Yesterday, I parted ways with my car of the last 9.5 years, my 1997 Saturn SL2. I snapped a picture right before I turned it off for the final time:
As you can see, I almost made it to 98k miles in those nine and one half years. The other thing that you might notice (if you are crazy-astute), is that the gas needle is tending towards empty. Last week, in a fit of Mike Hunterness, instead of filling my car all the way up when I went to the gas station, I only put in enough gas so that it was three quarters full. I figured that it would be enough gas to cover the few trips to work that I had left in the Saturn. As it turns out, I ended up driving to the data center in South San Francisco yesterday, so I just barely had enough gas to make it to the Volvo dealer. But hey, I saved like, $5, right?
But, this was supposed to be a eulogy to my Saturn. My Saturn was a great first car. It got me where I needed to go, I knew it inside and out, and despite a few crazy maintenance issues (I'm looking in that "failed transmission in Napa"'s direction), it never left me stranded anywhere. And in an attempt to curry my favor, my Saturn was really kicking ass in the gas mileage department with the new commute. The last time I made the computation, I got around 33.5 miles per gallon. That isn't too shabby for a nearly ten year old car, and the fact that my wallet isn't going to see gas milage that good for the next decade (or so), pains me greatly.
-Andy.