Every quarter century or so

 We don't "churn" cars.  When the last minivan broke down after fourteen years and almost 200,000 miles, the mechanic told Paula, "No!  Do not fix this car!  Push it into a pond somewhere."  We have sent three vehicles straight to the junkyard, burned up one in the hospital parking lot  (literally - flames, the whole thing), the kids have totaled four old cars and trucks, blah, blah, blah.  Even taking into account the couple of trade-ins, which are usually inflated, the residual value of one of our cars when it leaves us is less than $700.  

However, it was with real sadness that I realized that it was time to part with the '93 Miata.  It was showing its age, and it wouldn't be long before some serious work would need to be decided on.

I bought it in 1995, so I'd had it for 25 years.  Lots of fun in those years.

Trunk-or-Treat was by definition somewhat limited with a trunk-ette.  (Note: no actual Egyptians were harmed in the making of this blog entry.)

Although the thing was eminently impractical, you could still get a pandemic-week's-worth of supplies in it...

...as long as Paula didn't mind holding the ice cream on her lap.

  It was fiercely analog and therefore had no idiot lights.  You had to actually look at the gas gauge.

which meant that several family members got caught.  On one occasion Paula lucked out, looked helpless and a couple of big guys pushed her to a gas station.

Even though I know that it was an inanimate object and all of that, it was still a little sad waxing and polishing it for the last time.  There had been a lot of 3:45 AM's after a hard day and most of the night at the hospital when putting the top down and blasting home was the only thing to look forward to.  

However, I was becoming a bit more familiar with its insides than I wanted to be, and as noted, there were signs of trouble on the horizon.  

With that in mind, I priced it low, and when he drove in from Dallas, I told the buyer about every teeny thing that I could remember that was wrong with it.  He took home a box of stuff - a can of touch-up paint from its last trip to the body shop, a half-gallon of 5-40w oil that seemed to keep the engine a bit happier, an almost-new set of hydraulic valve lifters, the best shop manual ever and some other assorted things.  He was looking forward to working on it with his teenage son, a worthy new home.  Still...

So now I'm 66 years-old.  A late-middle-aged/early-elderly-retired guy should be looking for something more practical to drive, something that will smooth the bumps on the road, a quiet car with good cruise control and automatic on-board environment adjustment.  You know, a nice Avalon or a Lexus, or......

YEAH, RIGHT!  Not gonna happen.  Even though I no longer have hair to feel blowing in the slipstream, the little red car convinced me forever that getting somewhere doesn't have to be boring.  So, with what do you replace an aging Miata?  A new one!  Duh!!

We hope that your cars last a long time also.  By the way, if this one makes it 25 years like the last one, I'll be looking for a new Miata when I'm 91.  I dunno, should the next one be red again?

Dave