The Saga of My Car(s)

The Silver Bullet

      At the end of this winter, Jason said that we were going to buy a new car. He had just driven the Silver Bullet to and from Montana in a snow storm with LT B. When they pulled in the driveway, the windshield was half covered in snow and ice. I felt horrible for them because I know that the defrost, heat, and windshield wipers leave a lot to be desired in the winter. However, since it was my car and I was the main person driving it, I never worried about it. I knew what to expect and how to deal with it. Jason, on the other hand, wasn't such a big fan of the Silver Bullet after
that. He said we would be buying a new car with all-wheel drive and heat so that he wouldn't worry about me in the wintertime. (I really think he just didn't like driving it in the winter!) I was quite stubborn and declared that there was nothing wrong with the Silver Bullet, it just needed proper snow tires (which it did not have) and it would be just fine for next winter! I stated that this car had been with me for almost 10 years, we'd traveled a lot together, put on over 150,000 miles, and it never let me down. After some discussion, there was a slight compromise in that we would put off buying a new car until fall. I was secretly hoping to convince Jason over the summer that we didn't need to buy a new car.

Over the course of time, he brought up what all he wanted in the new car: all-wheel drive, heated seats (for me, of course), and I said I wanted leather so that Gunther's hair wouldn't stick so badly to everything, and a hatchback (so that I could transport more than Gunther around). The car that we both thought would be nice was a Subaru Outback. We have ridden in two different Outbacks of our friends and they were very roomy, didn't look like an SUV, and had all of the pre-requisites. One day, Jason spirited me away to a Subaru dealership without my permission. And he made me take a 2014 Outback for a test drive. He rode along. He absolutely loved it. I thought it was nice, but pricey. After that, he kept bringing up how we could buy a brand new Subaru this fall. I kept denying him and saying that I didn't think buying brand new was a good idea. I asked if I could try to find a Subaru on Craigslist. He said as long as it had low miles, and wasn't old, that was fine.

While I was looking for used Subarus, of which there were not very many under 180,000 miles, I started thinking about my beloved Silver Bullet. I bought that car the fall of 2004, I believe, with 60,000 miles on it. The car was now 15 years old, had over 200,000 miles and had never had any major parts replaced. I got to thinking that parts and pieces just might start falling apart this summer, considering it's age and life. I also knew that if anything went wrong with it, Jason would not agree to fixing it, as it wouldn't be worth it in his mind. That was when I started thinking about selling my car before fall. 

One weekend while Jason was gone, I cleaned all my stuff out of the car, washed, and vacuumed it out. Then I listed it for sale on Craigslist. I wasn't expecting the car to sell very quickly, so I wasn't too concerned that we didn't have another car ready to go. Well, I was wrong. I had about 7 responses and 2 people came to look at it. Thus the Silver Bullet was sold the very next Saturday. It wasn't as sad as I thought it would be to see it go, but it did cause some twinges of nostalgia.

See how clean the Silver Bullet was? It took about 2 hours of serious vacuuming to get 98% of the dog hair out of the floor, seats, and ceiling!

At that point, I wasn't sure what we were going to do. I had only just found 2 Subaru Outback's on Craigslist that met Jason's mileage requirement of under 40,000. Only one of the 2 ad's replied to my inquiry and we made arrangements to go look at it the day that my car sold. It was a 2014 Subaru Outback Limited with 25,000 miles on it. We looked at it, test drove it, and told the people we wanted it. After a week of negotiating, wrangling schedules, and Jason and I sharing the Jeep, we finally brought the new car home. (I ended up riding my bicycle to my new job for a few days during that week....I'm sure that made a good impression!)

Meet our new to us 2014 Subaru Outback Limited!

Yes, it came with the Skybox (cargo carrier) for just a little extra cost. It will be great to haul skis and snowboards in this winter, as Jason has big plans to ski a lot.

It is an automatic/manual with a lot of bells and whistles.

It has seat warmers, which I have to admit I will thoroughly enjoy. It has a fancy radio, cd player, heat, and air conditioning. There are other things it does that I'm not sure I'll use, like the blue tooth phone thingy.

It has leather seats with a passenger seat that lays back almost flat, much to Jason's liking. It's definitely got some get up and go, too!

It has a huge "trunk" and the back seats lay forwards completely flat for more room. Gunther will definitely enjoy that once I let him ride in it. For now, it is to new and nice for him to hop in, I think. It is also taking some getting used to driving. It is bigger and taller than my little Jetta was. It also drives completely different, which is to be expected, but I'm finding myself being extra cautious because I'm not used to it. 

Overall, I'm still kind of in shock that we sold the Silver Bullet and have now bought a practically brand new car. I can't believe that we found a used 2014 Subaru Outback with all the extra features that we wanted, and more, for significantly cheaper than a brand new one! I still miss my little Jetta and the comfortableness of it - 10 years together is a long time. I sincerely hope that the Subaru (which doesn't have a name, yet) will be around for at least as long as the Silver Bullet and become just as valuable to me.

Any name suggestions for this new vehicle?