Day 87: Cars

Barely two weeks ago I casually answered an advert on Craigslist for a Honda CR-V. I'd had it in mind that the replacement for our aging Integra would be something more suited to getting to remote trailheads, but it was one of those tasks I wasn't really looking forward to - finding a car, test-driving, getting it inspected, haggling over the price and then all the ensuing paperwork. I didn't hear anything back about the ad for 3 days and had given up on it when I got a reply saying the car was indeed still available. We arranged a time to take a look and it seemed to live up to the advert. Later that week I got it inspected, which revealed nothing of immediate concern and so we found ourselves on Friday evening going through the necessary forms involved in buying a new car.

The fact that the buying part went smoothly enough had us in a state of bewilderment. Now it was time to sell the old car. I was looking forward to this part even less. At one point I wasn't even convinced that our car was worth trying to sell, but spelling out the facts assured me it was, and that we should be able to get a reasonable price. The sticking point was always going to be the rust on the boot (or trunk if you prefer). People are funny about cars like that: it irritates me no end that a shiny PoS is more likely to sell than a weathered gem. And I looked upon our Integra as a weathered gem: it was the best car we've ever owned. Damn good fun to drive (when the mood took me), especially for an automatic, and economical by North American standards.

I put it through its emissions test (always a selling point), hoovered the inside, ran it through the car wash and took a few pictures of it in nice morning sunshine. I must admit it looked good in the photos. I've always liked the colour and style. Finally, this morning, with some trepidation, I put the ad on Craigslist. To my astonishment, I received five inquiries over the course of the day. I arranged a time with two people for tonight and, to my further astonishment, the first person gave me an offer I was more than happy with. So within the space of a little over two weeks we've bought and sold a car, with about as little hassle as you could possibly hope for.

Which kinda brings me to today's photo in a roundabout way. I'd spotted this sign a while back on my bike route into work, and promised to take a picture during the Stanley Cup finals. That didn't happen, but I figured today was as good a day as any to get that photo. I was tempted to include the nearest parked car as it was an oldish Chrysler (a genuine PoS in my opinion), but in the end I was content to just allude to what may have been parked there, with an oblique reference to the trouble after the final game on Wednesday.

No parking!