Feel The Freedom

It's been a long time in coming. Last night, we traded in our pick up truck.

With things considered, such as my commute 26 miles each way every day, the price of gas, the fact that it had run out of warranty, the price of gas, it handles like a truck, the price of gas... we decided at the beginning of the summer that this could not be my primary vehicle.

We looked at buying a used VW for not a lot of money and keeping the truck in the yard for when we would need it, a couple of times a year.

We looked at buying new and trading in. Buying used and trading in. Who had the best car with the best rebate? Who had good mileage and enough room for dogs and kids and junk? Honda Pilot? Toyota Rav4? A Subaru?

We did a lot of thinking and came to the conclusion that if we could get 6-8,000 for a trade in it would be worth it. I wanted to keep our monthly payments under $300 if at all possible. We went to Subaru because of a deal that Doug gets through his professional organization. They gave us $7000 for Quimby the Truckster, factory invoice pricing, the discount for his professional organization, and a $2000 rebate. We couldn't say no.

Last night we picked out a 2006 Subaru Outback. It is green with tan interior. We test drove it, we liked it, we crunched numbers, we did the deal. We have to find the title to the truck (it is in a box, somewhere in this house. Jesus help us lay our hands on that thing) and we can pick up the vehicle today after work (or, tomorrow if we need more time to find the stupid title...).

I'm kinda sad to be losing the truckster. When we got it, it was "my" birthday present. I always wanted a pick up truck... and I got it. When I had no commute or a 3 mile commute, this was the awesomest vehicle in the universe. Now that it is costing me over $100 a week just to feed him, it is killing me. The raise I got at the beginning of the year doesn't even cover the annual cost of my commute. That's sad.

We had a lot of wicked good times with that truck. Got stuck in some good mud in Maine, drove to Pennsylvania and back several times. Let's not forget the awesome trips to Bar Harbor and to North Carolina. That truck hauled our stuff and our dogs and our asses all up and down this fine country's eastern seaboard.

I would have loved to have kept it just to have a third vehicle handy. Jess will be getting a license in 2 years, we are constantly in need of moving large boxes of crap and picking up furniture and moving things around. I doubt I could have moved Amy's couch and the couch that we got last weekend with the Subaru Outback. I'll miss having it. I'll miss camping with it (it fit all our gear and our dogs and firewood and our kid slept in the back of it at night...).

But it's time to move on.

Had we kept it, our payment would have been over $450. That's just nuts. So we opted to set it free.

My hope is that someone who doesn't have to drive great huge long distances to feed the beast will take him someday and give him a great loving home, full of dogs, firewood, bug spray, and little kids who will drop pretzels all over the back seat.

I love ya Quimby. Thanks for your service. This morning and this afternoon will most likely be our last time together. I'll cherish it. Thanks for the memories.

That's sappy. I'm sorry, dear reader. I'm gonna miss him. That's about how it sums up.