A bittersweet farewell

Our house is in a bit of disarray right now, seeing as we've sold our guest bed, a bookshelf, two side tables, all of our patio furniture, a couch, our coffee table, and even the rug out from underneath it.  Mahoney has less to climb on, we have some strange looking empty spaces, and it feels a bit less like the nice cozy home we created two years ago.  We also parted with one more major item yesterday- our beloved VW Jetta.  It was a 3-year lease that still had 11 months remaining, but now that we're moving to San Francisco, it would be very unnecessary and a huge pain in the butt to have two cars in the city.  


We went around in circles for a couple weeks, trying to figure out the best way to either get the lease transferred to someone else, or just give it back to the dealership for auction and cross our fingers that we didn't lose thousands of dollars.  For some reason it seemed to be a huge pain, and we didn't even want to get rid of it in the first place.  Both avenues have their major downfalls: it turns out a lease swap could only be done with an immediate family member, and our names would remain on the lease.  Selling it at auction means we'd have no control at all over the price it would sell for, and we would still have to come up with any remaining amount that was owed on the residual value plus the last 11 lease payments. (snore, I know this info is boring, but it's been an education for me)


Finally we spoke to the most helpful guy at Volkswagen Credit, who suggested we try CarMax.  Apparently they'll buy ANY car.  The price they offer is non-negotiable, take-it-or-leave-it, but it's a great way to get a car off your hands if you really need to.  They'll even buy a broken-down car that gets towed onto their lot!  Needless to say, we were not expecting a good offer.  However, the headache of trying to sell the car to a private party (stranger) on Craigslist, spend time showing people the car, deal with the transfer of title, etc., seemed an even less desirable option, considering our time constraints.  So, we gave CarMax a shot.  It turned out to be the most wonderful experience!  The guy who helped us was super friendly, talked a lot, but explained everything to us in the most transparent way possible.  CarMax has a very interesting business model- they're literally buying and selling multiple cars every single day.  But they don't haggle, they're fast & efficient, and they make things easy for you.  The appraisal of our car was done in 15 minutes, and they offered us significantly more than we were hoping for!  Not only did we not end up owing a penny more on the lease, but they cut us a check for the overage amount.  We made a profit on a car that was never even ours to begin with!


As we drove the car for the last time and signed the paperwork (which also took about 5 seconds), a wave of sadness came over us.  That car had been so good to us, and we had some great memories in it.  We drove the Jetta to our wedding!  We drove it away from Seattle on that teary morning when we moved away...which was also our drive down to California, while honeymooning and starting a new life down here.  We've driven it to Palm Springs & back with great friends, driven it to Vegas, and many more mini adventures.  I know it sounds ridiculous that we got sappy over a silly car, but we're feeling nostalgic! I can only imagine how we'll get sad all over again when it's time to say goodbye to our friends that have made life in Claremont more enjoyable.  Oh well, for now we continue with the to-do list...

We can only hope she ends up in a good loving home.  :)