I sold my car today. I’ve had it since April 14, 1999. It was old enough to vote. Old enough to drink in most U.S. states. Although I would not recommend having a car that is also an alcoholic. When I was first looking to buy a car, my boss kept recommending a Honda Civic because of their reliability. And, my car certainly did have that. It would have kept going until it rusted out from under me, but I can’t bring it with me to Texas.
The buyer was an 80 year old man from Vancouver Island. For him it was an upgrade over this 1994 Honda hatchback. He also really knew what he was doing. He had a lot of research, and he was mechanically inclined.
He came over on the ferry with his friend and I met him in Horseshoe Bay. There he went over the car thoroughly. He was not too happy with the rust on the hood, but that was the only place he found significant rust. The fluid levels were also low, or looked like they had never been replaced. I was upfront and honest to him; I had never done anything to the car except take it for servicing on a regular basis. I am somewhat concerned that they never changed the fluids.
After we took it for a test drive, he made an offer that we accepted. Then we drove to the nearest insurance broker where we made the insurance transfer.
So after about 197,000km together, my car belonged to someone else. I think he will give it a good home. He knows how to take care of it better than I could.
I did negotiate one other thing; he gave Catalina a ride back to the ferry dock. There she could catch the express bus back to downtown Vancouver. That let me run home by myself; I was in an area I had never been so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to run new streets. I did feel self-conscious that I was carrying a lot of cash on me while I was doing the 17km run home.
West Vancouver is a very pretty place, built on the side of a mountain. But it is also indicative of the problem of living in the lower mainland; it was just mansions. There was very low density, showing that NIMBY behaviour is preventing lower housing prices. But I digress.
After going through the winding hilly part, I got to be against the sea. I’ve done the Seawall on the north shore only once before, but it was nice to do it in the evening when the sun is setting. A bit of a different perspective. Although, the Lionsgate bridge reminds me of the Edmonton High Level bridge; both can be seen from a far-off distance and never seem to get closer as you run to them.
I do wish I had left ten minutes earlier, because I think I would have gotten slightly better pictures from on top of the bridge with the setting sun. It was disappearing over the horizon while I was crossing.