Posted in Travelling Tuesdays
Part of my strategy to make my money last for the rest of my life is to drive my cars until they have absolutely no life left in them. Well, almost no life. I prefer them to have at least enough life to get themselves to the dealership for whatever measly trade-in value they might garner.
And so it is that we have driven the last luxury sedan we will ever own while it still had enough get-up-and-go to get up and get us to the Toyota dealership. Our old Audi had carried us for more than 12 years and 183,000 miles, never stranding us once. But the last half of its life had us spending more and more money each year just to keep it alive. The current list of things that needed fixing would have cost more than the value of the car, so we decided it’s time.
Now we drive a Prius wagon. I’ve been waiting for them to come out with a wagon, it's slightly less goofy looking than the regular Prius. Adjusting from a turbo-charged luxury sedan to a Prius is a lot like adjusting from a fast-paced career to retirement. You have to find your new place on the road.
In the Audi, when I got on the freeway, I stepped on the gas and easily merged into traffic. The Prius is not in so much of a hurry. When I step on the gas, I may have to let a car or two go by before I take my place in the lane. I’m learning where I fit in now in the hierarchy of the road. Just like with retirement, I don’t often find myself in the fast lane anymore.
I still get where I want to go, and at more than double the gas mileage of our old car I get there a lot more cheaply. Ok, so I don’t go so fast anymore, but I am certainly enjoying the ride.
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