Little Red

After 15 great years, Scott and I said goodbye to my little red Honda Civic coupe last week.  It was a sad day that marked the end of an era.  That car has a lot of great memories. 

I bought the Civic in May of 1996, right after college graduation.  I'd landed a job in sales, and would be travelling up and down the Nova Scotia coast so I needed a car.  I liked the "sexy" look of the Pontiac Sunfire, but the dealer didn't have any models with air conditioning (remember, this is Nova Scotia).  I knew Hondas were reliable and had good resale value, so I set my sights on a red coupe.  Scott and I had started dating the month before, so he acted as my coach when it came down to haggling over price.  For those of you who don't know, haggling is one of his favorite things to do, since he's all about getting a deal.  We walked out of the dealership on at least 3 different occasions when they wouldn't agree to his price.  Finally, on the 4th visit we struck a deal and the car was mine. Our first stop was Canadian Tire to buy me some mats for the car, since during the haggling process we learned that dealer mats cost $75, and we knew we could get them cheaper elsewhere.

Since my aunt had passed away the year before, I was able to put a good bit down on the car.  I felt that it was an investment that my Auntie Connie would have been proud of.  The only downfall to the purchase, was that I'd chosed a stick shift (since I wanted to learn how to drive one), but I couldn't drive it off the lot.  So, Scott drove it off the lot for me and spent the weekend teaching me how to drive a stick. 

Fast forward 8 months and we packed up little red and moved me down to Charlotte.  We had the car filled to the gunnels with my computer (a very large bulky screen and CPU since it was 1997), the metal frame from Scott's bed (which is now our guest room bed) and the rest of my possessions.  I had a job at a credit union and Scott came down to "help me move" with plans to return to Halifax if he couldn't find a job down here.

There's lots of memories tied up in that car, perhaps the most memorable is the unfortunate case of me "wedging" the Honda and the Volvo together while backing out of the driveway.  The Honda was parked in the driveway, and I backed out of the garage in the Volvo and didn't notice the red car until it was too late...

But, most of them are happier memories (like Will at age 2 with his key fascination).



 

Since Will's birth, the red car's been "Scott's car" and I've got the SUV.  After nearly 7 years of driving little red up and down I-77 to work, Scott decided he'd paid his dues and it was time he treated himself to a new car.  He was getting tired of the fact that the wipers came up everytime he drove over a railroad track and that you had to manually turn "off" the blinker everytime you went around a corner.  When bonus season rolled around in February, he bought himself a new 2012 Volvo S60.  I stayed out of the decision process as much as I could, because I knew he'd earned if after all those years driving my car.

After shuffling 3 cars around in the driveway/garage for the last 8+ weeks, we were ready to part with the Civic.  So, I listed in on craiglist.com at about 4:30pm on a Sunday afternoon.  Seeing as the car was 15 years old, was in kilometers and had a replaced odometer I was a little sceptical.  But, by 7:10pm (less than 3 hours later), my dear little red sold for for ABOVE asking price.  The seller was excited and even emailed me the next day to tell me how much he loved the car (dings, wacky wipers, and all).  So, the car's legacy lives on.

I know I'm not supposed to get attached to material things, but I guess I just can't help it.  There's a lot of great memories wrapped up in that little car.  It's served us well, and I'll always remember it.