Carless
I’m selling my car. I’m not selling it because it’s breaking down. I’m not selling it because I’m tired of it. I’m not selling it to get another car. I’m selling it as an experiment to see how much I will actually need it while living in a city where having a car shouldn’t be a necessity. I’m selling my car because I need to put my money where my mouth is and be an environmentalist, not just talk like one. I’m selling one of the last big impulse buys of my adult life. I’m selling the idea I had to race in rallies when my car’s warranty expired. I’m selling the car that everyone thought I was crazy for buying but now think that I’m crazy for selling. I’m selling my car because I’m tired of having one more thing in my life that I have to maintain.
I currently own a 2001 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS. I bought it almost six years ago after I got a pretty nice raise at work and all of a sudden had all of this money I didn’t know how to spend fast enough. Well, that turned out to be a sack of shit because apparently when you have a shitload of debt, you don’t actually have “all of this money”.
I loved this car. I still do. It’s still a great, fun car to drive, even as I feel myself slow down and settle into my late 20s driving style. I still like to whip it around corners once in a while. What’s more important to me lately is knowing that I don’t need to be burning so much fuel to get to where I need to go. I work from home 1-2 days per week. I ride my bike to aikido. I walk to the grocery store. I’d like to commute more on my bike. It’s a great way to lose some weight, too. I’ll bus more. I’ll carpool more. And when I absolutely need it, I can always get a Flexcar.
In addition to the health and environmental benefits, I predict I’ll be saving more than $350 every month in gas, registration, insurance and repairs by selling my car. Seattle also gives you $50 per month for a year to use with Flexcar when you take the One Less Car Challenge.
April 19th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
On the market one day and I’ve got a prospective buyer. That’s a pretty good sign, methinks.
April 24th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Dude - don’t you live in Seattle and work in Hellvue… that’s a shitty commute by anything other than speed boat and doing that on your bike is ridiculously hardcore. Besides - how you going to get to the mountains and all the other cool shit in life… the only redeeming qualities of WA is that there’s something outside of King County.
At least get a crotch rocket - you know a suzuki suicide bike… now that’s some sick fun
And - the environment… we burn gas cleaner than those chinese mother fuckers… it’s better for the planet that we burn up the fuel
(mostly joking, well, not really, it makes some kind of twisted sense).
Get one of these… 11K, 173gpm 0-60 9sec http://www.loremo.com/index_en.php
April 25th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
I’m not too worried about the commute. I think it’ll take just as long to ride my bike the back roads to the bus stop and take the bus across the water as it would to sit in my car in traffic.
As for getting around, Lauren’s still got her car that we’ll be sharing now. There’s also flexcar for the other times.
As for the Chinese sons-of-bitches (http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/endofworld.html), and your theory, maybe you should put down the crack pipe.
The loremo is sweet! I’ll get one for sure when it gets here, now that i’m unencumbered by my subaru.
November 6th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Dude, sweet write-up. I’m glad I read it. And good move- when you’re back from Brasil, let’s talk about your car-free life as Jill & I contemplate (more accurately, take that last 2% of the decision and actually sell the damn thing) going completely car-free. Have a great trip - or as they say, boa viagem, amigo, e tomar cuidad. Se diverte!