20,000 miles plus new CV joints, a new timing belt, a new battery, 4 new tires, new brakes (new front pads, new back pads and new back rotors) on this thing, so I’m expecting to be able to get about what I paid for it. It’s a Toyota so it still has a lot of miles left on it to say the least.
I got a letter in the mail for the bill to renew my car tabs the other day. It needs to be done by 2/15, so I definitely want to sell the car by then. My insurance policy expires about a week before that as well and since I’m considering switching companies, it would be much easier to do comparison shopping with just the one car.
So that it doesn’t sit around all the time (never good for a car), I’m trying to drive the car every day while I’m at work. Today, I went over to get lunch/dinner at Baja Fresh and took my old car. It’s interesting how it handles differently than my new car. The steering is less precise, the braking is less sensitive, it has less pickup. From what I’ve been able to ascertain, it tends to get better gas mileage on non-highway driving than my new car. It’s just a different car more than anything with different strengths and weaknesses. Still, I get nostalgic driving it. It’s a perfectly good car, which makes it hard to get rid of. If it was breaking down all the time or had other serious problems, I’m sure I’d just want to part with it as soon as possible.
2 Comments:
Actually you may get a better insurance rate with the two cars. Allstate considers me to be “married” because I have two cars on my plan, so I get a pretty good discount. It would be much more expensive if I were a “single” male with a brand new car, so I haven’t told them that I sold the other car almost a year ago
I know that right now I get a “multicar” discount of some sort. The insurance on my old car is lower, but not that low mainly because it’s a Toyota and I live on Cap Hill which is a recipe for auto theft. So I’ll save a little by taking it off my insurance, but not really all that much. Mostly, I’d just like the few thousands of dollars the car is worth in my pocket.