I Am My Car

As of 10:30 this morning, I no longer own a car. You may ask: was it stolen? totalled? Were you delinquent on your loan payments? No. The simple truth is, I voluntarily de-accessed my car (as we would say in museum collections). I sold it. I am now car-less, a third-class citizen in what is no-car-hell: Kansas City.

Why would I do such a thing? The reasons are varied and numerous. My fiance owns a brand-new car which is quite expensive in terms of payments, taxes, and insurance. My car, while fully paid up, was unreliable, costing me over $2000 a year in repairs and maintenance. From the day I bought it, it's done nothing but suck cash out of my checking account like a Hoover vaccuum cleaner.

Since my fiance moved in with me this month, and since he works from home, I've been tooling around in my car, which just needed a new steering column (goodbye, $1325.00) while his sparkling new vehicle collects dust and consumes car payments on the driveway. He rides his bike to the pharmacy, the grocery store, the post office and his classes at UMKC, just like a good little Westport-dweller should. There are some advantages to living in the 'hood, as long as you have a really good bike lock.

Add to this situation the fact that I just bought a really nice, new bicycle, and the fact that we are both semi-crunchy, save-the-earth types who hate the fact that my '91 Mercury Sable consumes a gallon of gas every twelve miles I drive, and the noxious fumes it spews forth from its ravenous bowels, and finally, the fact that Ian and I have both lived in cities (New York and Boston, respectively) where we did not own a car for years, and it pretty much adds up to an attitude likely to try a one-car household. On top of all of this, my parents just bought a new car, which means they have three cars for two people. If Ian needs his car on a road trip, I can borrow my Dad's for a few days. All in all, it makes the best sense, financially, insurance-wise, environmentally, to have one car.

So, we were looking to sell the car by October (when my insurance and tags are up for renewal), but just as we made the decision, Saturday, we saw a flyer Sunday morning at my church for someone who wanted to buy a used car--just like mine. Score!

A few days later, here I am, without the old Velvet-Cake-Mobile. (white paint outside, red velour interior) It feels so weird. I thought I would be fine with this. But I experienced several crazy twinges yesterday. I will be a car-less individual. Here in KC we make severe value judgements about the car-less. Our cars represent freedom, independence, status and wealth, character and personality. I feel like I've lost a large appendage or something. In addition, going car-less means I am really committing to Ian, maybe even more so than getting married. After all, marriage is a civic and religious institution binding us together. But you can't get more bound than having one car to share between two people--we're now completely and totally dependent on one another--for better or worse.

To mitigate this bittersweet life event, Ian offered to take me to test drive scooters and mopeds this weekend. . .Score!