How many cars do you have? Two? Three or four? Somewhere north of five, 10 or even 20?
No matter the number, the answer always seems to be the same: To achieve true happiness, just one more car is needed.
I think it’s been a common quest for many of us since that first Hot Wheels car. If we had a second one, we figured, we’d be twice as happy. And three or four? We could dream, right?
I’ve never owned a ton of cars and, truth be told, didn’t get my first until I was in college. It was a big buy, too, spending $2000 on an ’82 Accord sedan that wore era-appropriate blue over blue and, yes, had a stick.
At some point in life, well into my GRM days, I had the space and scratch to add a second car to the mix. Call it an occupational hazard. And then more cars followed.
Before the pandemic, though, I started to realize something that I have repeated (both aloud and to myself) multiple times: I don’t need more cars, I need more time to enjoy the ones that we have.
What good, for example, is a cool Miata if it’s not driven because it’s blocked in? Guilty as charged, as ours, a past magazine project car, sat in the back corner of the garage for more than eight years.
So we sent our Nissan 240SX–the very one my parents bought new back in 1991 and drove for so many years–across the Bring a Trailer auction block.
[Nissan 240SX: One of the best sports cars–even from day 1?]
Sold.
Despite some personal attachment to that one–my parents waited until my brother and I were home from school so they could surprise us–I felt relief as it drove away.
Yes, a very cool car, but I admit, we simply weren’t using it–and I could see the car degrading due to that stagnation. I believe it went across the state to Tampa. I have yet to hear from the buyer.
During the pandemic, we again shed a car, putting our ’75 Pontiac wagon up for bidders. We bought it from the original owners, but like our rad-era Nissan, it spent more time sitting than cruising. I could see time–and the elements–doing not good things to it.
The buyer showed up from Indiana with an empty trailer. He handed over a stack of hundreds, loaded up the wagon, and set sail for points north at 11:50 that Saturday morning.
Our bank closes at noon on that day. I made it there in time to make the deposit in person. Never heard from that buyer, either.
[It’s hard to say goodbye (to a car)]
What happened after these two…
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