The Trumans are now a two-car household again. I didn’t sell Cray, the 2-door late 90’s Escort that carried me through Cascadia. We didn’t trade it in when we purchased the Forester because I didn’t really want to complicate the sale and that I could do better selling it myself. Also, we didn’t know where the title was. But then I found the title and… every time I was going to sell it, something prevented me from doing so. Typically, it involved a problem we were having the Camry door. Between the constant battery problems we were having with Cray and the Camry’s door problems, we had three cars between us and I was still sometimes having to drive her to and from work. We got the Camry’s door fixed, but even then wanted to wait until the next freeze to make sure that the door was fixed as advertised.

Then the pieces fell into place and the sale began. I put a sign on the door with FOR SALE and $900 OBO in big type as well as more information in smaller type (CD/MP3/Aux player, 120k miles, needs new battery). I just parked it in front of the house, figuring that if it didn’t sell soon I would park it on Main Street. I was about at the point when I got a call about it.

I had envisioned selling to car to either a high schooler as their first car or a struggling college student. The potential buyer was more of the latter, minus the college bit. She took it for a test-drive (the battery fortunately worked) and then a few days later had her boyfriend take a look at it. She didn’t have the money on hand. I told her that if she could put down $100 deposit, I would hold it for her. She was very much the type of person that I wanted to sell the car to. She and her boyfriend looked at the car as though it were positively new.

They gave me the deposit on Sunday and it was as though a switch went off. Suddenly I was getting calls right and left on it. Offers for $900 on the spot rather than $750 as soon as she could scrape the money together. One guy who wanted to buy it for his grandson. Another whose wife apparently knows Clancy. A couple that I didn’t return. But… I’d told the girl that I would hold it for her. It was looking a little spotty there for a while, but she came through by the middle of the next week.

So now Cray has a good home with someone that will appreciate it. I felt better about that when I talked to the guy who was going to buy it for his grandson and he said that his grandson wasn’t interested in anything old or smaller than a pickup. So if I’d sold it on the spot, it would have gone to someone that hated it. I don’t know why such things matter to me, but they do. So long as it actually works. I’d rather give it away to someone that can’t afford it and won’t appreciate it than sell it to someone that would dismantle it. Which is why I have 8 or so desktops in the computer room and a couple of working but not particularly useful old laptops.