(no subject)

[perlmonger]

It seems that the car I’ve had for the last nine and a half years is dying; we took it into our tame mechanic for its MOT yesterday and they reckon getting it sorted is £700-£800 on a car that, checking t’web, would at best fetch £600-£700 if sold. Our garage say they’ll arrange an indecent burial for the thing for us, and that’s probably the sensible thing to do.

But.

I feel like a small part of me would die with the car; I actually lay awake last night agonising over it. This is mad, so I spent a further while trying to work out why.

It turns out that the car[1] is one of only three things of significance[2,3] that I have ever bought in my life just for me; no influence from other people’s agendas, and all three to a greater or lesser extent costing more than I could sanely spend at the time of purchase. Special things: gifts to myself, if you like. I guess the importance these have to me are a reflection of the aridity of the first half of my life; the pain I’m feeling right now is hardly rational...

We’ll be going to fetch the car home shortly, before we finally decide what to do with it (I’ll probably get a second opinion from a Citroën specialist, at least) but my feeling is that its time has come, and that I’ll never again have a car that means anything other than its surface functionality. Which, in environmental terms, is probably not a bad thing. It still hurts though; perhaps the best thing would be to donate it to geoffcampbell as next year’s Summer Camp field car - it could go out with a (likely literal) bang then :)

[1] Citroën Xantia Activa
[2] Stokke Wing
[3] Manticore Mantra + LVX

ETA Geoff’s correct LJ name (not that he uses the thing)

Comments

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

I know there's the buddhist non attachment thing, but I'm all attached to my stuff personally. I get the same bereft reaction when my little 'just what I wanted, chose, paid for and love' laptop runs into problems. grieve for it - symbol or substance, it matters to you

[aeia.livejournal.com]

You could try AP Autocare www.apautocare.co.uk in Bedminster. They're Citroën specialists and have been servicing my Peugeot for the past few years. They seem to be resonable prices and provide a good service.

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

Yes; they replaced the low-pressure hydraulic return Cthulhoid rubber monstrosity for me a while back.

Having now seen the MOT failure document, I think I'm going to have to accept that the car is effectively demised though. If we had a few grand lying around looking for a home to do a proper rebuild, I'd probably do so, but we don't...

[gmul.livejournal.com]

I kind of know what you mean. On Saturday I had to take the old boat back from being surveyed to home. It's ages since I'd taken it anywhere and it was really good to be able to have a decent trip on the thing. The fact that I had the cheque from the buyers paying for it in my pocket helped with the detachment somewhat though!

[alicephilippa.livejournal.com]

It still hurts though; perhaps the best thing would be to donate it to geoffcampbell as next year’s Summer Camp field car - it could go out with a (likely literal) bang then :)

Especially, if assorted hatchets are buried, and khaylock is there.

Alice.