[this is a ymoyl update.]

(a repost of a message to carfree.)

i just got back from taking the leap. my car’s buyer dropped me off, i had the joy of my last look as it coasted down the street, and now i keep admiring the empty space in front of the house.

for anyone looking for a hassle-lite way of selling, i can recommend ebay. i read several opinions about it and decided to give it a try. after a week’s auction, my golf sold right at my reserve price of $3,500, much more satisfying than the $2,000 carmax quoted me. pursuing a private sale might have brought me closer to the $4,000 blue book value, but i’m willing to take the loss in exchange for avoiding an unknown number of weeks of uncertainty, test drivers, and haggling.

do note, though, that you may sign up for an adventure. i thought the car would probably be bought by someone in my area, but the winning bidder turned out to be in… taiwan. he’s an officer coming here for four months of training at aberdeen proving ground.

i met him at bwi at 6:30 this morning after his first 20 hours of travel, and the apg representative who met us agreed to let us go about our business. we headed to denny’s while waiting for the mva to open, then hopped around for hours to the mva, an insurance office, a bank, and lessons in how to use an american gas station and other acculturations.

all told, it took nine hours from our first meeting, but i got a free breakfast and lunch out of it and learned a lot about taiwan, and a whole day spent in the service of the car made me even happier to watch it go.

a great day today, and i get to look forward to putting the letter in the mail tomorrow to the insurance company canceling the policy!

back to work with a spring in my step…