Goodbye Mr. Incredible Car

It's gone... all gone.. goodbye Mr Incredible car! Most people may not understand this reference. It was invented by my friend Zak as he watched me drive my car down the street. Being that I am an.. eh... bigger guy, and I drive a smaller little sedan, I was told I looked like Mr Incredible driving down the street, me all hunched over at the wheel trying to maneuver the thing.

That thing was my 1998 Mitsubishi Mirage... the car I have owned for the last 7 years. Purchased with only 20,000 miles on it, I have obviously spent a lot of time in this little car over the years as I suddenly found it nearing 200,000 miles. My wife and I had talked for the last 6 months about the fact that a change needed to happen before the car would need some serious maintenance, the older it got and the more miles I racked up. But financing a new car, and making a whole new car payment, after having spent several years owning it free and clear, was just not appealing to us. And what kind of car could we afford to buy free and clear from the get-go? Well, probably a car with 200,000 miles. So what was the point of looking at options. There simply were none, but wait for the little beast to die.

Suddenly, an answer to our quandary came out of nowhere, hitting us like an unexpected brick to the head. My wife heard through someone at her work, of a car for sale. This one was just as old as our current car, a 1998 model year vehicle. But amazingly enough, it only had 48,000 miles on it. The car had one previous owner.. an elderly couple whose husband had been a mechanic. It didn't have a single scratch (something I certainly couldn't say for my Mirage that I had driven into the ground), not one flaw in the paint, as it had spent so much time in the garage. The interior was immaculate. And it's owners had done every bit of preventative maintenance you could imagine. When I went to look at the car, I was presented with a large file folder, filled with every receipt for every oil change, and every expense ever put into the car.

My only hesitation was really about pride. The car was an Oldsmobile.. a brand that I had always associated with elderly people. Me? An Oldsmobile driver? I don't think so.. No old lady car for me! After all, my next vehicle was supposed to be my big honkin S.U.V. or something fun.. certainly not an Oldsmobile...

But as I drove the car.. something happened. I discovered.. this was a nice, COMFORTABLE car!! My old Mirage... was a very base model car. No frills, no comforts. This car had leather seats, actual power windows and locks, a V6 engine. Things I certainly was not used to!! So while my Mirage was a baseline unit of 1998, this was a 1998 luxury car, filled with lots of driving perks that I had never had before. Suddenly the brand name didn't seem to be a very big deal. Driving down the road in comfort and a big, powerful engine under the hood, rather than my gutless 4 cylinder engine.. suddenly that was important.. desired.

And so I began to explore the potential.. of owning an "old lady car". And it didn't seem so bad. The biggest problem.. in order to be able to buy the car outright, I had to sell the Mirage.. something that I thought would be virtually impossible. Who would want a old, beat up, gutless, basic, boring car? My wife suddenly had a thought and called me at the office 5 minutes later with the news.. "I just sold your car." WHAT?!

As absolute fate would have it, she thought to call a friend. That friend had a daughter just finishing high school. A daughter who had just pulled money out of her bank account THAT DAY to go car shopping THAT AFTERNOON, as she need a car to take to college. As soon as she heard that our car was for sale, and that we'd sell it for a good deal, she bit. And it would be a perfectly fine car for a college student!

And so, in 2 days time, I went from not even looking for a car, to selling "the Mr. Incredible Car", to buying an "old lady car". It's amazing how things can change so quickly.

Now, we thought the story had ended there, but it turns out, it continued. 10 days after the "Mr Incredible Car" was purchased, the car turned out to be more incredible than we ever imagined it to be. It's new owner, all proud of owning her first car, and still a bit inexperienced behind the wheel, pulled into traffic not seeing a speeding car roaring down the inside lane of a 4 lane highway. She was side-swiped, being hit just behind the driver side door with enough force that the driver's seat was shoved into the passenger seat. The car was totaled.. the Mr. Incredible car now truly gone.

But what we found incredible was that the car, for as sick of driving it as I was, for as much as I couldn't wait to get rid of it, thinking of it as a piece of junk.. that car saved her life. According to authorities, had it been almost any other kind of car, she would have been killed in the accident. Instead, she walked away with a broken collar bone and some minor bruises. Yes, she had to be cut out of the car, but she made it. And the car is getting a lot of credit. When we heard of the accident.. that it was my old car destroyed on the highway, we feared the reaction that may come from her parents. But with tears in their eyes, they actually thanked us for selling her that car, as it has done what it needed to do. It had saved a life as it met its end. Had she been driving any of their other cars, she would no longer be with us.

Sure, it's weird seeing photos of the car that I spend so much time and put so many miles on, as nothing more than twisted metal. But it was a good car. And it wasn't until the end that I really appreciated it. Sounds silly, I know. It's a car. But it was a good car. I just have to hope that the new car can keep me just as safe if necessary. But it has too.. heck.. it's designed for old ladies!