For the past two years, I’ve been driving a Miata. It’s cute, allright, and it drives really nice, but it’s not something I’d have chosen for myself, and it’s not really the right car for me. I have it because a sweet and generous friend inherited it, and he and his wife basically gave it to me because my crappy, 12-year-old Tempo was shot to hell.
I’m by no means a car guy, and while I do feel vaguely badass bombing around in a sports car with The Slits playing loud (or even Spike Jones), I know I’m frontin’, and my conscience will have none of it. Add to this that I’m 6’4"; that’s allright because the car is oddly comfortable, but I do get the feeling sometimes that I’m driving one of those Shriners’ clown cars. And then, too, there’s the slightly uncomfortable feeling on the highway when stuck in the middle of an 85mph moving canyon of Anal Navigators, Anal Explorers, and Anal Escalades – it’s like being in a cartoon, only not as funny.
But now – now – a huge freaking chunk of ice has fallen off the Fairy Castle onto the right back fender, leaving a dent that looks about as if someone had taken a bath towel, folded it in quarters, placed it on the car’s flank, and then whacked the middle of it somewhat forcefully with a maul. And what’s really fucked up is I care. This is too much. I am the kind of guy who is properly seen driving a seven-year-old Toyota truck with an inch of topsoil and some dirty old tarps in the back. I need a truck to collect lumber and good trash so that the Fairy Castle may never fall into disrepair. For the past two years I’ve had to go across the street and get Larry and his truck for things like that, and you can’t always get Larry right when you want him.
So I have this little car that costs two thousand a year for insurance, and five hundred a year for taxes, and I’m broke, and yadda yadda yadda, and it’s useless once there’s a half an inch of snow on the ground, and considering I only put about 3500 miles on it in a year it probably ends up costing me $11 a mile to drive it, and I always have to go get Larry, and I’m seeing once again how notably impractical it is. Same as this time last year, only much moreso.
But – I don’t know jack about horse-trading. The only vehicles I’ve had until now have been beaters – some cool ones, like the beat-up '80 Datsun 280z I had around '90, or the '70 Chevy C-10 I had a couple years earlier, but nothing of any value. I’m fairly intimidated by the whole idea of selling the Miata for a fair price (meaning, probably, the most money I can get), giving some of that back to my friends, which I think is fair, and using the rest to get a decent small truck for myself. Anybody have any advice as to how to go about this? I had some body work done on it – cracked fender – last year and the guy at the shop told me he runs auctions and could get me a good price if I wanted to sell it. Is that a good idea? I probably won’t do this until March, maybe April, but I’m asking now 'cause it might help me formulate a plan.
Thanks.